Lack of political prioritization, a major challenge for Gates foundation in Africa

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says the lack of political prioritization by African governments is a major challenge in the line of its operations across the continent.

The Foundation is one of the major NGOs assisting developing countries to establish strong education systems, develop infrastructure and improve their healthcare.

But chief strategy officer and president of the foundation, says some African governments are not helping their work.

“The challenges are a lack of political prioritization, sometimes, it’s just understanding of the need and why there is a need for real political urgency around it, how we do the metrics and measurement and being able to track , what’s happening and have efficient feedback loops” said Mark Suzman,chief strategy officer; BMGF.

The foundation is particularly keen on empowering women and improving family health. With their partners, they’ve had some success stories in reducing child mortality rate.

“We have seen a number of success stories in Africa. In health we’ve seen the likes of Ethiopia,Tanzania, Rwanda and Senegal all meet the millennium development goal of reducing child mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. And much of the progress is continuing to accelerate and that’s been an example of good partnership from external actors like ourselves or the UN, but also real leadership by those countries themselves”, further revealed Mark Suzman .

For the prospects, the foundation is connecting people particularly in poor and rural areas, with digitally-based financial tools and services.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given away over $36.7 billion to charities around the globe.