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00:00Hi everyone and thank you so much for joining us. This is going to be a great conversation talking about cross-border partnerships and cross-sector partnerships on infrastructure, talent development, and how health can actually drive economic growth and innovation in Africa and beyond.
00:14But Mr. Gates, Bill, we need to ask first about what's going on in the world right now.
00:19You've pledged a lot of money, only yesterday, to step up to fight against diseases.
00:24You've asked governments to reverse global health funding cuts. What do these cuts mean for the world and what do they mean for Africa?
00:33Well, the last 25 years, the rich countries have devoted a bit less than 1% of their budget to all aid, including health, humanitarian relief.
00:45And, unfortunately, those numbers are going down, from 1% down.
00:52And, you know, the impact of that money was to save tens of millions of lives.
00:58And so the obvious corollary is that this will be the first year in 25 years that more children will die than died the year before.
01:08We went from $10 million down to $5 million, and now we're headed in the other direction because of the aid cuts and because of the debt situation that many of the key countries, particularly in Africa, find themselves in.
01:24And private money can't make up for any of that?
01:28Well, private money, I mean, there's philanthropy, which is tiny compared to the government money.
01:37You know, overall assistance, that 1% was like $220 billion.
01:42And very, very few philanthropists give money in Africa.
01:49So it's not, you know, 5% of the cuts.
01:53The cuts alone overwhelm the philanthropic piece.
01:58I'll get to my side in a second, but why are you focusing on Africa, actually?
02:02Well, it's where, you know, it's sort of the golden rule, help those who need it the most.
02:08In Asia, we've had a lot of the big countries that got help with vaccines and medicine, Global Fund and Gabi, countries like India, Indonesia, Vietnam.
02:22They were able to develop their economies enough that they graduated from being an aid recipient.
02:27So in Asia, we have two big countries, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and a few tough countries, Afghanistan and Yemen.
02:34But by and large, we have a lot fewer people who are in need of foreign aid.
02:42In sub-Saharan Africa, although the potential in the 10 to 20 year time frame is very exciting, which we'll talk about,
02:50they are not anywhere near the threshold to get out of the poverty trap in terms of nutrition and primary health care and vaccines, the very basic stuff.
03:01And so their big asset, which is their young people, because if you don't take care of the health care thing,
03:11not only do you have a high rate of death, but you have a high rate of people who are never able to physically and mentally develop because of malnutrition.
03:20So a little bit, it's the magic formula has been the generosity, innovative new tools to unlock all of this human potential where, you know, Africa is the young continent.
03:31It's the only continent where you have population growth.
03:35And, you know, so, you know, will that youth bulge be an asset or not is what's in the balance.
03:42Masai, you're a UN Sustainable Goals Development Advocate.
03:46Do you see meaningful change?
03:48I do.
03:50I think, first of all, incredible work.
03:53Bill, I was at your event a couple of days ago and we spoke, but what you are doing on the continent is incredible for us.
04:03I think we can't really, like, focus on the crisis.
04:10We have to look ahead now.
04:12There is, if aid or whatever has been cut from going to Africa, I thought the way it was done, it could have been done over time, which would have meant more to Africans, in my opinion.
04:31And we have to invest in the people, and we have to invest in the people, youth of Africa.
04:40Africa's biggest jewel is its people.
04:43Yes, and we have to invest in the people, yes, and we have to really invest in this.
04:47And take our time, I think mental wellness and health is something that we really need to talk about with the youth now.
04:58I think investing in infrastructure is really big in our continent, and we have to really pay attention to this.
05:07But the youth and the population, we, all of us, have to pay attention, especially Africans.
05:14Talk to me about sports.
05:16So what role does sports play into this?
05:18I mean, this is what you do.
05:20Well, if I tell the crowd this, I love Bill, I love you.
05:27If there was a match right now, Nigeria playing versus USA, or the Lakers were playing in the finals, nobody would be listening to us speak right here.
05:39They would be watching the game in another room.
05:42Yes.
05:43Bill, come on.
05:44That's what sports does, and sports brings people together.
05:51Health, education, those things are human.
05:54They are the most important things in the world.
05:56There's no question about it.
05:57But what sports does, it brings peace.
06:00If you bring a ball, it unites people in an incredible way.
06:05And we in Africa, we do a great job with competition.
06:10We do a great job with recreation.
06:12We haven't done much with mental health and sports.
06:15And we don't see sports as a business.
06:19Yes, we see it as recreation, and we see it as competition.
06:23We need to open our eyes and build infrastructure and see sports as a business.
06:30Because we have the talent, we have the artists, we have the athletes, it's incredible.
06:35I want to show you some pictures, Masai, of your pretty incredible multi-million sports complex in Rwanda.
06:41Now it's a hotel, an arena, gym, a playground, a sports bar.
06:45What were some of the challenges in putting that together?
06:48So I think President Kagame has done an incredible, incredible job in being a visionary.
06:54He came to the All-Star Game in 2016, and he built that arena in Kigali.
07:00He redid the stadium in Kigali.
07:04And you have to build the ecosystem that builds sports.
07:08That's what Madison Square Garden is.
