Commission, UK and Gates Foundation put big nutrition cash on table

By Annie Harrison-Dunn

- Last updated on GMT

Nutrition is now being prioritised, says Melinda Gates
Nutrition is now being prioritised, says Melinda Gates

Related tags Bill & melinda gates foundation European union

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged €689m to help tackle malnutrition as the European Commission announced €23.5m for a new nutrition initiative and €3.5bn by 2020.

The announcements were made at the Commission-organised forum European Development Days (EDD) this week.

The Gates donation also unlocked another €159m in funds from the UK’s Department for International Development, which promised to match 1:2 any pledges made on top of those agreed at the 2013 Nutrition for Growth summit.

The UK government confirmed to us that it would be sticking by this commitment, although it did not give details or a time frame.

Melinda Gates said malnutrition was the underlying cause of nearly half of all deaths of children under five. “Yet for too long the world has under-invested in nutrition. Today we see an opportunity to change that. Along with the Gates Foundation, many European donors are now prioritising nutrition, which we believe will be one of the fundamental solutions to help cut child mortality in half by 2030.”

Targeted approach

The Gates Foundation said its donation, which was a six-year commitment, would seek to improve nutrition for women before and during pregnancy and while lactating as well as improving infant nutrition more broadly through breastfeeding and food fortification.

B&Mgates

It would also look to improve access to safe, nutritious and affordable food year-round through better food systems.

The foundation did not reply to our request for specific examples of its plans in time for the publication on this article.

In the past the foundation funded nutrition projects like vitamin-A GM bananas​ and gut microbiome engineering​.

The Gates new funds would be focused on India, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Burkina Faso, which it said suffered from a particularly high burden of malnutrition. 

A ‘data revolution’ 

The foundation also pledged to expand research into innovative new approaches to nutrition and serve as a catalyst for a “data revolution in nutrition”​ to inform decisions and track progress. 

About €445,414 of their donation will go towards its tie-up with the Commission’s new initiative National Information Platforms on Nutrition (NIPN), a tool to help partner countries better monitor progress in the reduction of under-nutrition and make informed policy decisions.

This will initially be used in Bangladesh, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Laos and Niger. 

The UK cash would also put £6.4m towards this. 

The Commission said it hoped the platform would “improve accountability and governance on nutrition”​. 

Commenting on the importance of nutrition in international development, Baroness Sandip Verma, parliamentary under-secretary of state for the UK department for international development, said: This investment is in all our interests. By promoting a healthier, more productive workforce and helping these countries to grow we are not just giving millions a better chance to lift themselves out of poverty, we are also developing new markets for Britain to trade with.”

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2 comments

Very Laudable initiative

Posted by Olajuwon Okubena,

There would be a need to monitor how this initiative would be implemented and what measurable results are obtained. One area that would need some caution is the use of the huge investment in the procurement of non-natural food in the form of the so-called food/dietary supplement/functional food, that is made up mostly of synthetic substances which are generally not bio-available. Unfortunately, it is not the norm to test out these items by way of clinical studies as it is done for drugs. The poor countries of the world are mostly affected by poor nutrition but surprisingly there are food crops like Sorghum which could be developed to meet the nutritional needs of these countries. Hippocrates, the father of medicine said "Let food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be food" A lot of research has been done on this plant and if the nutritional contents could be standardized it would not only supply the nutritional needs as well as provide healing for many of the diseases that have been caused by poor nutrition.

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what a joke

Posted by Laurel,

lemme see 689 minis 445 for penpushers n office work from that
leaves?
244 for actual food/seed whatever
and how much of that seed n food is intended to be GMO or imported?
another farcical feed the poor from the masters of ...it

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