下麵，摘選了比爾蓋茨夫婦今年給沃倫巴菲特Valentine's Love Letter中的幾個要點。
這封信回顧了蓋茨基金會10年的工作，許多觀點和作法值得關注。非營利組織的經營和管理，是一個非常有意思的話題。小標題是我加的，為了避免歧義，補上英文原文。
(中文譯稿括號裏的文字，在英文稿中是手寫體的旁白，沒有貼出。)
1. 尋找工作的核心：“降低兒童死亡率”
梅琳達：正是拯救兒童生命這一目標開啟了我們的全球工作。雖然拯救兒童生命本身就是目的，但我們之後了解到這樣做也能帶來其他方麵的好處。如果父母堅信他們的孩子能夠存活——如果他們有能力計劃懷孕時間和安排懷孕間隔——那麽他們就會選擇少生孩子。
Melinda: Saving children’s lives is the goal that launched our global work. It’s an end in itself. But then we learned it has all these other benefits as well. If parents believe their children will survive—and if they have the power to time and space their pregnancies—they choose to have fewer children.
比爾：當一位母親可以選擇生育孩子的數量時，她的子女就會更健康，獲得更多營養，心智能力也會更高——父母也會有更多的時間和財力花在每位子女的健康和學業方麵。這樣家庭和國家才能脫貧。挽救生命、更低的出生率和終結貧困之間的這種關係是我和梅琳達在全球健康方麵所獲得的最重要的一個早期經驗。
Bill: When a mother can choose how many children to have, her children are healthier, they’re better nourished, their mental capacities are higher—and parents have more time and money to spend on each child’s health and schooling. That’s how families and countries get out of poverty. This link between saving lives, a lower birthrate, and ending poverty was the most important early lesson Melinda and I learned about global health.
梅琳達：這也是為什麽降低兒童死亡率是我們工作的核心。基本上所有社會進步——營養、教育、避孕藥具的普及、性別平等、經濟增長——都會使得兒童死亡率圖表中的數據取得進步，而每一點這樣的進步也體現出社會的進步。
Melinda: This is why reducing childhood mortality is the heart of the work for us. Virtually all advances in society—nutrition, education, access to contraceptives, gender equity, economic growth—show up as gains in the childhood mortality chart, and every gain in this chart shows up in gains for society.
2. 尋找最經濟方法：“細分這筆生意，其中最劃算的當屬疫苗”
梅琳達：如果我們細分這筆生意，其中最劃算的當屬疫苗。目前兒童基本疫苗的覆蓋率達到曆史最高水平——86%，並且最富裕國家和最貧窮國家之間的差距為曆史最低水平。兒童死亡人數下降最大的原因就是疫苗。
Melinda: And if you want to know the best deal within the deal—it’s vaccines. Coverage for the basic package of childhood vaccines is now the highest it’s ever been, at 86 percent. And the gap between the richest and the poorest countries is the lowest it’s ever been. Vaccines are the biggest reason for the drop in childhood deaths.
3. 尋求最佳解決方案：“與企業和政府攜手，一同設立全球疫苗免疫聯盟”
比爾：窮人孩子想要獲得疫苗，市場起不了作用，因為他們的家庭無法負擔相應費用。但這一點讓我們的工作有了一個切入口。如果我們能夠建立一個購買基金讓製藥公司擁有足夠多的客戶，那麽這些公司就會因為市場激勵的存在來研製、生產疫苗。
Bill: The market wasn’t working for vaccines for poor kids because the families who needed them couldn’t afford them. But this gave us an opening. If we could create a purchasing fund so pharmaceutical companies would have enough customers, they’d have the market incentives to develop and produce vaccines.
比爾：因此我們與企業和政府攜手，一同設立全球疫苗免疫聯盟，旨在向全世界每一個兒童提供疫苗。該聯盟將負責研發疫苗的公司、負責提供資金的富裕政府以及負責將疫苗送到大眾手中的發展中國家進行接洽。自2000年起，該聯盟已經幫助全球範圍內5.8億名兒童接種疫苗。美國是該聯盟最大的捐助國，其他捐助國有英國、挪威、德國、法國和加拿大等國。這是富裕國家對世界其他地區所做出的最偉大的貢獻之一。
Bill: That led us to partner with business and government to set up Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, with the goal of getting vaccines to every child in the world. Gavi connects companies who develop vaccines with wealthy governments that help with funding and developing countries that get the vaccines to their people. Since 2000, Gavi has helped immunize 580 million children around the world. The United States is a major donor to Gavi—with bipartisan support—along with the UK, Norway, Germany, France, and Canada. It’s one of the great things the rich world does for the rest of the world.
