Gates delivers report to G20 leaders calling for increased development efforts

"In a report about financing for development delivered [Thursday] at the G20 summit, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, urged leaders to commit to increasing the pool of resources dedicated to development, or risk causing irreparable damage to the livelihoods of millions of the poorest people," a Gates Foundation press release states (11/3). "Gates' report to G20 leaders, whose countries account for 85 percent of the global economy, suggests they can raise over $250 billion (180 billion euros), a modest part of which could accelerate the development of poor countries," Agence France-Presse reports (11/3).

"Gates stressed the need to raise development finance from a range of sources. These include aid budgets, taxes raised in poor countries and private finance as well as the possibility of new taxes, such as tariffs on shipping and airline fuel," according to Reuters (Giles, 11/3). "In an interview with the Associated Press, he championed taxes on financial activity as a way to get the private sector to contribute to helping the poor -- a tax that activists hail as long overdue and some European countries are championing" (11/3). AFP provides video footage of an interview with Gates (11/3).