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The Gates visit Downing Street to thank UK for 'history of generosity'

Governance | Niki May Young | 19 Oct 2010

Bill and Melinda Gates visited Downing Street yesterday during a busy trip to the UK to thank the country for its “history of generosity” and its commitment to maintain international aid.

Since arriving on Sunday the philanthropists, who have invested over $20bn in international aid through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have appeared on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, held a live webcast event, stopped by Downing Street and visited the team at the Department for International Development (Dfid).

Speaking ahead of their visit Bill Gates blogged:
“Melinda and I are heading to London in a couple of days to thank the UK for its history of generosity and remarkable commitment to foreign aid. We want to share the proof that investments in global health and development are saving lives, improving livelihoods, and building prosperous societies.”

95 per cent of fortune will be returned in aid

Melinda Gates appeared solo on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday where she advised of the couple's pledge to return 95 per cent of their wealth “back to the world” during their lifetime. Quizzed on how the Foundation chooses where to invest, in the context of the claim that much aid is wasted, Melinda highlighted the importance of the Millenium goals and partnerships with governments:

“Since 1990, 1.3bn people have lifted themselves out of poverty and that’s because the world has focused on this ‘smart aid’ and saying we want to make sure that where we’re focussing it is strategic,” she said. “You’re seeing a country like Ghana starting to lift themselves up. They’ve got 75 per cent of their population out of poverty now because they are putting their own money in along with governments like Britain or private philanthropy.”

A spokeswoman for Dfid advised that while visiting Dfid's offices the Gates held an open Q&A discussing health development matters such as maternal health, malaria and polio prevention before entering a closed meeting with the Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell where they discussed future partnership plans.

Appearing at a live webcast event promoting ONE Campaign's Living Proof campaign, the pair conceded that the UK has “very tough trade-offs coming” ahead of the Spending Review but encouraged and thanked the UK for maintaining its international aid spending.

“The UK has been at this a long time and its been a pioneer and an innovator in development. The British public here is really uniquely engaged in poverty, Save the Children was founded here over a century ago, Oxfam and other charities were founded right here, and you’ve had so many great events about poverty, everything from Live Aid to Make Poverty History to even Red Nose Day, so the UK public really sets an example for citizens around the globe to really join in this fight against poverty,” said Melinda.

“The second thing that we want to say tonight is that your decision to maintain this spending is a really good one. When aid is focussed on poor people, when its done properly, it works,” she added.

ONE Campaign, co-founded by Bono, is a collaborative effort of more than two million members lobbying governments and raising awareness of poverty, particularly in Africa. Its latest Living Proof campaign launched at the event yesterday calls for accountability from the sector, in "an approach similar to that used in private sector investment" to discourage "bad aid".

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