Bill Gates has said extreme poverty and child mortality could be virtually eliminated in the next two decades.
The world’s richest man said that by 2035 no nation will be as poor as any of the 35 that the World Bank now classifies as low-income, even adjusting for inflation.
He made the prediction in the Gates Foundation’s annual letter, in which he and his wife, Melinda, sought to dispel three common “myths” surrounding the issues of world poverty.
“The belief that the world is getting worse, that we can’t solve extreme poverty and disease, isn’t just mistaken. It is harmful,” Gates wrote. “By almost any measure, the world is better than it has ever been. In two decades it will be better still.”
The foundation, which is expected to have given away the entire Gates fortune of around $67 billion (£40 billion) by the time the couple have been dead for 20 years, has published a letter for each of the last five years detailing global philanthropic progress.