Bill Gates speech

Bill Gates speech mirrors the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund new strategy

Bill Gates speech at the 2016 Nelson Mandela Annual lecture was a depiction of several issues of importance that are contained in the new five year strategy of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
The Fund is particularly appreciative of the similarities as they rekindle the good working relationship it had in the fight against HIV and AIDS. 

Other similarities with both Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Fund are shared below:
Mr Gates outlined in his speech the challenges of infant mortality, education and the need to create an enabling environment for the youth to thrive and innovate.
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In the Fund’s programme of Child Survival, Development and Thriving, the focus be on interventions in the first one thousand days of life.  Bill Gates said “In sub-Saharan Africa, 1 in 12 children will die before they turn 5. This is a vast improvement compared to 25 years ago, but African children are still 12 times more likely to die than the average child in a wealthy country”
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Youth Leadership is another programme where the Fund will focus on Think Tanks that will create platforms for youth to engage on issues of ethical leadership, civic participation, human rights and entrepreneurship.  Gates speech affirmed the importance of investing in youth:
“When I started Microsoft in 1975 – at the age of 19 – computer science was a young field. We didn’t feel beholden to old notions about what computers could or should do. We dreamed about the next big thing, and we scoured the world around us for the ideas and the tools that would help us create it.
But it wasn’t just at Microsoft. Steve Jobs was 21 when he started Apple. Mark Zuckerberg was only 19 when he created Facebook.”

Gates also touched on new thinking and new tools in education system: “Investing in good education to make sure that a high quality of education is available to every single child” – based on the research the Fund undertook, safety and protection in schools is a priority.  A safe school environment will create an enabling environment for learners to be innovative through technology and other means.

The Fund is encouraged to learn that it is on the right path in trying to achieve its objectives, which are aligned to those of the philanthropists like Bill Gates.