Bill Gates is making the largest philanthropic donation in modern history, aiming to double the Gates Foundation’s budget over the next two decades. He’s accelerating his giving to confront rising child mortality, disease, and poverty at a time when governments are retreating from aid.
Also in today’s edition: A new Gates-backed fund targets maternal and newborn health, reviewing 100 days of Trump, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks at a congressional committee … and Pope Leo XIV.
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Biggest gift ever made
Bill Gates is giving nearly everything away — accelerating his philanthropy and adding what the Gates Foundation calls the largest donation in modern history to double the foundation’s budget to $200 billion before it closes its doors in 2045.
“There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people,” Gates said in a statement. “That is why I have decided to give my money back to society much faster than I had originally planned.”
The move shifts the foundation’s original plan to close 20 years after Gates’ death. Instead, he’s pouring money in now — at a time when governments from the U.S. to the U.K. are slashing aid budgets, writes Global Reporter Elissa Miolene.
Gates is doing the opposite: targeting maternal and child health, infectious disease, education, and poverty — areas governments are abandoning. “2025 may be and is likely to be the first year of this century [that] preventable child mortality actually rises rather than declines,” says Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman. “And so we want to do everything we can to offset that.”
Still, Suzman was clear: Philanthropy can’t replace government aid. “We’re going to make as strong a case as possible … this is the highest-impact spending that any government can do.”
Gates, more blunt in an interview with The New York Times, says: “The reductions to U.S.A.I.D. are stunning … Nobody expected the executive branch to cut [the U.S. flagship HIV initiative] PEPFAR or polio money without the involvement of Congress.”
He plans to donate 99% of his fortune — currently $168 billion — leaving himself just $1.68 billion by age 90. “People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them.”
Read: Bill Gates commits most of his fortune to Gates Foundation, closing 2045
+ Listen: For the latest episode of our podcast series, Elissa joins Devex’s Rumbi Chakamba and Sara Jerving to discuss Gates’ big announcement and other top global development stories from the week.
$500M lifeline
Before the big announcement, the Gates Foundation and other leading philanthropies unveiled a bold new initiative: the $500 million Beginnings Fund. Over the next five years, the fund aims to help save 300,000 mothers and newborns across 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya, Nigeria, and Rwanda.
Run by a Nairobi-based team, the fund comes amid deep cuts to humanitarian aid that have forced clinics to close and disrupted care for life-threatening conditions like hemorrhage and preeclampsia. Despite a 40% drop in maternal deaths globally since 2000, sub-Saharan Africa still accounts for 70% of such deaths.
“These investments will advance maternal and newborn survival in high-burden hospitals, health centers, and referral networks, in which most maternal and newborn deaths – the majority of which are preventable – occur,” says the launch statement.
Designed with “sustainability and local ownership” in mind, the fund will work closely with African governments and experts to strengthen health systems and expand access to low-cost, proven solutions, writes Senior Reporter Jenny Lei Ravelo.
Read: New Gates-backed fund targets maternal and newborn health in Africa
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Habemus Papam
The newly elected Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago, becomes the first American-born pontiff and a likely torchbearer of the late Pope Francis’ legacy. A former missionary bishop in Peru and key Francis appointee, he brings deep roots in the global south and a track record of social justice work. His election may signal continuity with the Catholic Church’s growing role in global development — championing climate action, economic equity, and the dignity of migrants.
ICYMI: ‘There’s no going back’ — Pope Francis’ global development legacy
Trump’s 100-day teardown
U.S. President Donald Trump didn’t just trim foreign aid — he decimated it. In just 100 days, 85% of USAID programs are gone, thousands of staff slashed, and the agency itself is set to be folded into a downsizing State Department. Poof. A decades-old institution, vanished.
In a Devex Pro briefing, Elissa joined colleagues Adva Saldinger and David Ainsworth to unpack how this happened so fast — and what comes next. It’s worth a listen.
