SEATTLE, 17th September, 2024 (WAM) -- Mark Suzman, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, affirmed the existence of a wide range of partnerships between the foundation and the UAE in humanitarian areas, including combatting neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), highlighting the UAE’s leadership in this area.
During a virtual press conference held to announce the eighth annual Goalkeepers report released today, Suzman underscored joint initiatives that the foundation had established with the UAE, such as the Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE), established in 2019.
“The UAE is also a key partner in an effort with the Islamic Development Bank called the Lives and Livelihoods Fund (LLF), which we support along with a number of Gulf countries. The LLF works across multiple Islamic countries to provide concessional loans in areas like health and development, including a number of nutrition-related investments,” he explained.
“The UAE has been a strong partner in these areas and we certainly hope highlighting some of these opportunities will provide an opportunity for deeper partnership, particularly around maternal and child health,” the Gates Foundation CEO went on to say.
Concluding his statement, he confirmed that a number of active discussions around potential new partnerships are underway.
The eighth annual Goalkeepers report called on country leaders to devote their aid money to reverse the current trends and the growing burden of malnutrition, explaining that, despite the urgency of climate change, the best way to fight the impacts of climate change is by investing in nutrition.
According to the report, UNICEF, in its first report on child food poverty, revealed that two-thirds of the world’s children, i.e. more than 400 million
children, are not getting enough nutrients to grow and thrive, putting them at higher risk for malnutrition.
In 2023, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that 148 million children experienced stunting, and 45 million children experienced wasting, the most severe forms of chronic and acute malnutrition, the report further explained. It prevents them from growing to their full potential—and, in the worst cases, from growing up at all.
Between 2024 and 2050, climate change will mean 40 million additional children will be stunted, and 28 million additional children will be wasted.
The report revealed that more than half of all child deaths still occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Since 2010, the percentage of the world’s poor living in the region has also increased by more than 20 percentage points. Despite this, during the same period, the share of total foreign aid to Africa has dropped from nearly 40 percent to only 25 percent, the lowest percentage in 20 years. Fewer resources mean more children will die of preventable causes