07:10That's what Scorcha Bank is.
07:12That's what crypto is.
07:13How do you commercialize?
07:15And that's what we did in Kigali.
07:17You see the hotel.
07:19You see the sports bar.
07:20You see the restaurants.
07:22You see the shops where people can buy merchandise.
07:25They can go to games.
07:26You see the incredible stadium, the arena he built in Rwanda.
07:31Now what can we do in Kenya?
07:34What can we do in Nairobi?
07:35In Nairobi, I mean, what can we do in Lagos?
07:38What can we do in Johannesburg?
07:40We don't, all these cities don't have an arena.
07:45Amazing.
07:46I mean, the pictures say it all.
07:47Bill, you said you're directing a lot of your money, right, towards Africa for health and development.
07:52How are you partnering with governments to get it done and also to make sure what the priorities are?
07:57Well, the, you know, top priority for any government is stability and health and education.
08:05And, you know, Rwanda's done a lot of very good things.
08:10You know, as a percentage of sub-Saharan Africans, not that high.
08:14But a lot of the best practices now are coming out of Rwanda, which surprises people.
08:20You know, in East Africa, you know, if Kenya can take care of their debt structure, which is pretty tough for them,
08:28that whole East Africa area, there's a lot of promise.
08:32Ethiopia's doing a lot of good things.
08:34The most critical country for the future of sub-Saharan Africa is Nigeria.
08:40Yes, sir.
08:40And there's a lot of things great about Nigeria, and there's a lot of things that are very tough, including politics in Nigeria.
08:48And I have a good friend, someone we both know well, Aliko Dangoti, who's getting involved in philanthropy as he's had incredible business success.
08:59So that's a key country, particularly up in the north, where you come from.
09:04You know, that's where our vaccination rates are still very low, below 30 percent.
09:11Whereas other places, you know, like many African countries have a higher vaccination rate than the United States.
09:17Tanzania and Rwanda are two exemplars of that.
09:20I mean, what's it like dealing with a lot of governments?
09:23If you look at, you know, private-public partnership, what does Africa need today?
09:27Well, I think, you know, a lot of government people here, and we've met with a lot of them,
09:32sometimes we all come out and say we can't keep giving the excuses of they are not doing it,
09:37they are not being cooperative, they are not.
09:38We have to work together.
09:40And they have to be creative.
09:42Yeah, they have to be flexible.
09:44And I think there are people, a lot of these, a few of these presidents are now setting that tone,
09:49you know, to bring in private investors in and to make sure we see that community is very, very important in how we build.
10:02There's a lot of youth that we work with.
10:04There's a lot of people in the diaspora that are coming back and want to work in these countries.
10:10They are established, they know businesses, and we have to understand that sometimes when you go to Africa,
10:18or a lot of times when you go to Africa, we have to work with the key people, yeah,
10:22the key leaders that are going to actually, he mentioned one of them, Aliko Dangote, who's a good friend of ours.
10:28And, yeah, we have to open up these doors.
10:31They have to be opening their minds how they look at how we're developing these countries,
10:37these countries, especially through the youth, yeah,
10:40because one out of every four persons is going to be from Africa in how many years from now?
10:47The median age is 20 years old.
10:49Yeah, how are we not looking at that very critically?
10:51And what is being done in health and mental wellness,
10:55and all those things are going to be very, very key,
10:58but also investment and working with governments is going to be very key for us.
11:05And they have to open their eyes to this because funds have been taken away now.
11:12What are we going to do?
11:13Yes, are we going to cry about it, or are we going to build our own nations?
11:19And we need visionaries here.
11:21And, Bill, I mean, it's, again, it's the human capital in Africa, actually, which is pretty extraordinary.
11:26Is that what makes you most excited?
11:27Yeah, well, that's what hangs in the balance.
11:32And, you know, when things go well, when your population is healthy,
11:36then they can do well in school, then they, you know, the economy grows.
11:41And we have many cases in Asia where that, you know, led to fantastic middle-income countries,
11:47completely self-sufficient.
11:49And absolutely, that's what we want for Africa.
11:53Right now, people are turning away from that, you know, whether it's military spending or other things.
12:01And, you know, in meetings like we have here around the General Assembly, the idea of, are we helping those most in need?
12:08Historically, it's been okay as we're all getting richer.
12:10Or, you know, are we at least willing to give that 1%?
12:14So, you know, incredible promise.
12:18But some things like childhood death, including from malaria, the amount of malnutrition,
12:25those things are going to go the wrong way until we get some of that basic 1% support back in place.
12:34And, I mean, this must also be discussed in your meetings, right?
12:37What do you mean?
12:37That must also be discussed in your meetings with either private companies or some of the leadership of the country.
12:43I think we have to set the stage.
12:44I think what the NBA is doing in investing in Africa, building the Basketball Africa League,
12:52that opens the eyes, you know, like to a lot of people.
12:55We have lots of people that want to come and do business on the continent.
13:02And the governments have to be, have to really be open to it.
13:05It comes down to leadership, you know, like Bill knows this.
13:08We all know it, that the leadership now needs to really, really, like, pay attention.
13:14They have to be creative now.
13:16Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us today.
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