Children born in northern Nigeria face a 15% chance of dying before age five, Bill Gates warned on Monday. Speaking at a Reuters Newsmaker event in New York, he urged governments to reverse recent cuts in global health funding to prevent millions of such deaths.
“We are at a crossroads,” Gates said, emphasizing that the world can either act to improve child health outcomes or ignore the growing crisis. His remarks came ahead of the Gates Foundation’s annual Goalkeepers event.
The Gates Foundation announced a $912 million contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, aiming to bolster efforts amid widespread aid reductions, particularly from the United States.
“I cannot fill the gap left by government cuts, nor do I want to create that illusion,” Gates acknowledged.
Founded in 2000 by Gates and his then-wife, the foundation is a leading global health funder, focusing on preventing maternal and child deaths, combating infectious diseases, and reducing poverty. Earlier this year, Gates pledged to donate nearly his entire $200 billion fortune by 2045, accelerating his giving in response to urgent global needs.
According to the US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, global development aid declined 21% from 2024 to 2025, hitting a 15-year low. Gates warned that if this trend continues, decades of progress—cutting child mortality by half and saving five million lives annually since 2000—could be reversed.
He stressed that there remains a critical window to save millions of lives and eliminate deadly childhood diseases by 2045. Achieving this requires sustained funding for institutions like the Global Fund and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, alongside investments in primary healthcare and rapid deployment of innovations such as the long-acting HIV prevention drug lenacapavir.
“What’s happening to the health of the world’s children is worse than most people realize, but our long-term prospects are better than most imagine,” Gates said.
While many countries have cut global health support, Spain increased its donations to the Global Fund by 12% and to Gavi by 30% this year.
