Philanthropist Bill Gates announced on Monday that a “kid born in northern Nigeria has a 15% chance of dying before the age of five,” as he urged governments to reverse global health funding cuts.
Speaking at a Reuters Newsmaker event in New York, Gates said that the world is at a crossroads, with millions of children at risk if funding drops too steeply.
In an interview before the event, he stated, “You can either be part of improving that or act like that doesn’t matter.”
The Gates Foundation will provide “$912 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.”
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This announcement comes as governments worldwide, led by the United States, have made “deep aid cuts.”
Speaking about his pledge, Gates said, “I am not capable of making up what the government cuts, and I don’t want to create an illusion of that.”
The Gates Foundation, which was started by the Microsoft co-founder and his then-wife in 2000, is one of the world’s biggest funders of global health initiatives, with a particular focus on ending preventable deaths of mothers and babies, tackling infectious diseases, and lifting millions out of poverty.
According to the U.S.-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, global development assistance fell by 21% between 2024 and 2025 and is now at a 15-year low.
Gates warned that if this trend continues, progress that has cut child mortality in half since 2000, saving five million lives a year, could be “in jeopardy.”
Gates said that there is still an opportunity to save millions of lives, which would require sustained funding for organizations such as the Global Fund and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, prioritizing “primary healthcare,” and the rapid deployment of medical innovations.
In a statement, Gates said, “What’s happening to the health of the world’s children is worse than most people realise, but our long-term prospects are better than most people can imagine.”
While most countries have reduced global health support, Spain increased its donations to the Global Fund by 12% and to Gavi by 30% this year.
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