This week, TED 2016 is taking place in Vancouver and what better way to celebrate than to check out some of the best TED Talks ever done on the subject of ending poverty!
Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Ziaudden Yousafzai have all done TED Talks that tackle different areas of the fight to end extreme poverty.
So grab some popcorn and get ready to have your mind blown!
Bill Gates - Innovating to zero
You might know Bill Gates as the man behind Microsoft, but he is also the co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, an organization that works tirelessly to find the smartest ways to end extreme poverty. This TED talk is all about the energy that we use on a daily basis and the vital importance of finding new sources of it in order to keep the temperature of the earth stable. Gates explains that this isn’t just about protecting the planet, it’s also about the protecting the most vulnerable people around the world because they are already feeling the negative effects of climate change. While climate change is often discussed in connection to development, this is a brand new take on what we can, and must do, about it.
Ziaudden Yousafzai - My daughter, Malala
Zaiuddent Yousafzai is an education activist and the father of Malala Yousafzai, the courageous young woman who, despite being targeted and shot by the Taliban, has refused to back down in her mission to see every girl attend school, no matter where she lives. In this TED talk, Yousafzai talks about the barriers that he sees facing girls, the ones that he saw his sisters and his own daughter face, that prevent them from having equal opportunities at all stages of their lives and hold the world back. Moving and personal, this TED talk is a must watch.
Melinda Gates - What nonprofits can learn from Coca Cola
Melinda Gates, the the other co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, explains some unexpected and amazing lessons that nonprofits and governments can learn from the success of Coca Cola. Gates describes how when travelling in the developing world she realized that while communities might not have regular access to electricity, medicine or health care, but you could always find a bottle of Coca Cola. Gates shows us how lessons for ending extreme poverty can come from unexpected places, even a bottle of Coke.
Want more? You can follow the live coverage of TED 2016 all this week, check it out here. You can also watch tons of other past TED talks about development and a wide range of other subjects by visiting their website here, with content this amazing and informative, you don’t even need to feel bad about a three hour binge session.
Disclosure: Bill Gates is the co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a funding partner of Global Citizen.
Editor's note: This piece has been updated to include a disclosure that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a funding partner of Global Citizen. We regret the oversight.