Bill Gates renews call to eradicate polio and malaria with UAE as key partner

Philanthropist tells The National he is in talks with the Trump administration to reduce aid cuts

Bill Gates is on a mission to keep child health in focus and raise funds for it, at a time when overseas international development aid is suffering from major cuts.

He is visiting Abu Dhabi as part of those efforts, saying the UAE “continues to be a generous donor, which is absolutely fantastic”.

But beyond resources, Mr Gates is very specific on who he partners with. Speaking in an exclusive interview with The National, Mr Gates said: “We've had a great partnership with the UAE going back about 20 years now."

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He is due to make a major announcement on polio eradication with the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity on Monday, with both the UAE and Mr Gates committed to this issue.

In addition to their work on neglected diseases and fighting malaria, Mr Gates highlighted the role that the UAE plays through its network of global relationships. He said “the UAE has a lot of key relationships, whether it's in Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan, so together we've been able to achieve an amazing amount".

"The UAE is pretty amazing in terms of the relationships they have," he added.

That was done without warning. It was a mistake

Bill Gates on the shutdown of USAID

Mr Gates explained that “the partnership combines that sophistication together with our deep knowledge about global health ... it is a powerful combination”.

And while the relationship with the UAE is significant, there continues to be a need to have other donors step up. Mr Gates said that “the good news is that for 25 years, the rich countries were quite generous and that led to a miracle, which is that childhood deaths, that is kids under five, went from around 10 million [annually] to under five million”.

As a result, the first quarter of this century witnessed “the fastest pace of reducing those deaths ever in history”, meaning that aid was well spent. However, with US President Donald Trump announcing major cuts in development aid, followed by cuts by countries such as the UK, France and Germany, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is now predicting that total overseas aid dropped between 9 and 17 per cent in 2025.

'When the money is cut, deaths rise'

Bill Gates is in talks with the Trump administration about reinstating some of America's spending on foreign aid. Reuters

“When money is cut, we get less bed nets, less vaccines, less care for pregnant women. And that's why deaths have gone up from 4.6 million last year to 4.8 million this year,” Mr Gates said. “My plea to all the rich countries is that they prioritise this work ... we know how to save lives and I believe we will get the aid donations back and those will be even more impactful because we have a lot of innovative new tools."

Among those tools are vaccines, ways of protecting women from HIV and ways of giving women good nutrition.

According to the Gates Foundation, the number of children dying before their fifth birthday is projected to rise for the first time this century. However, Mr Gates is optimistic that the US can reconsider some of those cuts. While he does not expect a rehiring of the 10,000 people who lost their jobs in the US with the elimination of USAID, he is in talks with the Trump administration to limit the severity of the cuts.

Mr Gates acknowledged that the US had been “very generous on health and, briefly at the start of this year, that was entirely cut off and about 10,000 people were let go ... in my view, that was done without warning”, adding emphatically that “it was a mistake".

However, he has not given up on the role of the US. “We're in a dialogue with President Trump and the Congress about what level of funding will be resumed," Mr Gates said. “I'm hopeful that it'll be a very modest cut, like 10 per cent, but it could be as much as 40 per cent. And so that dialogue would be very, very important."

Mr Gates expects it is more likely that 1,000 people will be rehired by the US administration to work on overseas development aid. “That means we have to use local partners more and, in countries that have reasonably good primary healthcare systems, that works well”, he said, giving Ethiopia as an example.

However, in places such as Somalia, the situation is far tougher, he added. "We'll have to work with NGOs, including religious NGOs, [and] the US puts a priority on that."

Mr Gates sounded upbeat about the potential resumption of American aid, saying: “I'm pretty hopeful about the US situation, even though it's still up in the air."

Eradicating 'last mile' diseases

Bill Gates gives a child a rotavirus vaccine dose in Awutu Senya, Ghana. AFP

His foundation published a report titled We Can’t Stop at Almost, encapsulating a call to action and warning that global development assistance for health fell sharply this year – dropping 26.9 per cent below 2024 levels. Beyond this year’s drastic funding cuts, countries face mounting debt, fragile health systems and the risk of losing hard-won gains against diseases including malaria, HIV and polio.

In addition to financial resources, Mr Gates stressed the importance of innovation in health care, where he sees an important role of artificial intelligence. His foundation “has as one of its big goals to make sure that the benefits of AI are available in the poor countries at the same time that it's rolling out in the rich countries”.

The UAE is also committed to such an effort, with a recent announcement that the country would commit $1 billion for an “AI for development” initiative for Africa. Mr Gates sees roles for virtual doctors and teachers, in addition to support for farmers, as important AI uses.

He added that “there are AI leaders like Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed [Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technology Council] who are very bought into that vision and are going to help us make sure that these poor countries benefit, at the same time”.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed with Bill Gates and James Carter, son of former US president Jimmy Carter, in 2017. Mr Gates has a long-standing relationship with the UAE. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court

Mr Gates has just turned 70 and announced that he will be giving away 100 per cent of his remaining wealth through his foundation. When asked about what he hopes his legacy will be and how he will be remembered in the future, he does not respond directly.

Mr Gates said that, rather than thinking about how he is remembered, he would rather focus on the actual outcomes achieved. He explained that the foundation “has a 20-year lifetime and we have very ambitious goals. First to get polio done, but then malaria's another disease that should be eradicated”. He added: “It'd be wonderful if 30 years from now, people said ‘malaria? What was that? Polio? What was that?’”

He paused and then said with a smile: “It's not that important that I be remembered. It's that we get rid of these things so we don't have to deal with them ever again."

Mr Gates spoke to The National on Sunday morning, ahead of three important events: a public health announcement at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, the Goalkeepers event to celebrate advocates of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the final race of the Formula One season on Sunday evening.

“I’ve never been to an F1 event," he said about attending the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. “I’ll also get to hang out with the top people from the country ... it’ll be super fun to be part of what is an amazing event."