Gates calls to Invest in Africa for poverty reduction, cited example of India and China

Second annual Goalkeepers data report of Bill & Melinda foundation released on Tuesday, September 18, 2018, which stated that millions of people have emerged from extreme poverty during last 20 years, with first wave of poverty reduction in China,  second wave in India and about 1 billion people worldwide.

Gates appealed for the investment in  African continent, especially in the sectors of health and education to continue the trend of reducing poverty or otherwise it might rise. Nearly 50 pages report cited the example of poverty reduction in India and China and called for third wave of poverty reduction in Africa.

The report said, “Investing in the health and education of young people in Africa could unlock productivity and innovation, leading to a ‘third wave’ of poverty reduction, which follows the first wave in China and the second in India”.

It said, “While 1 billion people have lifted themselves out of poverty over the past 20 years, rapid population growth in the poorest countries, particularly in Africa, puts future progress at risk. If current trends continue, the number of extremely poor people in the world could stop its two-decade decline and even could rise”.

Since 2000, the number of people living in extreme poverty has declined by more than 1,000,000,000. But is that progress at risk? Read the #Goalkeepers18 report to find out. https://t.co/2IJKhwVDdp pic.twitter.com/Fb2QJle5mO

— Goalkeepers (@gatesfoundation) September 18, 2018

Gates wrote in the introduction of the report, “The conclusion is clear: To continue improving the human condition, our task now is to help create opportunities in Africa’s fastest growing, poorest countries”.

They said, “This means investing in young people. Specially, it means investing in their health and education”.

Gets said, “ The world in education focused a lot on access, which was super important  and in most countries made huge progress on gender equal access and kids overall being in school. But now there needs to be a focus on the quality of what’s going on there, and Vietnam is held out an example where that’s being done very, very well”.

Gets also mentioned about the concern of population growth in Africa, he said, “If you just take Africa, even though it’s only 14% of the population of the world, its 24%  of the births already. And over the century, it lights up and become half of the births. So, you actually have a lot of population growth in Africa, even though the globe as a whole, the growth isn’t that dramatic”.