'The 800 pound gorilla': the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the GAVI Alliance and philanthropy in international public policy

The July 2006 announcement by investor Warren Buffett that he was to donate the vast bulk of his assets, primarily held in Berkshire Hathaway equities, to the foundation of the world’s richest man, Bill Gates, was met with widespread acclaim in the world’s media, by business and political leaders, and sections of the global development community. However while this marked a (contemporary) watershed in philanthropic giving it also highlighted an enduring oversight in international relations (IR) scholarship, namely a relative paucity of analysis of philanthropic foundations.1 While some media commentators appear to have overstated the importance of the Gates/Buffett partnership, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, it nonetheless holds significance not least because of the size of the combined endowment ($60 billion) and the volume of anticipated annual grants ($3 billion) (Okie 2006, 1084). The Gates Foundation’s annual outlays now surpass, or are equal to, the Official Development Assistance (ODA) transfers of ten of the twenty-two OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members, and all non-DAC OECD states (DAC 2007). When debt relief is removed from the dataset, and the anticipated rise that will gradually follow the Buffett ‘gift’ is factored in, the Foundation climbs the league table considerably and emerges as one of the most significant contributors of development assistance2 via a combination of direct grants to, and partnerships with, a range of international organisations (IOs), research institutes and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). [Introduction]