Bill Gates Urges More Spending on Global Health

In Washington on Tuesday, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda introduced their new "Living Proof Project" touting the huge returns that result from investments in global health initiatives. "Global health money improves lives more effectively than any other spending," Bill Gates said. The pair's new project will seek to publicize the success stories of such health-improvement efforts. Among programs cited as effective:

• The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has helped 1.2 million people access HIV prevention and treatment;
• The GAVI Alliance, whose efforts to immunize children are credited with preventing 3.4 million deaths in less than a decade; and
• The Gateses' own Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which spent $1.8 billion on global health last year.

The two plan to ask lawmakers and administration officials to commit to cutting preventable childhood deaths from 9 million a year at present to 5 million a year by 2025.

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