Bill Gates said he planned to have meetings with donors and other philanthropists while in the Emirates, hoping to "get the wealthy to give".
The US billionaire said a number of people in the country had shown interest in contributing to "the issue of helping the poor".
One company - Al Ansari Exchange - has already agreed to contribute and yesterday announced a US$5 million (Dh18.3m) donation over the next five years for polio eradication, and to support the prevention of neglected tropical diseases.
Mr Gates said the largest chunk of donations to his charity - 60 per cent - came from governments' foreign aid budgets. The rest came from philanthropists.
But he said the balance between philanthropy and government spending in the Middle East was not "as black and white", as the two are often one and the same.
"Sometimes in this region ... the definitions aren't as clear but the initiatives here will make a big difference," he said.
Mr Gates said he encouraged people with funds to donate and that he was "sure they will find it quite fulfilling".
He was speaking in the capital yesterday ahead of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit, and said he understood the need by some to "know that their dollars really have impact".
He said that scepticism was why the Gates Foundation had "such professional teams and measurement systems".
Mr Gates said he was "very demanding in terms of value-for-money, real impact, and hopefully our success and credibility is something that encourages other people to get involved".
He described Yemen as the country in the region that needs the most help.
"We want children to have enough to eat and not die from disease," Mr Gates said.
"[Yemen is] one of the countries that the aid community needs to do better in getting the tools [of support] out to."
* Marie-Louise Olson
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
- Grade 9 = above an A*
- Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
- Grade 7 = grade A
- Grade 6 = just above a grade B
- Grade 5 = between grades B and C
- Grade 4 = grade C
- Grade 3 = between grades D and E
- Grade 2 = between grades E and F
- Grade 1 = between grades F and G
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump and Other Pieces 1986-2016
Martin Amis,
Jonathan Cape
Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
