From ideas to impact
从想法到影响力文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/15188.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/15188.html
The world is filled with innovators training their sights on big challenges. But going from an idea to an actual solution in people’s hands? That doesn’t happen often enough – and when it does, philanthropy has often played a bigger role than people may realize.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/15188.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/15188.html
世界上有很多创新者，他们将目光投向大的挑战。但将一个想法变成人们手中的实际解决方案谈何容易——当这种情况真的发生时，慈善扮演的角色往往比人们可能意识到的要大。文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/15188.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/15188.html
Consider this: Wild poliovirus once paralyzed 7,000 children a week. In 2023, that number was only 12 children – over the entire year. That progress was possible because of brilliant innovators who discovered breakthroughs and frontline heroes who made sure that solutions reached children, even in the most remote parts of the world. And so much of that was possible because of philanthropy: Rotary International, our foundation, and other organizations dedicated to a future where polio is a thing of the past.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/15188.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/15188.html
想想看，野生脊髓灰质炎病毒曾在一周内导致7000名儿童瘫痪。而到了2023年，这一数字是全年仅有12名儿童。这样的进步之所以成为可能，是因为卓越的创新者实现了新的突破，而了不起的一线工作者确保了解决方案惠及所有儿童——即使他们身处世界最偏远的地方。正是慈善让这一切成为可能：国际扶轮社、我们的基金会以及其他致力于让脊髓灰质炎成为历史的组织。文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/15188.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/15188.html
This is just one example of how, in the last few decades, governments and nongovernmental organizations have made incredible advances in the fight against infectious diseases. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has facilitated the immunization of more than 1 billion children. The Global Fund has saved 59 million lives from HIV, TB, and malaria. And the Carter Center and its partners are on the verge of making Guinea worm disease, a debilitating parasitic infection, the second human disease in history to be wiped off the face of the earth.
过去几十年里，各国政府和非政府组织在抗击传染病方面取得了非凡的进展，根除脊髓灰质炎只是其中一个例子。全球疫苗免疫联盟（Gavi）促成了10亿多儿童的免疫接种；全球基金避免了5900万人死于艾滋病、结核病和疟疾；卡特中心及其合作伙伴即将让麦地那龙线虫病（一种致人衰弱的寄生虫疾病）成为历史上第二种从地球上根除的人类疾病。
These accomplishments have a few things in common. They reflect the hard work of thousands of people. And they all were made possible by philanthropic contributions. Part of that is the money itself. But how philanthropists direct their funds, and who they collaborate with, is just as important.
这些成就有几点共同之处：它们是成千上万人辛勤工作的成果，并因慈善捐赠而成为可能。部分功劳在于资金本身，但慈善家如何规划资金投入方向，以及与谁合作同样重要。
For our foundation, that means looking for market failures – that is, areas where the public and private sectors may not have enough incentive to step in, so progress is unlikely if philanthropies don’t act. And it means catalyzing action from others, so that together, we can help scale lifesaving innovations and equip problem-solvers with the tools to go farther, faster.
对我们的基金会而言，这意味着寻找市场失灵的领域，即公共部门和私营部门可能缺乏足够动力介入的领域。如果慈善组织不采取行动，这些领域就不太可能取得进展。这也意味着要催化其他人的行动，这样我们就可以形成合力让挽救生命的创新得到更广泛的应用，并为解决问题的人提供工具，让他们走得更远、更快。
This is one of the most exciting parts of philanthropy: it has the flexibility to adapt quickly and take risks others can’t, which can accelerate progress.
这是慈善最令人激动的特点之一：它足够灵活，可以快速适应不同情况，并能承担其他人无法承担的风险，从而加速进步。
We move things forward, but we don’t do it alone. We do all our work in close collaboration with countries and communities to drive progress toward goals they’ve set – not the other way around. After all, while philanthropy can take risks and help fill gaps that would otherwise be overlooked or underfunded, it only makes a difference when it works in partnership with governments, the private sector, and local experts.
