Recent projections indicate that 40 million more children will suffer the worst effects of hunger by 2050 because of climate change. But immediate action could instead improve health and boost economic growth.
SEATTLE, USA, September 18, 2024 -/African Media Agency(AMA)/- In its eighth annual Goalkeepers report released today, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation urged world leaders to increase global health spending where it is needed most to improve children’s health and nutrition, especially in the face of the global climate crisis.
Goalkeepers’ report, “The Race to Feed a Warming World,” predicts that without immediate global action, climate change will condemn an additional 40 million children to stunting and 28 million to wasting between 2024 and 2050. Implementing solutions at scale now can prevent this from happening, while building climate resilience and spurring much-needed economic growth.
By 2023, the World Health Organization estimates that 148 million children will be stunted, preventing them from reaching their full mental or physical potential. It also estimates that 45 million children will suffer from wasting, a condition in which children become weak and emaciated, putting them at much higher risk of developmental delay and death. These are the most severe and irreversible forms of chronic and acute malnutrition.
At the same time, as global challenges intensify, the total share of foreign aid going to Africa has declined. In 2010, 40% of foreign aid went to African countries. Today, that figure is just 25%—the lowest in 20 years—while more than half of child deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. This trend puts hundreds of millions of children at serious risk of death or preventable disease and threatens the unprecedented progress the world made in global health in Africa between 2000 and 2020.
“Today, the world faces more challenges than at any time in my adult life: inflation, debt, new wars. Unfortunately, aid is not keeping pace with these needs, especially in the regions that need it most,” wrote Bill Gates, author of the report and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “I believe we can breathe new life into global health, even in a world where competing challenges are forcing governments to tighten their budgets.”
According to Mr. Gates, malnutrition is “the world’s worst child health crisis,” and climate change is only making it worse. In the face of this crisis, Mr. Gates calls for sustained funding for global health, an immediate response to the growing threat of child malnutrition by supporting the Child Nutrition Fund, a new platform that coordinates donor funding for nutrition, and full government funding for established institutions that have proven effective in protecting millions of lives each year. These institutions include Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which is due for its next replenishment in 2025, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which is also due for its replenishment next year.
“If we do these three things, we will not only usher in a new era of global health and save millions of lives, we will also prove that humanity is still capable of tackling its greatest challenges,” Gates writes.
The report also highlights the catastrophic economic costs of malnutrition and presents solutions that can help mitigate them. According to the World Bank, the cost of undernutrition is $3 trillion in lost productivity each year, as malnutrition weakens people’s physical and cognitive abilities. In low-income countries, this loss ranges from 3 to 16 percent (or more) of GDP, equivalent to a permanent global recession at 2008 levels each year.
Proven tools exist today
“The best way to combat the effects of climate change is to invest in nutrition… Malnutrition makes every step forward that our species wants to take heavier and harder,” Gates writes. “But the reverse is also true. If we solve malnutrition, we help solve every other problem. We solve extreme poverty. Vaccines are more effective. And deadly diseases like malaria and pneumonia become much less deadly.”
The report highlights proven tools that help address malnutrition, build resilience to the worst impacts of climate change, and reduce child mortality. These tools include:
New agricultural technologies that produce up to two to three times more milk and safer milk, helping to prevent millions of cases of stunted growth in children by 2050.
Modeling shows that in India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania, these technologies can prevent 109 million cases of child stunting by 2050.
Efforts to develop new methods of fortifying staple foods such as salt and broth could reduce millions of cases of anemia and prevent deaths from neural tube defects.
In Ethiopia, a new process for fortifying salt with iodine and folic acid could lead to a 4% reduction in anemia rates and eliminate up to 75% of deaths and stillbirths due to neural tube defects.
In Nigeria, fortifying bouillon cubes with iron, folic acid, zinc and vitamin B12 could prevent up to 16.6 million cases of anemia and up to 11,000 deaths from neural tube defects.
Efforts to provide high-quality prenatal vitamins to pregnant women could save nearly half a million lives and improve birth outcomes for 25 million babies by 2040.
Adopting multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS) costs only $2.60 for an entire pregnancy in all low- and middle-income countries.
The report also highlights how promising new research on the microbiome can improve people’s health. Studies suggest that better gut health can help children absorb nutrients, develop strong immune systems and grow as they should to thrive. Gates says a better understanding of gut health could change not only how the world deals with malnutrition, but also overnutrition, which plagues wealthy countries.
This year’s report also features essays from farmers and experts on the front lines of the malnutrition crisis, who explain the impact these tools are having on their communities.