4. 獨辟蹊徑的脫貧思路：“避孕藥具也是史上最偉大的除貧創舉之一”
梅琳達：避孕藥具也是史上最偉大的除貧創舉之一。當婦女能夠計劃懷孕時間和安排懷孕間隔，她們就更有可能在學業方麵取得進步，獲得工資收入——那麽她們就更有可能擁有健康的子女。
Melinda: Contraceptives are also one of the greatest antipoverty innovations in history. When women are able to time and space their pregnancies, they are more likely to advance their education and earn an income—and they’re more likely to have healthy children.
比爾：她們孩子的數量也更有可能控製在她們的撫養能力範圍以內。這會減輕政府公共服務的負擔，讓更多的女性成為勞動力，政府也會有更多的資源用於兒童教育。
Bill: They are also more likely to have a number of children they can support. This leads to fewer dependents that need government services, a growing workforce that includes more women, and more resources for sending children to school.
5.社會變革的來源：“社會的變革源於人們之間的交流”
（這一點很有意思，女性8掛，一不小心也會產生變革的）
比爾：梅琳達和我一次又一次地發現社會的變革源於人們之間的交流——這正是女性團體的神奇之處。如果你去一個村裏觀察，很難看到男性團體中的所有成員之間互相分享信息。通常情況是村裏有一位最大的領導、還有幾位服務該領導的幕僚以及一群在這幾位幕僚手下工作的人。這種等級製度扼殺了交流，讓人們無法談論真正重要的事。女性團體就沒有這種阻礙，所以她們更擅長傳播信息，推動變革。
Bill: Melinda and I have seen over and over again that social change comes when people start talking to each other—and that’s the magic of women’s groups. If you go out in the village, you’re rarely going to find a men's group where they all share information. You’ll find a big man of the village, and the key aides to the big man, and people who work for the key aides. That hierarchy stifles conversation. It keeps people from talking about what matters. Women’s groups don’t get as caught up in that, so they’re better at spreading information and driving change.
6.男女平等的功效：“性別平等可以解放男性”
比爾：當女性獲得與男性同等的機遇，家庭和社會就會欣欣向榮。性別平等無疑會釋放女性的潛能，但其實這也會釋放男性的潛能。性別平等可以解放男性，使他們能夠與女性成為平等的夥伴，從而受益於女性的才智、堅韌和創意，而不是將精力浪費在打壓女性的這些天賦上。
Bill: When women have the same opportunities as men, families and societies thrive. Obviously, gender equity unleashes women’s potential, but it also unleashes men’s potential. It frees them to work as partners with women, so they can get the benefits of a woman’s intelligence, toughness, and creativity instead of wasting their energy trying to suppress those gifts.
7.樂觀精神的重要：“樂觀造就了你的成功”
梅琳達：樂觀的心態極其可貴。我們永遠都需要更多的樂觀精神。但是樂觀不是盲目地相信明天會自然而然地變好，而是堅信我們有能力創造更美好的明天。沃倫，我們在你身上看到了這種精神。不是成功造就了你的樂觀，而是樂觀造就了你的成功。
Melinda: Optimism is a huge asset. We can always use more of it. But optimism isn’t a belief that things will automatically get better; it’s a conviction that we can make things better. We see this in you, Warren. Your success didn’t create your optimism; your optimism led to your success.
8.生態係統建立的理念
比爾：蓋茨基金會是這個生態係統的一員，但這個生態係統的範圍遠不止於此。它包括一個全球疾病數據庫，幫助國家把錢花在刀刃兒上。它引導科研資源流向可以改善窮人生活的研究；吸引科學家進入全球健康領域，鼓勵其他領域的專家將他們的發現用於抗擊感染性疾病。
Bill: This ecosystem includes our foundation, but goes far beyond it. It includes a global database on disease that helps countries spend their money where it matters most. It directs scientific capacity toward research that will make an impact in the lives of the poor. It recruits scientists to global health and gets experts in other fields to apply their findings to infectious disease.
