Melinda Gates: It’s really the government funding that counts
Melinda Gates has the air of someone permanently in a hurry. But then, wouldn’t you be, were you the wife of the world’s second richest man? (Bill Gates narrowly lost the No 1 spot this year, according to Forbes magazine, to the Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim Helú). Wouldn’t you be in a rush if you knew that your personal Microsoft fortune, invested through the world’s largest private foundation, which bears your name, can change, or even save, the lives of millions around the world?
More specifically, she’s in a rush because she is preparing to travel to New York to attend TEDxChange. She will deliver the keynote speech at the event on Monday, a one-day blast pulled together by her philanthropic powerhouse, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, together with the fashionable ideas incubator TED. Given the tech-savviness of both parties, it’s no surprise that her speech will be simulcast to 74 groups across 36 countries – from Los Angeles to Nairobi’s Kibera slum.
The word that Melinda Gates wants to spread is that there is hope. Hope that the millennium development goals (MDG), the eight international targets laid down by the UN in 2000, can be met by the 2015 deadline. “I’d like people in the room to recognise we’ve made huge progress,” she says. “We’re not going to make them all, but government money has made an enormous difference.”
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