Having retired from his day-to-day role as a Microsoft Chairman at the end of June 2008, Bill Gates is now focusing almost exclusively on the philanthropic work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. However, because the ties with Microsoft have not been severed, the company is also involved in initiatives designed to bring information and communication technology to the next five billion people. Microsoft's perspective is that ITC can provide solutions to delivering the most basic necessities including food and water, but also sanitation and health care.
 

In this regard, Cheick Diarra, Microsoft’s chairman for Africa, will attend two events focused on how technology can help the developing world evolve. One is the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting between September 23-26 in New York, with Microsoft as a co-sponsor, and the other is the United Nations (UN) on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
 

"We are at the cusp of a transformation here in Africa," Diarra explained. "We are witnessing how investment, development and technology are helping to harness Africa’s abundant human capital, and helping create an environment in which rural and urban communities can realize their potential."
 

Tomorrow, September 25, Bill Gates, as co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will deliver a session at the United Nations on the Millennium Development Goals. Diarra, present at both events, will stress the need for a technology investment in Africa, from education, to the infrastructure, to building businesses and to catalyzing local innovation.
 

"But to realize the potential of the broad range of technologies – mobile phones, computers, software and the Internet – resources must be matched by resourcefulness," Diarra added. "The most constructive applications of technology will be the ones that are combined with initiatives by government leaders, educators and entrepreneurs."