下面，摘选了比尔盖茨夫妇今年给沃伦巴菲特Valentine's Love Letter中的几个要点。
这封信回顾了盖茨基金会10年的工作，许多观点和作法值得关注。非营利组织的经营和管理，是一个非常有意思的话题。小标题是我加的，为了避免歧义，补上英文原文。
(中文译稿括号里的文字，在英文稿中是手写体的旁白，没有贴出。)
1. 寻找工作的核心：“降低儿童死亡率”
梅琳达：正是拯救儿童生命这一目标开启了我们的全球工作。虽然拯救儿童生命本身就是目的，但我们之后了解到这样做也能带来其他方面的好处。如果父母坚信他们的孩子能够存活——如果他们有能力计划怀孕时间和安排怀孕间隔——那么他们就会选择少生孩子。
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.
比尔：当一位母亲可以选择生育孩子的数量时，她的子女就会更健康，获得更多营养，心智能力也会更高——父母也会有更多的时间和财力花在每位子女的健康和学业方面。这样家庭和国家才能脱贫。挽救生命、更低的出生率和终结贫困之间的这种关系是我和梅琳达在全球健康方面所获得的最重要的一个早期经验。
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.
梅琳达：这也是为什么降低儿童死亡率是我们工作的核心。基本上所有社会进步——营养、教育、避孕药具的普及、性别平等、经济增长——都会使得儿童死亡率图表中的数据取得进步，而每一点这样的进步也体现出社会的进步。
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. 寻找最经济方法：“细分这笔生意，其中最划算的当属疫苗”
梅琳达：如果我们细分这笔生意，其中最划算的当属疫苗。目前儿童基本疫苗的覆盖率达到历史最高水平——86%，并且最富裕国家和最贫穷国家之间的差距为历史最低水平。儿童死亡人数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. 寻求最佳解决方案：“与企业和政府携手，一同设立全球疫苗免疫联盟”
比尔：穷人孩子想要获得疫苗，市场起不了作用，因为他们的家庭无法负担相应费用。但这一点让我们的工作有了一个切入口。如果我们能够建立一个购买基金让制药公司拥有足够多的客户，那么这些公司就会因为市场激励的存在来研制、生产疫苗。
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.
比尔：因此我们与企业和政府携手，一同设立全球疫苗免疫联盟，旨在向全世界每一个儿童提供疫苗。该联盟将负责研发疫苗的公司、负责提供资金的富裕政府以及负责将疫苗送到大众手中的发展中国家进行接洽。自2000年起，该联盟已经帮助全球范围内5.8亿名儿童接种疫苗。美国是该联盟最大的捐助国，其他捐助国有英国、挪威、德国、法国和加拿大等国。这是富裕国家对世界其他地区所做出的最伟大的贡献之一。
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. 独辟蹊径的脱贫思路：“避孕药具也是史上最伟大的除贫创举之一”
梅琳达：避孕药具也是史上最伟大的除贫创举之一。当妇女能够计划怀孕时间和安排怀孕间隔，她们就更有可能在学业方面取得进步，获得工资收入——那么她们就更有可能拥有健康的子女。
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.
比尔：她们孩子的数量也更有可能控制在她们的抚养能力范围以内。这会减轻政府公共服务的负担，让更多的女性成为劳动力，政府也会有更多的资源用于儿童教育。
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.社会变革的来源：“社会的变革源于人们之间的交流”
（这一点很有意思，女性8挂，一不小心也会产生变革的）
比尔：梅琳达和我一次又一次地发现社会的变革源于人们之间的交流——这正是女性团体的神奇之处。如果你去一个村里观察，很难看到男性团体中的所有成员之间互相分享信息。通常情况是村里有一位最大的领导、还有几位服务该领导的幕僚以及一群在这几位幕僚手下工作的人。这种等级制度扼杀了交流，让人们无法谈论真正重要的事。女性团体就没有这种阻碍，所以她们更擅长传播信息，推动变革。
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：“性别平等可以解放男性”
比尔：当女性获得与男性同等的机遇，家庭和社会就会欣欣向荣。性别平等无疑会释放女性的潜能，但其实这也会释放男性的潜能。性别平等可以解放男性，使他们能够与女性成为平等的伙伴，从而受益于女性的才智、坚韧和创意，而不是将精力浪费在打压女性的这些天赋上。
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.乐观精神的重要：“乐观造就了你的成功”
梅琳达：乐观的心态极其可贵。我们永远都需要更多的乐观精神。但是乐观不是盲目地相信明天会自然而然地变好，而是坚信我们有能力创造更美好的明天。沃伦，我们在你身上看到了这种精神。不是成功造就了你的乐观，而是乐观造就了你的成功。
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.生态系统建立的理念
比尔：盖茨基金会是这个生态系统的一员，但这个生态系统的范围远不止于此。它包括一个全球疾病数据库，帮助国家把钱花在刀刃儿上。它引导科研资源流向可以改善穷人生活的研究；吸引科学家进入全球健康领域，鼓励其他领域的专家将他们的发现用于抗击感染性疾病。
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.
