The Atlantic: We Need a More Targeted Approach to Combatting Global Inequality
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and Melinda Gates, both co-founders and co-chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

“…When you start to understand global inequality at the local level, it changes how you think about interventions. … The key is identifying those in need, analyzing how to help, and delivering solutions directly to them. And a few governments around the world are starting to experiment with doing just that. … All these targeted efforts rely on data, and that’s why the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invests so much in data — collecting more of them, analyzing them in more sophisticated ways, and sharing findings with leaders and advocates who need to understand them. … This new trove of health and education data makes us both more impatient and more optimistic. We’re more optimistic because we see a clear path to eliminating inequality — and more impatient because more countries, including our own, need to follow it” (9/17).