Bill and Melinda Gates share one problem they’d fix with magic wand

Ted S.
Warren/AP

• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation released its second
  Goalkeepers report on Tuesday, discussing the need for more
  progress in eliminating poverty worldwide.
• In an interview with National Geographic Magazine, Bill and
  Melinda Gates shared the one problem they would fix with a magic
  wand.
• Melinda Gates said she would provide contraceptives to the
  200 million women who lack access to them.
• Bill Gates said he would stop malnutrition among children who
  are not able to fully develop.

The
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation released its second annual

Goalkeepers report on Tuesday,
warning that decades of progress in eliminating poverty could
regress without a greater effort to make food and other vital
resources more accessible.

Tuesday’s report paints a less optimistic picture than last
year’s version, when the Gates Foundation
highlighted global trends that showed how the world is
getting better. Bill and Melinda Gates
sat down with National Geographic Magazine’s editor in chief,
Susan Goldberg, to discuss the new report’s emphasis on family
planning, nutrition, and education.

Goldberg asked the philanthropists what problem they would fix if
they had a magic wand to wave. In response, Melinda Gates said
she would make contraceptives available to all women who want
them.

“It changes everything for her and her children,” Melinda
Gates said. “So if I could wave a magic wand, 200 million women
who are asking us for contraceptives today would have
them.”

According to the Gates Foundation’s report,
the
 percentage of women of reproductive age who
have their family planning needs met with modern contraception
has risen from 68% to 76% since 1990. But the number lags behind
in the 69 poorest countries, increasing from 51% to 64% in the
same time period.

Bill Gates, meanwhile, said he would eliminate
malnutrition, as more than 50% of children in Africa do not fully
develop mentally or physically due to infectious diseases and a
lack of food and infectious.

“I’m super excited that by the end of the decade we expect
to have cheap interventions so those kids will fully develop,”
Bill Gates said. “That means all the investments you make in
their education, wanting to benefit from their productivity, will
work far better. So if there was just one thing, it’s the
intervention to stop malnutrition.”