Theyab bin Mohamed, Bill Gates discuss accelerating development

The meeting was attended by Mariam Almheiri, Head of the International Affairs Office at the Presidential Court and Member of the International Philanthropic and Humanitarian Council.

His Highness and Gates reviewed the progress of joint initiatives between the UAE and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in global health and agriculture and discussed the potential of AI to speed advances against broader development challenges in health, education, and food systems.

The two sides also explored ways to strengthen their efforts to uplift lives and livelihoods globally, including by combating preventable diseases such as polio and neglected tropical diseases.

President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has made significant contributions to global efforts to end polio since 2011, including funding the urgent polio vaccination campaign held in Gaza during September and October.

Sheikh Theyab bin Mohamed and Gates also discussed achievements made by landmark initiatives announced at COP28, which are supported by the UAE and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

These include the Reaching the Last Mile Fund, a donor collaborative first established in 2017 by President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed to target two neglected tropical diseases – onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis – in Africa.

At COP28, the Fund was expanded from US$100 million to a target US$500 million, with the ambitious goal of eliminating both diseases from the entire continent of Africa.

The conversation also emphasised the progress made by the UAE-Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Partnership on Innovation in Agriculture, which seeks to accelerate action on climate and strengthen global food systems.

Since its launch, the partnership has supported several priority projects for both the UAE and the Gates Foundation, harnessing the power of AI and technology to address agriculture and food system challenges and support millions of farmers in the face of climate change.

Investments include the CGIAR AI Hub and AgrilLLM, which is exploring the use of large language models to provide AI-based extension services as a public good to smallholder farmers in low-and-middle income countries.

A further project is the Red Palm Weevil Consortium, which will create an alliance of international organisations, governments, private sector, and local stakeholders to sustainably minimise the significant threat to palm trees that the red palm weevil poses worldwide.

Gates reflected on the decade-long collaboration between his foundation and the UAE and lauded the UAE’s profound dedication to improving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable.