Our 2019 Annual Letter BY BILL & MELINDA GATES
How would you describe 2018?
Was it what you expected?
We’d probably say no. From especially devastating natural disasters
on the one hand to record numbers of women campaigning for office on the
other, 2018 felt to us like a series of surprises. The world looking
backward from today is very different from what we pictured a couple
years ago looking forward.
A benefit of surprises is that they’re often a prod to action. It can
gnaw at people to realize that
the realities of the world don’t match
their expectations for it. Some surprises help people see that the
status quo needs to change. Some surprises underscore that
transformation is happening already.
Twenty-five years ago, we read an article that said hundreds of
thousands of kids in poor countries were dying from diarrhea. That
surprise helped crystallize our values. We believe in a world where
innovation is for everyone—where no child dies from a disease it’s
possible to prevent. But what we saw was a world still shaped by
inequity.
That discovery was one of the most important steps in our journey to
philanthropy. We were surprised, then we were outraged, then we were
activated.
There have been good surprises, too. When we first started learning
about malaria, we thought the world would never make real headway on the
disease until someone invented a long-acting vaccine. But thanks to bed
nets and other measures, malaria deaths are down 42 percent since 2000.
In this year’s annual letter, we’re highlighting nine more things
that have surprised us along this journey. Some worry us. Others inspire
us. All of them are prodding us to action. We hope they do the same for
you, because that’s how the world gets better.
Bill:
The world keeps getting older, but Africa stays (nearly) the same age.
It sounds confusing, but it makes sense when you break it down.
The global median age is on the rise. In every part of the world,
people are living longer. As more children survive to adulthood, women
are having fewer kids than ever before. The result is a global
population that’s creeping slowly toward middle age.
Except in Africa. The median age there is just 18. In North America,
it is 35. And the number of young Africans is expected to rise in the
decades to come.
There are a lot of reasons for this. One is that the annual number of
births is going up in the poorest parts of sub-Saharan Africa, even as
it goes down in other parts of Africa. This can be either an asset or a
source of instability. Melinda and I believe that the right investments
will unlock the continent’s enormous potential. Young Africans will
shape the future of not only their own communities but the entire world.
Melinda:
When economists describe the conditions under which countries prosper,
one of the factors they stress is “human capital,” which is another way
of saying that the future depends on young people’s access to
high-quality health and education services. Health and education are the
twin engines of economic growth.
If sub-Saharan Africa commits to investing in its young people, the
region could double its share of the global labor force by 2050,
unlocking a better life for hundreds of millions of people.
Girls’ education, especially, is among the most powerful forces on
the planet. Educated girls are healthier. They are wealthier. (If all
girls received 12 years of high-quality education, women’s lifetime
earnings would increase by as much as $30 trillion, which is bigger than
the entire U.S. economy.) And their families benefit, too. The more
education a woman has, the better equipped she is to raise healthy
children. In fact, UNESCO estimates that if all women in low- and
middle-income countries finished secondary school, child mortality in
those countries would fall by about half.
A healthy, educated, and empowered African youth boom that lifts girls
instead of leaving them behind would be the best indicator of progress I
can imagine.
I couldn’t have asked for better partners on this journey:
Click to read more:-
TBT 
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