Reply from Gates Foundation: Global health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

[Guest guest]

Global health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Tachi Yamada a

 

Correspondence. The Lancet, Volume 373, Issue 9682, Page 2195, 27 June 2009

doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61181-8 Cite or Link Using DOI

 

 

Your May 9 Editorial1 is a valuable contribution to the dialogue about how best

to address global health inequity.

 

At the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we welcome diverse viewpoints about our

global health strategy and grant making, and we seek candid feedback from

experts, policy makers, and advocates. The advisers who participate in the

review of our programmes, strategies, and grant applications number in the

hundreds.

 

We are also committed to programme transparency and keeping our partners

informed about our work. We have recently redesigned our website

 

[http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx]

 

in an effort to provide clear and up-to-date information about our funding

priorities and grants, nd are preparing to post a description of our core

strategies by the end of the year.

 

You argue that the foundation's grant making should align more closely with the

disease burden in developing countries.

Disease burden, as measured by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), is the

most important consideration in our funding decisions. Indeed, the great

majority of our grants address infectious and parasitic diseases, which

represent the largest share of DALYs lost in low-income countries.2

 

But this must be coupled with a sense of where our limited dollars can make the

biggest difference. We are just a small part of the overall picture of

development assistance in global health. We believe our contribution is to help

find technology-based solutions that will have a big impact on the people we are

trying to serve.

 

The major health challenges in developing countries can only be solved through

close and effective partnerships among many stakeholders. We will continue to

engage in active dialogue to identify how, working together, we can have the

greatest possible long-term impact.

 

References

1 The Lancet. What has the Gates Foundation done for global health?. Lancet

2009; 373: 1577. Full Text | PDF(45KB) | CrossRef | PubMed

 

2 World Health Organization. The global burden of disease: 2004 update. Geneva:

WHO, 2008.

 

a Global Health Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle , WA 98102 ,

USA