Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on Tuesday “announced a new initiative … for Nigeria’s Executive Governors, challenging them to deliver a dramatic improvement in polio and routine immunization by the end of 2012,” according to a Gates Foundation press release. “The program … will recognize those Executive Governors whose states pass a pre-defined threshold to improve routine immunization coverage and end polio. The states that meet the threshold criteria will be awarded a $500,000 grant from [the Gates Foundation] to support their top health priorities,” the press release states (10/4).