Sushama Das, a dairy farmer in Astaranga, in the Indian state of Odisha, writes about the Livestock Improvement and Promotion Programme: “Today, we have eight cows producing 60 litres of milk per day… The subsidies and training programmes have helped our family earn more money – our monthly income is now five times what it was before.”
Coletta Kemboi, a dairy farmer from Maili Nne, Kenya, who participated in training with MoreMilk, writes: “Before, there were traces of impure milk, but since I took the training, they [les inspecteurs] have come to our store about three times and their tests prove that our milk is good… The extra money we earn goes to the farm… We are able to pay the school fees for my three children.”
Ladidi Bako-Aiyegbusi, director of nutrition at Nigeria’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, who is leading a major initiative to fortify bouillon cubes, writes: “If children under the age of five do not have access to the essential nutrients they need to grow, thrive and lead healthy lives, they are robbed of their future.”
Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, Rwanda’s Minister of Health and a leader in efforts to ensure all Rwandan women have access to MMS, writes: “Prenatal vitamins save lives. That’s why they’re on supermarket shelves in wealthy countries. But for women in low- and middle-income countries, like Rwanda, they’re both more essential and harder to find.” To date, more than 50,000 Rwandan women have received MMS through a program in seven districts with the highest rates of stunting.
Dr. Víctor Aguayo, Director of Nutrition and Child Development at UNICEF, writes: “The Child Nutrition Fund could be a game changer. It has the potential to address the child malnutrition crisis and transform philanthropy in support of maternal and child nutrition.”
Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) pour Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that all lives have equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and providing opportunities to end hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people, especially those with the fewest resources, have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and in life. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of Co-Chairs Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates and the Board of Trustees.
About Goalkeepers
Goalkeepers is the foundation’s campaign to accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals). By sharing facts and data related to the Global Goals in an annual report, the Gates Foundation hopes to inspire a new generation of leaders—Goalkeepers who will raise awareness of progress, hold their leaders accountable, and take action to help achieve the Global Goals.
About the Global Goals
At the United Nations Headquarters in New York on September 25, 2015, 193 world leaders committed to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals).
It is a set of ambitious goals and targets aimed at achieving three extraordinary objectives by 2030: ending poverty, fighting inequality and injustice, and tackling climate change.
Media Contact: media@gatesfoundation.org
Link to the report: available for download in French (and other languages)
Photos from the report
Source : African Media Agency (AMA)
2024-09-18 10:11:27
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– How does climate change contribute to child malnutrition globally?
Table of Contents
The Race to Feed a Warming World: Why Global Health Spending Matters in the Face of Climate Change
The world is facing an unprecedented crisis. Climate change is projected to condemn an additional 40 million children to stunting and 28 million to wasting between 2024 and 2050, according to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s eighth annual Goalkeepers report. However, immediate action can prevent this catastrophic scenario, while building climate resilience and spurring economic growth.
The Devastating Consequences of Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the world’s worst child health crisis, and climate change is only making it worse. By 2023, the World Health Organization estimates that 148 million children will be stunted, preventing them from reaching their full mental or physical potential. Additionally, 45 million children will suffer from wasting, a condition that puts them at a higher risk of developmental delay and death. These are the most severe and irreversible forms of chronic and acute malnutrition.
The Decline of Foreign Aid to Africa
At the same time, the total share of foreign aid going to Africa has declined. In 2010, 40% of foreign aid went to African countries. Today, that figure is just 25%—the lowest in 20 years—while more than half of child deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. This trend puts hundreds of millions of children at serious risk of death or preventable disease and threatens the unprecedented progress made in global health in Africa between 2000 and 2020.
The Call to Action
Bill Gates, author of the report and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, urges world leaders to take immediate action to increase global health spending where it is needed most. He calls for:
- Sustained funding for global health: The world needs to prioritize global health spending to address the growing threat of child malnutrition.
- Support for the Child Nutrition Fund: A new platform that coordinates donor funding for nutrition can help tackle the crisis.
- Full government funding for established institutions: Institutions like Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have proven effective in protecting millions of lives each year and need full government funding to continue their work.
Proven Solutions Exist
The report highlights proven tools that can help address malnutrition, build resilience to the worst impacts of climate change, and reduce child mortality. These tools include:
- New agricultural technologies: Producing up to two to
How does climate change specifically affect children’s health and development?
The Devastating Impact of Climate Change on Children’s Health: A Call to Action
The world is facing an unprecedented crisis, with climate change threatening to condemn an additional 40 million children to stunting and 28 million
