Nigeria, Feb. 24 -- The Gates Foundation has outlined three major ambitions it hopes to achieve over the next two decades: end preventable maternal and child deaths, eliminate deadly infectious diseases and help hundreds of millions of people escape poverty.

In his 2026 Annual Letter titled The Road to 2045, the foundation's Chief Executive Officer, Mark Suzman, said the foundation would spend $200 billion over the next 20 years before closing its doors in December 2045.

Mr Suzman described it as an accelerated push to "save and improve lives" at a time when global health progress is slowing, and foreign aid is shrinking.

"In 2025, for the first time this century, it's almost certain that more children died than the year before," Mr Su...