Trump’s 2026 “skinny budget” makes it clear: This is a full-on rollback. Adva calls it “sort of a Cliff Notes version” and notes “Congress can always decide to ignore the president's budget.” Still, she adds, the last Trump administration “recommended pretty steep cuts, not this steep, and Congress rejected that,” but this time, Republicans have been far more deferential.
Even if the budget doesn’t stick, the damage is massive. “Essentially, the Trump administration for FY 2026 has budgeted $9.6 billion in new spending. If that’s the only money that’s spent, that’s roughly an 84% cut to the foreign affairs budget.”
However the real picture could be a bit different. Trump is actually proposing new spending of about $31.2 billion in 2026, which includes $20 billion of recissions to already-agreed spending for 2025 and possibly also 2024. Looking at it that way, the picture is a little better. But it’s still “a 47.7% cut,” Adva says.
The U.N. and humanitarian aid? Gutted. Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole? Scrapped. “If there is a focus on food security, how is it going to be delivered if you're eliminating these programs?” Adva asks.
“What is this new vision that throws that into question?” Elissa adds. The surprise? A new America First Opportunity Fund — “a discretionary pot” to back partners, counter China, and serve shifting priorities.
As lawsuits pile up and payments stall, Elissa sums it up: “It's been kind of a dizzying back and forth.” Congress now faces a choice. “Fundamentally, there is a question about how much Congress is going to … claim — or reclaim — its power of the purse,” Adva says. “We don't know the answer to that entirely yet.”
Read: The skinny on Trump's very big first 100 days (Pro)
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Pushing back on China
A House Financial Services Committee hearing on Tuesday offered some insight into the Trump administration’s decision to remain engaged with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. At the hearing, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reaffirmed what he said in a speech last month: The U.S. plans to expand its leadership at both institutions to “restore fairness to the international economic system.” That means returning the focus to core missions like poverty alleviation and global financial stability — but also countering China’s influence.
One example is Ukraine reconstruction, Adva tells me. “No country or person who financed the Russian war machine” will be eligible for World Bank or other multilateral development bank funds, Bessent said when asked how the U.S. would ensure the bank and IMF don’t inadvertently support China’s debt practices. He also noted that the U.S. is working with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Bank, and IMF to examine debt burdens in countries with significant Chinese loans, warning, “It is impossible to know and assist a country that has experienced economic hardship when we don't know the true levels or if there is an undisclosed priority payment to another creditor.” He again called for China to graduate from developing country status — a point echoed by Rep. French Hill, the chair of the committee, who urged the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to stop lending to China.
These concerns may also shape upcoming discussions on IMF quota reform and the process for allocating Special Drawing Rights, which are issued based on a country’s IMF share, not its individual needs. Bessent said SDR allocations should align with U.S. goals and prioritize countries facing market failures, not large, well-financed economies. One leader who might be breathing easier: IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva. Though Bessent noted he “inherited” the current IMF leadership, he said it seems “very open” to the Trump agenda.
ICYMI: US Treasury Secretary — US will stay engaged with World Bank, IMF
Further reading: US Congressman French Hill — World Bank ‘way off course’ (Pro)
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In other news
The U.S. says it will cut $50 million in medical aid to Zambia over its government’s failure to crack down on the theft and selling of U.S.-funded medicines and health supplies intended to be given for free. [AP]
Israel has shut down three schools run by the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians in East Jerusalem. [France 24]
African Parks, a conservation charity in the Republic of Congo linked to Prince Harry, has acknowledged that its rangers have committed human rights abuses following an independent review. [BBC]
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About the author
Helen Murphy
Helen is an award-winning journalist and Senior Editor at Devex, where she edits coverage on global development in the Americas. Based in Colombia, she previously covered war, politics, financial markets, and general news for Reuters, where she headed the bureau, and for Bloomberg in Colombia and Argentina, where she witnessed the financial meltdown. She started her career in London as a reporter for Euromoney Publications before moving to Hong Kong to work for a daily newspaper.
