Aid cuts causing ‘tragic’ rise in child deaths — Bill Gates
Billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called US Department of Government Efficiency was ‘responsible for a lot of deaths.’
BILL Gates has warned about the effect steep foreign aid cuts will have on children in developing countries
AFP photo
PARIS, France (AFP) — Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates told Agence France-Presse on Thursday it is “tragic” that child deaths will increase worldwide for the first time this century because wealthy Western countries have slashed international aid.
The United States has cut the deepest, with Gates saying fellow billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DoGE) was “responsible for a lot of deaths.”
However Britain, France and Germany have also “disproportionately” slashed aid, Gates, a major funder of numerous global health programs, said in a video interview from Seattle.
The cuts mean that the number of children dying before their fifth birthday is projected to increase to 4.8 million this year, up 200,000 since 2024, according to the Gates Foundation’s annual Goalkeepers report released Thursday.
Gates said it was a “tragedy” to see child mortality rise after it had steadily fallen from around 10 million annual deaths at the turn of the millenium.
Aid for developing countries has plummeted by 27 percent this year, threatening progress against a range of diseases including malaria, HIV and polio, the report said.
If global aid cuts of around 30 percent are permanent, 16 million more children could die by 2045, according to modeling by the Gates-funded Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
“That’s 16 million mothers who are experiencing something that no one wants to or should have to deal with,” Gates said.
Gates criticized the “chaotic situation” earlier this year when Musk’s DoGE abruptly cut off grants from the US Agency for International Development, which has been dismantled since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.
“I’m talking to President Trump about encouraging him to restore aid so that it is at most a modest cut — I don’t know if I’ll be successful with that,” said the 70-year-old major donor of the Gavi alliance which distributes vaccines around the world.
, said he was disappointed the US did not renew its funding for the organisation in June.