我们推动事情向前发展，但我们并非孤军奋战。我们通过和各个国家和社区的紧密合作开展所有的工作，朝着既定的目标推动进步，确保不会背离这些目标。毕竟，慈善虽然能承担风险、帮助填补被忽视或资金不足的缺口，但只有与政府、私营部门和当地专家合作才能真正带来改变。
Designing for equity: Philanthropy’s unique role
为平等而设计：慈善的独特角色
Wherever I go, I’m asked what the Gates Foundation is doing about two major topics: climate change and artificial intelligence. Our foundation’s approach to these issues illustrates how we think about the role of philanthropy, and our role specifically.
无论走到哪里，都有人问我，盖茨基金会在气候变化和人工智能这两大领域正在做什么。我们的基金会应对这些议题的方法能很好地阐释我们如何看待慈善的角色，尤其是我们基金会的角色。
First, climate change. The vast majority of climate spending goes toward mitigation efforts – that is, reducing carbon emissions. That’s critical for the future of our planet. But what about the effects that are already harming communities?
第一，气候变化。绝大多数的气候支出都用在了减缓措施上，即降低碳排放。这对我们地球的未来至关重要。但是，那些已经对社区造成的伤害怎么办？
The fact is, the people who have done the least to contribute to this crisis – like smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa – are already suffering its most severe consequences. Yet only about a tenth of global climate finance goes toward climate adaptation. And an even smaller fraction goes to interventions that would benefit the poorest.
事实上，对气候危机责任最小的人，如撒哈拉以南非洲的小农户，已经承受了气候变化最严重的后果。然而，只有约十分之一的全球气候资金用于气候适应，而用于惠及最贫困人口的干预措施的资金比例就更小了。
So, working with governments and international groups like CGIAR, the world’s largest global agricultural research organization, the Gates Foundation funds the R&D and delivery of solutions that expand the options available to farmers. These innovations, like chickens that are better able to survive disease and drought-tolerant strains of cassava, may not always be profitable for private companies to produce. But they have the potential to help millions of families grow their incomes. That’s exactly the kind of market failure we look to address.
因此，盖茨基金会与各国政府及国际组织合作（如全球最大的农业研究组织CGIAR），资助研发和解决方案的交付，为农民提供更多选择。这些创新，如更能抵御疾病的小鸡和耐旱的木薯品种，对私营企业来说，可能并不总是有利可图，但它们有潜力帮助数百万家庭提高收入，这正是我们希望解决的市场失灵问题。
Then there’s AI. When any new technology emerges, there’s a good chance that wealthy countries will harness its power while low-income countries are left behind. The same is true for AI – it won’t benefit poor communities unless it’s designed to.
接下来是人工智能。任何新技术出现伊始，富裕国家都最有可能先予以利用，低收入国家则被抛在后面。人工智能也是如此，除非设计时就将贫困社区考虑进去，否则它将无法惠及贫困人群。
Recently, we put out a call for proposals for researchers exploring the use of artificial intelligence to advance equity in global health and development. Nearly 80% of the proposals we received, and all the grants we selected, were from researchers in low- and middle-income countries.
最近，我们向研究人员发出了提案征集，探索利用人工智能促进全球健康和发展的公平性。我们收到的近80%的提案以及我们所有的资助对象，都是来自中低收入国家的研究人员。
They plan to use large language models to improve medical record-keeping for young women in Pakistan, provide nonjudgmental HIV counseling in South Africa, produce personalized STEM lessons on video to Nigerian schoolchildren, broadcast information about malaria risks in local languages over Tanzanian radio – and so much more.
例如，他们计划利用大型语言模型改善巴基斯坦年轻女性的病历记录；在南非提供一视同仁的艾滋病咨询服务；为尼日利亚学生制作个性化的STEM视频课程；在坦桑尼亚电台用当地语言宣传疟疾风险信息等等。
This work may still have happened without our involvement. But philanthropic support dramatically increases the likelihood that solutions will reach the people who need them, and soon.
即使没有我们的参与，这些项目可能仍会发生。但慈善的支持极大地增加了解决方案尽快惠及有需要的人的可能性。
