Money to solve the

world’s problems?
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has
announced that he will donate his fortune to
charity. But what could his $32bn achieve? We
look at some of the possibilities
Sam Jones
On 1 July, a Saudi Arabian billionaire, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, announced he
would donate his $32bn fortune to charity over the coming years. The decision, he
said, had been motivated by his life-long commitment to helping to build a “more
peaceful, equitable and sustainable world for generations to come”. If the money
were split equally among the eight programmes the prince suggested – with
$4bn going to each – what might it achieve? Here are some of the options.
1 ...................................................................
A $4bn investment would buy 600km of standard gauge railway between Nairobi
and Mombasa. Alternatively, it would cover two 600 megawatt hydropower
stations on the Nile in Uganda.
The full $32bn, meanwhile, could take energy supplies to more than half the
places off the grid in Africa (source: Overseas Development Institute).

2 ...................................................................
A $4bn windfall would go about 80% of the way to ensuring every person in the
Democratic Republic of Congo – one of the poorest countries on the planet – has
access to basic services such as health and education (source:
ONE Campaign). The same sum would cover the funding gap for essential health
and education services for everyone in Tanzania, Zambia and Liberia (source: ONE
Campaign).
3 ...................................................................
$4bn would cover the total bill to help the Syrian refugees who have fled to nearby
countries, providing essentials like clean water, adequate shelter and food
assistance (source: Oxfam). A $4bn injection would fully fund roughly 20% of the
current worldwide humanitarian needs. Or, more specifically, it would just about
cover the gap in funding for the entire Syrian regional refugee response and the
funding gap on South Sudan combined (source: Care International). The same
sum would almost cover the funding gap for 12 other ongoing humanitarian crises
around the world (source: Care International).
4 ..................................................................
With support worth $4bn, the 58 million children left behind by the Millennium
Development Goal on education would be able to go to primary school (source:
Care International). Just $500,000 could enable 1,000 schools in Pakistan to use
the latest technology to plan, prepare and manage against the risk of
attacks, enabling children to attend school more safely. The sum would cover the
creation of school safety strategies using analytical software and working with
communities to implement them (source: UNICEF).
A $1,000,000 investment would enable 10,000 nomadic children in Eritrea to go to
school. This could include establishing new nomadic learning centres, expanding
existing ones and training teachers to enable the most marginalized children to
access their right to a quality education for the long term (source:
UNICEF). $3.2bn would feed the 66 million school-aged children who go hungry.
Being well nourished
would give poorer children a far greater chance of getting an education and
bringing themselves out of poverty through better-paid work (source: Oxfam).
5 ...................................................................
For $4bn, more than 12 million people could be provided with antiretroviral drugs
– more than the total number of people living with HIV/Aids across the least
developed countries. Alternatively, the money would pay for 190 million children to
be fully vaccinated, saving more than six million lives (source: ONE Campaign).
6 ...................................................................
Spending $4bn on water and sanitation services would go a long way to relieving a
health crisis that kills 1,400 children every day (source: WaterAid). A $4bn
investment would also build 666m basic pit latrines or 111m improved latrines –
which include a ventilation pipe and mesh to reduce odours – to serve 555 million
people (source: WaterAid) With $4bn, it would also be possible to reach as many
as 167 million of the 179 million people living in the 17 countries worst off
for access to clean water. Assuming there were no other obstacles, that means
every person currently living without clean water in Angola, Chad, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Haiti, Madagascar,
Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Tanzania and Papua New Guinea (source:
WaterAid).
7 ...................................................................
Given that the median income of women’s rights organizations worldwide is
$20,000 a year, $4bn would fund 10,000 women’s rights organizations for 20 years
(source: Mama Cash).
8 ...................................................................
A $4bn injection would buy a four-year supply of the World Health Organization
recommended vaccines for use in 73 countries (source: Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance).