Ted S. Warren/AP
In 2017, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation published its first annual "Goalkeepers" report, highlighting global data to show that humanity is headed in the right direction.
The second annual report, released Tuesday, focuses on the "formidable challenge" of improving the lives of people in low-income countries, from reducing poverty to increasing access to safe sanitation, with a particular emphasis on African countries.
In Africa, a continent with rapid population growth, the number of poor people will remain the same even if the percentage of poor people is halved. On top of that, Africa is expected to nearly double in size by 2050.
By that year, two out of five extremely poor people worldwide will live in either Nigeria or Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the Gates report.
The Gates Foundation has invested more than $15 billion on projects supporting Africa in various ways.
"We believe Africa is the world's most important priority for the foreseeable future," the foundation's report said. "What happens to the large number of young people there will be the single biggest determinant of whether the world makes progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals - that is, whether life on this planet keeps getting better."
Take a look at the Gates Foundation's main areas of focus, from education and family planning to poverty reduction, and its plan for improving the world.