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Gates Foundation

latest news & developments
Doreen Badze, a traditional healer and agroecologist, leads the way in restoring Africa’s food sovereignty. From planting seeds to harvesting nutritious crops like spinach and okra, she demonstrates how women farmers are healing the land, empowering communities and nurturing sustainable, ecologically sound food systems.
AFRICA AGRICULTURE

African faith leaders demand reparations from Gates Foundation over industrial farming harm

More than 600 faith leaders across the continent say the Gates Foundation’s Green Revolution model has deepened poverty, degraded soils and undermined food sovereignty

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
Two Indian generic drugmakers — Hetero and Dr Reddy’s — will be funded by the Gates Foundation and Unitaid, respectively, to produce and sell the twice-a-year anti-HIV shot around R692 per person per year. (Anna-Maria van Niekerk)
ANTIRETROVIRAL DRUGS

Two drugmakers will sell the 6-monthly anti-HIV jab for the price of the daily prevention pill

Hetero and Dr Reddy’s will be funded by the Gates Foundation and Unitaid to produce and sell the twice-a-year anti-HIV shot around R692 per person a year

  • Mia Malan
9 min read
US President Donald Trump said this week that the tariff is meant to address the trade imbalance between South Africa and the US. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP/picture alliance)
CLINICAL TRIALS

Trump ends SA’s HIV and TB research grants

Cancellation letters, which end millions of rands of South African universities’ US-government funded HIV and TB research grants with immediate effect, started to roll in over…

  • Mia Malan
9 min read
Bill Gates with farmer Mary in Kenya. (Photo by Gates Notes)
AFRICA

Bill Gates plays God in Africa’s agriculture and gets it wrong

Agra’s drive for a ‘green revolution’ has reduced crop diversity, created a dependency on commercial seeds and fertiliser and increased vulnerability to drought

  • Simon Allison
8 min read
The first-of-its-kind balloon is predicted to bridge the gap in atmospheric data between the West and the continent
AGRICULTURE

Weather balloons will soar over Africa to track hurricanes and improve agriculture

The first-of-its-kind balloon is predicted to bridge the gap in atmospheric data between the West and the continent

  • Umamah Bakharia
4 min read
20th edition of the International Exhibition of Agriculture, Livestock and Agricultural Industries opened at the Algiers Exhibition Center in Algeria on March 16, 2022, with the participation of 350 exhibitors, including 150 foreigners. was relaunched after two years of absence due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, under the slogan: "For smart agriculture, facing the challenge of sustainable food and health security (APP/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
MIRACLE WHEAT

Going hungry or going green? A critical look at the ‘Green Revolution’ project in Africa

Food security discourse remains in strong support of development and food aid, which has almost certainly undermined the stability of local agricultural markets in Africa

  • Monique Bennett
7 min read
Superhero or supervillian? That’s the wrong question, writes Phillip Machanick. The right question is: How it is that philanthropist Bill Gates can have so much influence over world health? Photo: Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket/Getty Images
ANTI VAXXERS

No vaccine superheroes or supervillains: Fix the system

Is Gates a superhero or a supervillain? That’s the wrong question. The right question is: How it is that one person can have so much influence over world health?

  • Philip Machanick
5 min read
A vendor inspects fresh produce on a stall at a fruit market as day breaks in the Lugbe district of Abuja, Nigeria. (KC Nwakalor/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
BILL GATES

The cost of Covid: 25 years of progress, halted

Development has been set back by two decades, says the Gates Foundation Goalkeepers report

  • Simon Allison
3 min read
AFRICA

To fight Covid-19 in Africa, we must fight inequality

Our global health is only as strong as our most vulnerable community. The coronavirus pandemic can be defeated — but only if we leave no one behind

  • Oumar Seydi
6 min read
BAGAMOYO

Bill Gates in new push against malaria

Bill Gates and thousands of babies are helping Africa prepare its largest medical experiment ever in the search for a new vaccine against malaria.

  • Andrew Quinn
6 min read
ALIKO DANGOTE

After 13 years of Gates, enter the new richest man

It must count among the world’s most genial rivalries. Two of the planet’s richest men regularly play epic games of online bridge and collaborate over handing out their billions.…

  • Staff Reporter
5 min read
BUSH ADMINISTRATION

We can defeat Aids, says Tutu

Statistics that indicated HIV/Aids numbers were lower than previously thought was cold comfort, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Friday. Speaking in Pretoria a day before World…

  • Staff Reporter
3 min read
BUSH ADMINISTRATION

World Bank launches new Aids strategy for Africa

Overtaken as the largest funder of global HIV/Aids programmes, the World Bank is now focusing on easing the economic damage inflicted by the syndrome in Africa and finding ways…

  • Lesley Wroughton
3 min read
CARY FOWLER

Frozen vault saves crops for mankind

Engineers last week finished work on one of the world’s most ambitious conservation projects: a doomsday vault carved into a frozen mountainside in the archipelago of Svalbard, a…

  • Staff Reporter
3 min read