Global health is the key to solving virtually every challenge facing the planet, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) founder Bill Gates said Tuesday at the 2010 mHealth Summit in Washington, D.C.
Whether it is energy or climate change or deforestation, Gates said, the key is to keeping global population under control and the ultimate key to that, he said, is improving global heath.
"The most important fact that people both know and make sure other people know … is that as you improve health," he said. "That is the thing that reduces population growth"
Gates acknowledged that it seems counterintuitive, but he noted that improving infant mortality rates and preventing children's deaths leads to people choosing to have fewer children.
"As the world grows from 6 billion to 9 billion - all of that (comes) in urban slums," he said, adding that there is "no such thing" as a healthy country or region with substantial population growth.
And when it comes to tackling the other issues facing the planet, including global warming and pollution, "the key thing is those problems are insoluble at a 3 percent population growth rate," he said. "Nobody can handle that situation."
Gates said that in general the private sector underfunds basic research and vaccines that would be most effective in reducing child mortality.
And while private sector action is generally preferable, "the needs of the poorest will not be prioritized in the way they would if you had a more human, values driven" system, Gates said.
He added, "Government comes in for things that the market doesn't do well."
Addressing the theme of the mHealth summit at which he was speaking, Gates said that the most obvious way of tapping into mobile technology to improve health would be to use it to facilitate birth registries so that vaccination programs know who to reach.
"I think we have to approach these things with some humility," he said, noting that while computing technology and databases have been great in facilitating research, there are limits to what technology can do in health, because many parts of the world don't have the data and wireless internet.
"I think we have to hold ourselves to some pretty tough metrics to see if we're making a difference or not," he said.
Gates said that he wanted to expand his charitable giving with a series of small grants of roughly $10,000 to developing countries in an effort to tap into new ideas.
"We're in a phase now where we're doing these … trying to catch sort of wild ideas and a set of people who wouldn't apply," he said. "It's all going to be crazy ideas because that's where the ideas are going to come from."
He added, "Vaccines are going to be the key - so how do cell phones fit in? … You'd get a huge improvement if you could just take the vaccines we have today and get them delivered."
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.