If you would like to receive email notices of new posts on this blog or to contact the Gates Keepers, send an email to Gates.Keepers.blog [at] gmail [dot] com.   more »

Nobel Prizewinning MSF has its concerns about Gates Foundation-supported Advance Market Commitments.   more »

Sean and Holden, two of mainstream philanthropy's most prolix bloggers, think that people giving to the Gates Foundation is "direct evidence of individual donors' increasing interest in impact." How would they know without asking or polling those donors? Are they perhaps projecting their views?   more »

At the Gates Foundation this woman learned "the due diligence of grants and grant writing. The government side of philanthropy. The political side. The grassroots side. She learn about tax and legal implications and the policy intricacies of policy ... ". Thrilling.   more »

Here is a book review of a biography of one of the four board members of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.   more »

The Seattle Times is becoming the mainstream media leader for stories about the Gates Foundation. Here Sandi Doughton takes a look at the health summits taking place in the Foundation's backyard.   more »

Gates Keepers wonder whether Bishop Green's lack of surprise is a form of admission that are too soft on Bill. Perhaps they will be more critical in future now that he is clearly at the helm of the Foundation and ready to rule.   more »

This is amusing.   more »

Some agree with the Lancet papers.   more »

Conspiracies abound among some critics of the Gates Foundation.   more »

Cascadia bloggers are among the most trenchant in their analysis of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Here is Philippe.   more »

When Heim and Doughton posted this piece on the Lancet papers there were forty-five comments. They make for interesting reading ...   more »

Listen to Bishop and Green or read the interview below.   more »

"The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plays by their own rules. Philanthropists, in general, pretend they can do no harm, cannot be wrong, simply cannot - dare we say - fail. Do not question the oligarchs: they sit on their gold-plated thrones high above the realm of criticism, critique, or accountability. In a very real sense, they're above democracy. "   more »

This finely edited article in a DfID publication is more analytically critical of the Gates Foundation (and Bill) than much of what has been written by Bishop / Green.   more »

Here is a view from India on the activities of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.   more »

Looking for the Black Swan is one Gates Foundation idea that Gates Keepers supports.   more »

Gates Keepers think there is more to this article but it is behind a paywall.   more »

The article is called How Bill Gates Blew $258 million in India's HIV Corridor. --- Now that Avahan is almost over it is time to take a long objective look at its successes and failures. Will this be done or will the evaluation of Avahan become a public relations exercise by Alexander et al?   more »

More secret meetings. So the public is not invited to see Paul Farmer? Imagine restricting access to a talk by Mother Theresa. Isn't Paul Farmer a global public good?   more »

What a great idea. Maybe the Gates Foundation could import some temple dancers from India to entertain and some Africans to prepare the food.   more »

The Gates Foundation says it was wrong to choose small schools as a quick and easy technological solution for America's educational woes. This blogger says they work. Huh?   more »

Alison Fine is a well respected voice in the field of philanthropy.   more »

A couple of Gates Keepers have read Philanthrocapitalism. It is extremely well written. One can read it is easily as a magazine. And it is a helpful introduction to those who need a rapid introduction to big philanthropy. Congratulations to the authors for trying to kick start discussion on the new big money philanthropy.   more »

Harper's has an analysis piece this month on P4P. It is not optimistic about the Gates Foundation's initiative. Attached.   more »

Here is a recording of David McCoy and Matthew Bishop with a few comments from Richard Horton. They discuss but do not quite debate the contribution of the Gates Foundation to health. They agree on the need for greater transparency and a form of accountability for the Foundation. Who will 'write' the new social contract between the Gates Foundation and the rest of us? Do we trust the Gates Foundation to do it or do we have to become more vocal about what our terms of the contract are?   more »

Jeff Raikes' letter is the only information, apart from the well-known $3 bn grant figure in the financials, that is of interest to those of us who are interested in how the Foundation conducts their affairs. Someone has written it very well for him. --- We are not surprised that almost all of the Foundation staff are proud of what the foundation stands for. What is fascinating is that some are not. And that staff say it is difficult to get things done there. Any staff who contact Gates Keepers about what they are not proud of at the Foundation and the difficulties of their work there can be assured that their information will be used anonymously.--- Why listen to grantees or beneficiaries when you already have the 'best and the brightest' on advisory panels and staff? Will the Grantee Perception Reports be posted on the web? Are there any other initiatives to address the Foundation's problems with 'partners'? --- How is the relationship between the CEO and the Board?   more »

In this video Geoffrey Lamb appears to accuse his own employer, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, of relying on magic bullets to fix the 'problem of development'. Hmm.   more »

Did the small schools experiment of the Gates Foundation do harm? You decide ...   more »

It will be fascinating to compare several of the blog reports on this debate on the Gates Foundation and then listen to the podcast to hear for ourselves what really happened.   more »

Instead of a fluff piece it would be good to publish Raikes' thoughts on any harm done by the Gates Foundation experiments in education.   more »

A college student can develop her own critical analysis of the activities of the Gates Foundation after hearing staff member Haven Ley speak.   more »

