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SUMMARY - Annual Letter 2015

] by Bill Gates - The annual letter from the Bill and Melinda(B+M) Gates foundation, Gates sets ambitious global goals for making the world a better place, makes a big bet on the future, that ...

] that by backing innovative work in health and education, we could help dramatically reduce inequity.
] The progress we've seen so far is very exciting so exciting that ...

] “the lives of people in poor countries will improve faster in the next 15 years than at any other time in history And their lives will improve more than anyone else's."
] We're putting our credibility, time, and money behind this bet — and asking others to join us — has never been a better time to accelerate progress and have a big impact around the world.
] we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that a handful of the worst-off countries will continue to struggle
] It's great that more people in rich countries will be able to watch movies on super hi-resolution screens. It's even better that more parents in poor countries will know their children aren't going to die.

] 7 of 10 living in sub-Saharan Africa are farmers. (Compared to US, 2/100) And yet Africa has to rely on imports and food aid to feed itself. Though it's the poorest continent in the world, it spends about $50 billion a year buying food from rich countries.
] Crop yeilds can be about 1/5 of what they are in the US
] a related problem, which is that the food most Africans eat isn't nutritious or varied enough to make up a healthy diet. For example, many Africans consume starchy staples — maize, rice, or cassava — almost exclusively. As a result, malnutrition runs rampant across a continent of farmers,
] With the right investments, we can deliver innovation and information to enough farmers in Africa to increase productivity by 50 percent for the continent overall.
] Proper use of fertilizer -
] Crop Rotatation
] Timing -
] Planting Techniques -

] “Already, in the developing countries with the right regulatory framework, people are storing money digitally on their phones and using their phones to make purchases, as if they were debit cards,”
] “By 2030, 2 billion people who don’t have a bank account today will be storing money and making payment with their phones. And by then, mobile money providers will be offering the full range of financial services, from interest-bearing savings accounts to credit to insurance
] smartphone will be the primary catalyst, close to 80% in developing countries already have service
] the financial lives of the poor are very complicated
] 2.5 B adults without a bank account, traditional banks cant afford to serve the poor,
] microcredit -
] mobile money - Kenya mpesa - launched in 2007, currently 1018 active accounts per 1000 adults
] companies pioneering mobile banking find it profitable to serve the poor because the marginal cost of processing a digital transaction is near zero.
] so many people in developing countries have mobile phones — more than 70 percent of adults in many countries are subscribers now — the volume of transactions can be very high.

] “As high-speed cell networks grow and smartphones become as cheap as today’s voice-only phones, online education will flourish. For people in rich countries, it will be an important step forward.
] For the rest of the world, especially in places where growth is creating demand for educated workers, it will be a revolution.”

] So what will it take to make sure that the lives of the poor improve faster in the next 15 years than ever before?
] As we said earlier, it will take innovation in technology and in ways to deliver it to the people who need it most, which is what our foundation works on.
] There’s another crucial factor: informed, passionate individuals working together to form effective movements for change. People who care about helping those in the world’s poorest places improve their lives. We call them global citizens. And with this letter, we’re helping to kick-start an effort to recruit tens of millions more of them
] Becoming a global citizen doesn’t mean you have to dedicate your life to helping the poor. It does mean you follow an issue of global importance—whether it’s one we wrote about in this letter, or another, like human rights or governance. You take a few minutes once in a while to learn about the lives of people who are worse off than you are. (In fact, if you’re still reading this far into our letter, you are probably a global citizen.) You’re willing to act on your compassion, ] whether it’s raising awareness, ] volunteering your time, or ] giving a little money.