No poor countries in the world by 2035: Bill Gates

Attempts to bust three myths that block progress for the poor in his opinion, addresses misconceptions about global effort to end extreme poverty

Microsoft co-founder and chief-turned-philanthropist William Gates says by 2035 there will be almost no poor countries left in the world, by the current definition of ‘poor’.

In an annual letter, co-authored with wife Melinda, he says three myths block progress for the poor and he addresses these seeming misconceptions in the global effort to end extreme poverty.

Bill and Melinda Gates run the Gates Foundation, which supports initiatives in education, world health and population. They’ve been actively working towards these causes in India, too.

The letter says many nations which were aid recipients are now self-sufficient and people are living longer, healthier lives, proving the effectiveness of the work being done by his organisation. “By almost any measure, the world is better than it has ever been.”

The couple say the no-man’s-land between rich and poor countries has been filled by China, India, Brazil and others. Since 1960, China’s real income per person has gone up eightfold. India’s has quadrupled, Brazil’s has almost quintupled and the small country of Botswana, with shrewd management of its mineral resources, has seen a 30-fold increase.

“There is a class of nations in the middle that barely existed 50 years ago and it includes more than half the world’s population.” Despite the fact that more than one billion people still live in extreme poverty, “Many—though by no means all—of the countries we used to call poor now have thriving economies. And, the percentage of very poor people has dropped by more than half since 1990.”

To say foreign aid is a waste and leads to dependence is misplaced, says the letter.

America, for instance, spends barely $30 billion a year on aid. Gates claims there are only three countries now which have never been polio-free -- Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria. “Last year the global health community adopted a comprehensive plan aimed at getting the world polio-free by 2018 and dozens of donors stepped up to fund it. Once we get rid of polio, the world will save about $2 billion a year that it now spends fighting the disease.”

The letter added that since 1960, the life span for women in sub-Saharan Africa had gone up from 41 to 57 years, despite the HIV epidemic. The percentage of children in school has gone from the low 40s to over 75 per cent since 1970.

“Fewer people are hungry and more people have good nutrition. If getting enough to eat, going to school, and living longer are measures of a good life, then life is definitely getting better there. These improvements are not the end of the story; they’re the foundation for more progress,” Gates said.