BackBill and Melinda Gates Foundation focusing on Bihar, Uttar Pradesh
Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, explains why Bihar and Uttar Pradesh top the organization's outreach programme
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As chief executive officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Sue Desmond-Hellmann leads the Foundation’s efforts to promote equity for all people around the world. This is her third visit to India and she is excited to meet with the India country office, which is led by Nachiket Mor.
In an interview, she talks about the challenges in India, the partnership between the Indian government and the Foundation, how exciting it is to work with the Gates’s and her experience as a director on the board of directors at Facebook Inc., and Procter & Gamble. Edited excerpts:
As head of the Gates Foundation what do you see as some of the biggest challenges in India?
In India, our work started with HIV aids and that was tremendously positive. The other positive experience that the Foundation has had with collaboration is for polio that led to its eradication so the infectious diseases that are issues for people, especially poor people. HIV Aids is still a global issue but less so in India.
The eradication of polio led to bigger aspirations but clearly our focus in India is on maternal neonatal and child health, nutrition, expansion into areas of agriculture, financial services for the poor, water sanitation and hygiene but our work is also focused on the two states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (UP) in particular, because 300 million people are there. So if we are focused on equity and making the biggest impact with our partners, Bihar and UP are the obvious places for us to go.
What has been the Indian government’s stance towards the Gates Foundation?
One of the reasons we are extremely committed to India are the two states of UP and Bihar, but the other reason we have been in India and continue to be in India is the very positive interaction with government. What we do as a Foundation is that we never pick sides, we are not political because government’s change. We are careful about following the law, we are apolitical. But its also practical for us because we know there are transitions to government so we push ourselves to always be prepared to be the people who bring the data, who care about equity, health problems and that has served us well.
Our goal is that whoever is in government and is in the job, thinks of the Gates Foundation as experts who give inputs and wisdom that can help with the problems and that is a positive thing for us. We value our independence and stay above the fray of the government or politics not only in India but also in America where we are in the middle of elections. Staying above that is very important.
You also talk a lot of precision medicine. How can this be used to solve health problems in India?
I’ve challenged myself and my colleagues that if we are thinking about things like HIV Aids or Tuberculosis (TB) we need to know precisely where in India TB is the biggest problem. Let’s be more precise and more effective in making a diagnosis for TB, so we have been working, including with private providers, to make sure that they can recognize TB where it is and the most precise thing is to know where is the most resistant TB, the most serious, scary kind.
The degree to which India will benefit with more precise effective diagnosis and therapy for TB outstrips what we could accomplish with the cancer story in the US. So the more precise we are with who is affected with the disease and how we can most effectively treat them minimizing side effects and minimizing costs, as an ambition is profoundly more positive especially in low resource areas. This precision is just a fancy way of saying let’s get smart because when resources are low, you have to make the best, most precise use of it.
How is it like working with co-chairs Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett who is a trustee of the Foundation?
It’s been great. They are all so different. The thing I love about working with Bill is that he is like a walking encyclopedia you can ask him anything and he’s thought about it read about it and remembered everything so one of the things I enjoy working with him is if I’m struggling with something, or I’m thinking about a problem, it’s really fun to think through with him because he has data, facts and history.
What I love about Melinda is that she brings her passion about women and girls so directly to our work. I am a scientist so I ask about the statistics and the DNA but Melinda when she is thinking about the problems we are trying to solve will say what did that mom think, what did that mean to her, how will that affect her family, so she brings this incredible empathy and she’s also a mom so thinks in ways that are so empathetic to the human beings involved in the problems we are trying to solve that I am so inspired by what drives her passion which is that women and children have a better life in the future.
And Warren is one of the funniest people I’ve worked with. Here is this hard hitting, tough Berkshire Hathaway businessman—but every time I am around him, I can’t stop smiling because he’s so funny. When we had our first annual employee meeting—he announced that he had made up a song just for me and he gets on the stage and sings for me. And I thought who in the world is so important and so special and does that, well Warren does.
People use this funny word called ‘folksy’ I don’t know if you use that word in India. It’s kind of down to earth, humble and never forgetting your roots—Warren epitomizes that. He is just very folksy and funny.
You are also on the board of Facebook and P&G, so how is that experience?
I joined the board of Facebook more than three years ago and before I joined the board, I met Mark several times. At that time I was chancellor at the University of California, San Francisco, and I was fascinated about Facebook for medial reasons. I wanted to learn more about Facebook because I had learnt how important a social network is in behaviour change, and as an American physician I was really struggling with diseases like diabetes and obesity.
I wanted to talk to Mark about this and how he thought about social network and behaviour change. We really enjoyed meeting each other and after a while I joined the board. And I’m delighted with the experience. Mark is a great leader, it’s extraordinary at such a young age how seriously he takes being a CEO and a leader, and I also enjoy being with Sheryl Sandberg who is such a great female leader. And it is such a big contrast to working as a director at Procter & Gamble that is 175 years old and all about consumer products.
I wanted to learn at P&G about branding and marketing, something I don’t know much about, but I also learnt about integrity and company values, so both boards in their own ways have taught me a lot about management, leadership, about growth of a company, and cultures and I use those learnings everyday at the B&M Gates Foundation.
What do you think have been some of the tangible achievements of the Gates Foundation in India?
Making increments in maternal and infant health and survival has been extremely important, polio eradication in collaboration with others is another big, achievement and the third I’d mention is enormous progress in financial services for the poor what we call mobile money. There has been great progress, more to come but there is a lot of potential for people to get access to funds now.
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