A French Bill Gates-like Philanthropist?

In January 2010, Bill and Melinda Gates announced that their foundation will devote ten billion dollars over the next ten years to the development and distribution of vaccines to children in developing countries. This sum is on top of the 4.5 billion U.S. dollars given by the foundation in the past ten years. What’s more, Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, has played a major role in the creation of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), a public-private partnership. It is estimated that 2.4 million child deaths are prevented each year by vaccinations recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) against tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, and hepatitis B.

In June 2010, Melinda Gates announced that the foundation will invest $1.5 billion between 2010 and 2014 to support innovative projects in family planning, nutrition, maternal and neo-natal care, and child health care.

The Gates Foundation has engaged hundreds of millions of dollars in the fight against malaria, tuberculosis and in AIDS prevention and treatment programs in India and Africa. Concerning the WHO program for the eradication of polio, the foundation has accorded 355 million dollars to the Rotary Foundation’s International PolioPlus and 150 million to UNICEF and WHO in the same field. The foundation’s current endowment is 35.2 billion dollars – the WHO’s 2008-2009 budget was 4.2 billion dollars.

On the 2008 list of the world’s largest fortunes, Bill Gates was on top, with 31 billion euros, followed by Warren Buffet with 29 billion.

Other American foundations, less ambitious than the Gates Foundation, are just as interested in global health. The Rockefeller Foundation, founded in 1913 by the petroleum magnate John D. Rockefeller, has organized campaigns in numerous countries against hookworm, malaria, and yellow fever. It contributed to the development of a yellow fever vaccine in 1937. It has spent more than 25 million dollars to develop schools of public health in 21 countries. It has launched a Disease Surveillance Networks Initiative by investing more than 20 million dollars to strengthen regional networks, as well as a program for an emerging diseases surveillance program in the Mekong region. Its endowment was at 4.7 billion dollars in 2007.

The Ford Foundation was founded in 1936 by an initial donation from Edsel Ford, whose father, Henry, created the Ford Motor Company. The Foundation’s activities cover a vast domain — world peace, a global legal and justice system, liberty and democracy, economy and education — as well as research and reproductive health programs for adolescents. In 2006, the Foundation launched an initiative of 45 million dollars over five years, based on twenty years of local partnerships for AIDS prevention, support, and treatment. In particular, this global program targets NGOs. The Foundation’s assets were at 10.2 billion dollars in 2009. The Rotary Foundation, based in Evanston, Illinois, centralizes the contributions of Rotarians worldwide (1.2 million dollars). Through its PolioPlus program, it has contributed $633 million to the WHO Polio Eradication Initiative since 1985. Rotarians contribute to vaccination campaigns from numerous countries. The Rotary Foundation’s and Rotary International’s financial assets were around 800 million dollars in 2008.

Some American pharmaceutical companies have also proved their generosity in the area of public health: Merck & Co., Inc. has donated the drug ivermectin to WHO programs fighting river blindness.

What are French philanthropists doing?

Some observers note a rise in French philanthropic action, though extremely modest when compared to the American figures, and, with some exceptions, have little interest in public health.

The French created Doctors of the World and Doctors Without Borders and many French people finance and/or participate in national and international humanitarian organizations. Some French pharmaceutical industries participate in international actions fighting contagious diseases. For example, in ten years of partnership in Africa, Sanofi Pasteur made a donation of 120 million doses of polio vaccines. The Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, created in 1987 by Lilian Bettencourt and her family in memory of her father Eugène Schueller, founder of l’Oréal, works in scientific research, culture, and arts, but at the same time also in the humanitarian field in the fight against AIDS. Its funds were at 120 million euros in 2009. The programs of the Association François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB International), established in 1989 by Albina du Boisrouvray, focus on minimizing the consequences of AIDS by supporting orphans and vulnerable children affected by this disease worldwide. FXB gets its support from numerous donors and partners. Its budget was 9.6 million dollars in 2009.

Many new foundations created by patrons of the arts devote themselves exclusively to art: Antoine de Galbert, of the Carrefour group, Alain-Dominique Perrin, of Cartier, Bernard Arnault, of LVMH.

But why are these patrons of the arts and other fabulously wealthy patrons not the “Bill Gates” of France? Why do they ignore the immense health needs of the populations of poor countries? Why do they neglect humanitarian causes?

Some Reasons

In contrast to the American philanthropic tradition of altruism for the common good and of American private aid to global causes for the benefit of poor countries, the French socialist state is to blame; the welfare state that neglects, suspects, or rejects the private efforts of philanthropy or of “charity”; the “public” must do everything, the “private” must deal with neither health nor education, associations must deal with the burden of cumbersome procedures, thus the number of foundations in France is the lowest of all Europe according to Pierre Buhler in “The Non-Profit Sector in the U.S. and France: A Compared Analysis” (IFRI 2003).

These reasons are not good enough for French millionaires and billionaires, great French industrialists and financiers to establish international foundations on the current American and French model — that of financing the fight against diseases of populations in poor countries. A departure from this pattern would be beneficial for these populations — it would be good both for their own development and reputation and for French prestige, as seen through the creation of the French Doctors movement and its humanitarian efforts.

Yves Beigbeder, former international official