Bill and Melinda believe that their star power will lead to leveraging of resources and more action on the problems they choose. What happens when they screw up?   more »

Gates Keepers have been fascinated by the speculation about what went on at the private meeting on May 5. Leave it to Patty Stonesifer to be direct. The only reason it wasn't more public was that it was private. Got it.   more »

Gates Keepers echo the call by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green for the World Philanthropy Cabinet to hold a press conference after their next meeting. What have they got to hide?   more »

Praising the new administration's global health budget may be premature.   more »

If prizes are important, this one is well deserved.   more »

More comment on the secret meeting --- ""We can have a democratic society or we may have the concentration of great wealth in the hands of the few. We cannot have both.""   more »

Gates Keepers need to refresh their memories sometimes. Amy Goodman on Bills Gate ---   more »

Reginald Dwight says “We are not endowed like the Ford Foundation or the Gates Foundation,”. Gates Keepers assume he is talking about a financial endowment.   more »

Is this the kind of transparency we are looking for? Nope.   more »

About those African think tank grants announced by the Gates Foundation over a week ago? Here is an anonymous comment on them received by the Gates Keepers ---   more »

Now THIS is the kind of research that may (or may not) save lives - searching through lists of orphaned drugs to look for effects on the bowel. Why only Roche?   more »

In developing a critical analysis of the activities of the Gates Foundation it is helpful to get to know the board members 'in their own words'.   more »

Interesting choice. Work with either would be concerned with governance.   more »

A profile of a Foundation staffer ---   more »

A former Gates Foundation consultant on accountability gets a bit defensive on her blog. She does not appear to have read all three of the Lancet pieces as she addresses the issues raised in only one of them. And Ms Schneider has signed a confidentiality agreement with the Gates Foundation so she can contribute little of substance to the debate. But her framing of the process questions is interesting.   more »

Here is one way for a business to survive the financial crisis - become a Gatelet.   more »

One wonders whether an audience with the Holy Father was on Melinda's itinerary. Or Bill's.   more »

This is the third and final piece on the Gates Foundation from last week's Lancet. The authors make four implementable recommendations. --- For all the Gatesblather about rotavirus, little has been done.   more »

The anonymous opinion editorial writer for the Lancet and the Gates Keepers have several thoughts in common. The five recommendations to the Foundation that the editorial staff of the world's leading medical journal make are ---   more »

All grants have equal value. The Gates Foundation decision to make all grants $100,000 defies logic. Some grants could have been more, some less. Important discoveries may be missed because a grant is not $150,000.   more »

The brave souls who criticise the Gates Foundation in today's Lancet state: "The findings of this report raise several questions about the foundation's global health grant-making programme, which needs further research and assessment." --- Read every word.   more »

Consulting for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Hartford Public School District and the University of Florida earned Cecilia Rouse more than $80,000. Nice work if you can get it.   more »

To a hammer, everything is a nail. To the Gates Foundation, everything needs technology. An interesting analysis of what is needed around the edges ---   more »

The Times of India does a book review before they read the book.   more »

Congratulations to Kristi Heim of the Seattle Times Business of Giving blog for asking Bill Senior two tough questions. He dismisses one and tries to answer the other. ---   more »

Psychologists and psychiatrists rejoice. There is a lot of material here.   more »

Couldn't Amazon open a philanthropy service above a pizza parlour?   more »

A short but informative interview with the Boss at the Gates Foundation was published in the Rotary magazine The Rotarian. A quote: "The Rotarian: Do you and Melinda personally make all the major decisions at the Gates Foundation? Gates: Yes." That much is clear.   more »

In an interview in the Chronicle of Philanthropy Bill Gates Senior "declined to comment about this and other criticisms - such as complaints about a lack on openness in the Foundation's grant-making". But we will not know all that is in the interview as it is behind a paywall on the Chronicle website. Here is what we can read ---   more »

Gates Keepers' Vietnamese friends find this grant amusing. There are almost no public libraries in Vietnam and there are no plans to build any. Internet cafes are everywhere. Those that need to use the internet already do so, even in rural Nghe An.   more »

PBS is sponsored by the Gates Foundation to publish the Global Health Watch website. Interesting that the name of this site has been appropriated from Global Health Watch, a civil society initiative. Hmmm.   more »

Here is a Nigerian view of the Gates Foundation support for polio immunisation.   more »

Gates Keepers enjoy the comments on the Seattle Times website ---   more »

One rarely sees so many exclamation marks in a Global Health Policy blog posting! Rachel must, like, be really impressed with the Gates Foundation! Could that be because her organisation is funded by the Gates Foundation? There is no disclosure statement!   more »

Wouldn't it avoid a conflict of interest for the Gates Foundation to produce this material and post it on their website directly rather than paying Public Radio to do it? How could Public Radio possibly produce an objective analysis of the response to malarial resistance in Cambodia if they cannot even indirectly criticise the Foundation's grant? If the Foundation grant made malaria worse, could PRI report it?   more »

