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Add to Preferred SourcesThe Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plans to partner with African ministries of finance and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to promote nutrition as a driver for economic growth and poverty alleviation.
Affordable technologies such as mobile devices will be used to target people in African countries currently struggling with the most egregious forms of poverty in relation to issues such as breastfeeding, poultry farming and child nutrition, according to the foundation’s chief strategy officer and president Mark Suzman.
Mark Suzman, chief strategy officer and president of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
“Nutrition is about long-term investment in human capital. It is about financial inclusion and there are models to show how it works as has been demonstrated through the use of mobile telephone technologies to reach the poorest communities with financial services,” Suzman told Development Finance. “We are telling policymakers not to underestimate the value of nutrition. We want governments to prioritise nutrition in defining their agriculture policies.”
The Global Hunger Index, a report showing the proportion of undernourished people as a percentage of the population, published findings in July that show that only three out of 42 African countries– Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco–fall in the category of low hunger.
Suzman also said that through the partnership with the AfDB, the Gates Foundation has launched the African Leaders Alliance, which seeks to make nutrition a central policy of the bank. The alliance will place particular emphasis on women’s nutrition and the need for nutritional crops grown by smallholder farmers.
“Having children grow up in full nutrition is a great investment,” Suzman said. “The nutrition elements would focus mainly on key interventions such as healthy diets and breastfeeding more broadly.”
The Gates Foundation estimates an investment of US$7 to U$10 billion is needed in the agriculture sector for research and development to respond to the nutrition challenges.
“We will need to catalyse investment in agriculture,” Suzman concluded. “The governments themselves should invest because this by itself would unlock the private capital investment in agriculture.”
Original source: DevFin.
Posted on 31 August 2017