Bill Gates Issues Annual Foundation Letter

Setting a clear goal and finding a way to measure progress toward that goal are critical to improving the human condition, Bill Gates writes in his fifth annual foundation letter with his wife, Melinda.

“Innovations in measurement are critical to finding new, effective ways to deliver these tools and services to the clinics, family farms and classrooms that need them,” Gates writes.

In the face of constrained budgets around the world, he says, governments are demanding effectiveness in the programs they pay for. “To address these demands, we need better measurement tools to determine which approaches work and which do not.”

Gates illustrates how measurement made a difference during the past year with three examples.

In Colorado, the Eagle County (where Vail is located) school district pioneered a new system to measure and promote teacher effectiveness.

Ethiopia, a poor country, pursued goals set by the United Nations, delivering better health services to the populace.

And in Nigeria, cell phones, satellites and cheap sensors enable data to be gathered and organized faster and more accurately in the campaign to eradicate polio.

“The process I have described—setting clear goals, picking the right approach, and then measuring results to get feedback and refine the approach continually—helps us to deliver tools and services to everybody who will benefit,” Gates writes. “This innovation to reduce the delivery bottleneck is critical.”

Gates concedes that any innovation—whether it’s a new vaccine or an improved seed—can’t have an impact unless it reaches the people who will benefit from it.