Patty Stonesifer, formerly of the Gates Foundation, is on the board of stingy Amazon.   more »

With this grant the Gates Foundation hopes it can keep jobs in America ... huh?   more »

Here someone knows someone who knows someone at the Foundation ...   more »

Gates Keepers thinks embedded positive social messages in television are better than the usual negative ones. But is this news? Why does one need to meet a TV CEO or make a grant to do this? Autism Speaks or the Organ and Tissue Donation Initiative could demand to meet a TV executive and get the same outcome. --- One wonders what the embedded HIV message was in "America's Top Model"   more »

Every once in a while this issue raises its ugly head. These are also civil society voices about the activities of the Gates Foundation. The Gates Keepers disagree with them but they need to be heard.   more »

Whoa, if the Gates Foundation is looking for an difficult health care system implementation challenge then it couldn't do any better than choosing Pakistan.   more »

The Philanthropy Theme Park opening is just a year away. And the Gates Foundation is keeping the construction contracts in Cascadia ---   more »

It is best to let this blogger use their own words to describe the BIG grants that the Gates Foundation is making in Africa for tobacco control. We need blogs like this one in more fields. --- http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/africa/   more »

Melinda's sexy photo in Vogue is gone ... for some of us.   more »

It sounds like Bill has been reading Paul Collier. At 38 minutes in this talk he talks about the "top two billion".   more »

Although she is Zambian and has an economics background, most players in the field of development do not find many good things to say about Moyo. Here she appears to suggest that the Gates Foundation fund a slum cleanup in Nairobi. Huh?   more »

Here is an interesting pilot project.   more »

Several new Obama administration education appointees have Gates connections. And we are not talking Robert Gates.   more »

Now Holden is not always known to be a trustworthy fellow but he does on occasion write something of value. Here he notes that not enough thinking has been done about how to increase agricultural activity in Africa. To a hammer, everything is a nail. To a rich technophile looking to give away money and technology, everything needs money and technology.   more »

This article goes even further than usual in analysing the local hero Foundation.   more »

Vietnam has an immunisation system that is consistently praised by Bill and Melinda. Hmmm.   more »

Citizens and professionals with an interest in education are leading the rest of the world in developing a critical analysis of the activities of the Gates Foundation. Take a look at this original article for the fascinating links.   more »

Peter Piot is winding up a stint at the Gates Foundation before he takes up his new job at Imperial College London. His new employer just received a large Gates Foundation grant for rapid test development.   more »

Here Patty Stonesifer and her daughter tell one how to politely turn down a grant application. It is a lot easier to tell what makes Patty tick now that she has left the secretive atmosphere of the Gates Foundation.   more »

Was the Salon headline a typo or is the Gates Foundation one of humanity's greatest problems?   more »

Pablo Eisenberg is being exquisitely polite in his critique of accountability at the Gates Foundation. One hopes the Foundation leaders listen to him. But Gates Keepers doubt they will. ... One has to wonder how long the now unique Seattle newspaper will be able to publish editorials like this and the Business of Giving blog. The paper must be under pressure from the Foundation to curb the criticism.   more »

Ever been to a church service where people applaud? That is what this reminds me of. Bill Senior introduces Bill Junior as the world's biggest philanthropist.   more »

This malaria blog turned one year old recently. It is a good one.   more »

Gates Keepers thinks that civil society voices are more often raised about the Gates Foundation forays into education than into global health. They are the loud voices of lucky Americans who don't like rich, poorly-educated amateurs messing around with their schools or their kids' schools. Developing country beneficiaries are not so lucky.   more »

Bill Gates was said to have said about global warming: "We don't think about it." Now some are waking up to the fact that the Foundation is asleep on this issue.   more »

Here is a posting from an edublog inviting the head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to visit ---   more »

This scientist's intro says that he conducts research on HIV vaccine discovery for the Gates Foundation. Gates Keepers think he probably does it for himself and his institution or even for humanity rather than for the Gates Foundation. Or does he?   more »

Is this the same Imperial College where Peter Piot, now at the Gates Foundation, is going to this spring?   more »

Three weeks ago Bill Easterly caused a blogstorm by accusing the Gates Foundation of using poor data to trumpet success. A major malaria media project run by the Kaiser Family Foundation gave NO mention of the controversy.   more »

One of the Gates Foundation's prime Seattle beneficiaries is PATH. Read all about it here. A sixfold growth in budget in nine years must be hard to adapt to. As they don't have to fundraise, has PATH become 'soft'?   more »

The green roof over the SUVs of Gates Foundation employees is Seattle's second largest ...   more »

In the post yesterday the Gates Keepers did not give credit to the Oakland Institute and Food First for their efforts in monitoring the Gates Foundation efforts in AGRA. Apologies and kudos to them both.   more »

Gates Keepers often wonders aloud why there are so few watchdogs concerned with the Gates Foundation. One issue-specific watchdog has recently come to their attention: AGRA Watch is a watchdog for the Gates-sponsored Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).   more »