"The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Wednesday that it will spend more than $1 billion over the next eight years to increase access to contraceptives in the developing world and research new methods of birth control."
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Innovation and social change will both be necessary to improve access to birth control around the world, Melinda Gates said Wednesday, announcing that her foundation will devote more than $1 billion to the cause between now and 2020.
Speaking at the London summit on family planning that she organized with the British government, Gates outlined several of the initiatives the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will focus on in the coming years, including efforts to bring down the cost of birth control so that it will be within reach of the world's poorest women.
"Let's not be shy about admitting that we're trying to do something very ambitious," she said. "We're committed to supporting the leadership of the countries where the work is being done and we're committed to educating women about their options."
British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to double UK spending for international family planning, to $1.6 billion over the next eight years — by far the biggest donation announced at the summit.
"Family planning is absolutely fundamental to any hope of tackling poverty in our world," Cameron said.
The summit collected $2 billion in pledges from developing nations and $2.6 billion from wealthy countries and foundations, said Andrew Mitchell, Britain's secretary for international aid. The money will be used to make contraceptives available to another 120 million women around the world by 2020 — which proponents say will prevent 100 million unintended pregnancies, 50 million abortions and more than 200 million maternal deaths.
Birth control was the first focus for the fledgling Gates Foundation in the 1990s, but the emphasis shifted to saving children's lives through vaccines and disease cures. So Wednesday's announcement was particularly exciting for Jane Hutchings, who received some of those early Gates grants as director of reproductive health for the Seattle nonprofit Path.
Speaking at the London summit on family planning that she organized with the British government, Gates outlined several of the initiatives the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will focus on in the coming years, including efforts to bring down the cost of birth control so that it will be within reach of the world's poorest women.
"Let's not be shy about admitting that we're trying to do something very ambitious," she said. "We're committed to supporting the leadership of the countries where the work is being done and we're committed to educating women about their options."
British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to double UK spending for international family planning, to $1.6 billion over the next eight years — by far the biggest donation announced at the summit.
"Family planning is absolutely fundamental to any hope of tackling poverty in our world," Cameron said.
The summit collected $2 billion in pledges from developing nations and $2.6 billion from wealthy countries and foundations, said Andrew Mitchell, Britain's secretary for international aid. The money will be used to make contraceptives available to another 120 million women around the world by 2020 — which proponents say will prevent 100 million unintended pregnancies, 50 million abortions and more than 200 million maternal deaths.
Birth control was the first focus for the fledgling Gates Foundation in the 1990s, but the emphasis shifted to saving children's lives through vaccines and disease cures. So Wednesday's announcement was particularly exciting for Jane Hutchings, who received some of those early Gates grants as director of reproductive health for the Seattle nonprofit Path.
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