Health system ‘must be tip-top’, says new Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation CEO

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Pretoria - Global health crises like the coronavirus one are reminders of the critical importance for all countries to invest in robust health systems. So says Mark Suzman, newly-appointed chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Suzman, who is on an official visit to South Africa, said outbreaks such as the coronavirus “show you that health is often relatively under-invested”. “There are always competing priorities and yet in our view, investing in the human capital of a country starts with investing in health care.” The foundation will provide up to $100 million (R1.5 billion) to improve detection, isolation and treatment efforts; protect at-risk populations in Africa and South Asia; and, accelerate the development of vaccines, drugs and diagnostics. “You need to be able to prepare for the unexpected. That requires strong surveillance systems to help track diseases, which is something we can help with and support a lot in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Suzman.

On how corrupt governments and politicians who steal government funds meant for health impact on the well-being of their poorer citizens and force philanthropic organisations to come in, Suzman said: “If there was a vaccine for good governance, we would ensure it was applied extensively everywhere.

“Corruption is the reason why the foundation tracks resources very carefully all the way from the procurement level to the end of the process, to make sure that things like vaccines actually go to those who need them.”

On clinical trials for a HIV vaccine that have been stopped, Suzman said: “That was pulled for futility - a technical term which means we found early enough that the vaccine trial was not having the impact we hoped it would and so there wasn’t any point in continuing with it.

“It’s obviously depressing when we get news like that and we have invested significant resources. But one of the roles of philanthropy is we can take bigger risks. We expect failure.

“The issues that we’re working on at the Gates Foundation are big, challenging issues that are not easy to solve,” said Suzman. He assumed his new role this month, leading one of the world’s largest philanthropic foundations that had an endowment of $47.4bn at the end of 2018.

Suzman, whose great-aunt was anti-apartheid activist Helen Suzman and whose aunt is the actress Janet Suzman, spoke about the contribution the foundation was making to battle the coronavirus alongside its effort to combat HIV/Aids and TB.

Previously Suzman has led the foundation’s efforts to build strategic relationships with governments, private philanthropists and other key partners to increase awareness, action, and resources devoted to programmes in both the US and abroad.

Gates last night laced up his tennis shoes for the “Match in Africa”, an exhibition match in Cape Town, with his doubles partner Roger Federer. They took on Raphael Nadal and Trevor Noah.