Bill Gates: Private philanthropy is no match for aid from rich countries; with commitment, world can get back to pre-pandemic levels

However, Gates sees a silver lining — with committment and innovation, we can haul ourselves back to pre-pandemic levels. "We were making a lot of progress before the pandemic. And by staying committed to the aid levels and innovation, we can get back on track and resume reduction of poverty, empowerment of women, you know ...  we can't give up hope, you know, every life saved is super important. But we are way behind," Gates said.

"Well, the big money in terms of helping poor countries is from the aid budgets of the rich countries. In no way can philanthropy can make up for that generosity — philanthropy can participate, you know, in things like Polio Global Fund, the vaccine fund," he said.

Gates added, "Our foundation is right up there with some of the big European donors. We're also a big funder of the upstream innovation. So whether it's better seeds for farmers to deal with climate problems, or new vaccines for things like tuberculosis, we are a very big funder."

He says once the new vaccine is invented, or new technology is created, it doesn't require as much money upstream as the focus will be on getting it out to the world.

"Commitment, generosity, is difficult when domestic challenges like cost of electricity throughout Europe is demanding a lot more of their budget than it did before.