Progress is possible

Our goals

In the face of tremendous global challenges—from climate change to disease epidemics to financial crises—we believe that where you live should never determine your health and well-being.

By 2045, we believe where a child is born will no longer determine whether they live, learn, and thrive.

Learn more about our three goals

No mother or child dies of a preventable cause

Where you’re born shouldn’t determine whether you survive being born. Yet today, the gap between maternal and child mortality rates in the global South and North remains stark — not because we lack solutions, but because we haven’t prioritized them. We’re working to close that gap for good, with a goal of halving child mortality again by 2045.

Vaccines remain the single best investment in global health. We’re funding discovery, scale, and delivery of immunizations that protect children before and after birth. And since malnutrition underlies half of all child deaths, we’re funding research that could reshape how the world addresses it.

A new $2.5 billion commitment targets five chronically neglected areas of women’s health: obstetric and maternal care, nutrition during pregnancy, gynecological health, contraceptive options, and STI treatment. Conditions like pre-eclampsia — common, poorly understood, and often deadly in low-resource settings — are finally getting the research attention they deserve.

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The next generation grows up in a world without deadly infectious diseases

By 2045, we believe polio and malaria can be eradicated, and TB and HIV brought under control as manageable conditions. That’s not optimism for its own sake — it’s where the science and the momentum point, if we stay focused.

New tools are in the pipeline, including a TB vaccine candidate that could be transformative for communities where the disease has touched nearly every family. The challenge now is ensuring innovations reach the people who need them, not just those with the easiest access.

In sub-Saharan Africa, a shortage of nearly six million health workers means professionals are stretched far too thin. Through partnerships and innovations, we’re bringing AI tools to 1,000 primary health clinics across the region — supporting everything from patient intake to follow-up care, helping health workers deliver better services to more people.

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Hundreds of millions of people break free from poverty

For most people in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, prosperity starts on a small farm. Agriculture is two to three times more effective at reducing poverty than growth in any other sector, with the greatest gains going to the poorest households. So, we recently committed $1.4 billion over four years to help millions of smallholder farmers adapt to a changing climate — through better seeds, tools, and climate-resilient crops.

In the United States, economic opportunity runs through education. Students who pass Algebra 1 by 9th grade are significantly more likely to graduate, pursue college, and earn a family-sustaining wage — so that’s where we’ve focused our math investments.

We’re also funding the connections between K–12, higher education, and careers, because getting into college isn’t enough if students don’t have the support to finish and find opportunity on the other side.

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We’re on the clock

On December 31, 2045, the Gates Foundation closes its doors. That’s not a constraint. It’s a commitment. Between now and then, we have one job: help partners tackle the problems we were built to solve—for good—and make sure the solutions outlast us. Every day is a chance to make that happen. Every day counts.

Under twenty years. Three goals. Not a moment to waste.

25 years of progress

What we’ve achieved so far

Over the last 25 years, we’ve helped drive significant gains in global health and development. Childhood deaths have been cut in half—now fewer than 5 million per year—and maternal mortality has declined by about 40% worldwide. This progress provides the foundation for what comes next.

See the data