At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, committed $10bn over the next decade to help develop vaccines and distribute them to children in the developing world. The Wall Street Journal Europe asked then prominent philanthropists and charity executives how they would spend $10 billion to achieve the biggest and longest-lasting impact on the world's problems.

Responses ranged from stimulating job creation in developing countries to establishing a statistics office in Africa. Other ideas included the development of toilets that capture methane and use the gas as a cooking fuel, setting up a prize fund to stimulate medical research, and establishing schools in the poorest parts of the world.

Sir Ronald Cohen, founder of private equity firm Apax Partners and board member of several social finance initiatives, including Bridges Ventures and Social Finance, said he would create social investment banks. “If international consensus supports the creation of social investment banks, they can drive development of a more powerful social sector, effectively financed through social-investment markets, and capable of resolving social issues by working alongside government and the private sector,” he said.

Dame Barbara Stocking, chief executive of Oxfam GB, would spend the $10bn tackling climate change, which she describes as “the main obstacle to Oxfam's aid efforts across 90 countries”.

Meanwhile, Dr Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, would use it to discover the "next big thing”. “I would invest it in innovations that have the potential to mobilise multiple billions more,” she says.