The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has $80 million worth five-year partnership with the Bihar government in health sector, particularly in immunization, vaccination and institutional delivery, has also shown its interest in expanding cooperation in agriculture sector IN EIGHT DISTRICTS OF BIHAR

Bill and Melinda Gates

 


  
 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation HQ



A three-member, high-level team of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will arrive here on a day's visit on Monday. The team members are Jeff Raikes, chief executive officer of the foundation, Kate James, chief communications officer, and Girindre Beeharry, director, India office, who will share their experiences related to the foundation's ongoing work in eight districts of Bihar, said a senior official of the foundation.
The foundation is mainly working in health sector in partnership with the Bihar government. Senior health department officials of the state are hopeful of expanding activities after talks with the foundation team, said an official.
Foundation's CEO Jeff Raikes leads the foundation's efforts to promote equity for all people around the world. He sets strategic priorities, monitors results, and facilitates relationships with key partners for all the major programme groups. Kate James serves as senior communications adviser for the foundation and is a member of the management committee.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has $80 million worth five-year partnership with the Bihar government in health sector, particularly in immunization, vaccination and institutional delivery, has also shown its interest in expanding cooperation in agriculture sector. This was announced by the software czar and world's leading philanthropist Bill Gates during his second visit to Bihar in May last year.
Gates, who was accompanied by his wife and foundation co-chair Melinda Gates and a strong team, had lauded the work of the Nitish government and said the foundation was doing well in Bihar. The couple and their team had visited Sabajpura and Jamsaut villages under Danapur subdivision in Patna district to review the work funded by the foundation.
The foundation works through NGOs. It also suggests to the government the work to be done. In 2010 also, the couple had visited poverty-stricken Gularia village in Khagaria district and Tertariya village in Banka district.


 The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF or the Gates Foundation) is the largest 
 transparently operated private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. It is "driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family". The primary aims of the foundation are, globally, to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and in America, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology. The foundation, based in Seattle, Washington, is controlled by its three trustees: Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. Other principal officers include Co-Chair William H. Gates, Sr. and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Raikes. It had an endowment of US$33.5 billion as of September 30, 2011. The scale of the foundation and the way it seeks to apply business techniques to giving makes it one of the leaders in the philanthrocapitalism revolution in global philanthropy, though the foundation itself notes that the philanthropic role has limitations. In 2007, its founders were ranked as the second most generous philanthropists in America. In 2010, its founders had started The Commission on Education of Health Professionals for the 21st Century titled as "Transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world"


In 1994, the foundation was formed as the William H. Gates Foundation with an initial stock gift of US$94 million. In 1999, the foundation was renamed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. After a merger with the Gates Learning Foundation in 2000, Gates gave an additional US$126 million. During the foundation's following years, funding grew to US$2 billion. On June 15, 2006, Gates announced his plans to transition out of a day-to-day role with Microsoft, effective July 31, 2008, to allow him to devote more time to working with the foundation.
Bill and Melinda Gates, along with the musician , were named by Time as Persons of the Year 2005 for their charitable work. In the case of Bill and Melinda Gates, the work referenced was that of this foundation.
In April 2010, Gates was invited to visit and speak at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he asked the students to take on the hard problems of the world in their futures and he also explained the nature and philosophy of his philanthropic endeavors.