2 months ago
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In this interview, the Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, speaks with LARA ADEJORO on the state of nutrition in Nigeria and the African continent, exploring the challenges, progress and potential strategies for improving nutritional outcomes
How does your foundation’s work fit into the broader context of Nigeria’s national strategy, and broader global development goals?
Our mission is simple: we want to support efforts to improve health, education, and economic opportunities for children and families here in Nigeria, and across Africa. This is work I’m passionate about, and that I’ve been doing for decades across the world. Nigeria’s leaders have expressed strong support for these same goals, and I am excited to see the President’s efforts to bring together leaders in government, the private sector, and philanthropy to tackle the country’s challenges, including through the Presidential Economic Coordination Council. Nigeria’s path to development is rooted in the health and well-being of its people. And there is no path to a healthy and prosperous Africa without a healthy and prosperous Nigeria.
What motivated the foundation’s focus on nutrition in Nigeria, and how have your personal experiences influenced this decision?
Nutrition is core to improving health, supporting learning in schools, and strengthening the food economy. In the past 25 years, the world has reduced the number of children who die before their fifth birthday by half. That’s a remarkable feat and one of the greatest public health accomplishments in the history of the world. And we can do it again: for half of the children dying today, malnutrition is the root cause. Two in five people in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished—the highest rate in nearly two decades. That’s why we’ve invested over $2bn into improving health outcomes and boosting agricultural productivity, as well as promoting economic opportunities for women and marginalised populations in Nigeria. We believe everyone deserves access to healthy, nutritious food. We are working to help build more nutritious and sustainable food systems, so Nigeria’s children, women, and families can thrive.
The foundation is collaborating with the government and other organisations on nutrition initiatives across the country. How are you using that collaboration to improve the work you can deliver, and what challenges have you encountered in this work?
In recent years, the challenges in the fields of nutrition and agriculture have only grown. Climate change has wiped out entire harvests. Rising prices and falling incomes in Nigeria, and around the world, make it harder for families to afford food. That’s why, in Nigeria, and other countries in Africa, we work hand in hand with incredible partner organisations and government institutions, as well as with stakeholders in affected communities. For example, we are working to catalyse a network of local researchers in partnership with the Nutrition Society, collaborating with milk producers to protect small dairy farmers facing the unpredictable effects of climate change. We’re working with the Nigerian Meteorological Agency to improve early warnings for weather emergencies. These efforts, and many others like them, are building new innovations and support structures across Nigeria to make the country more resilient to climate change and better able to meet its nutrition goals.
Making progress around the issues you’ve just discussed, such as cost of living and smallholder farming productivity, requires a deep understanding of local issues and priorities. In what ways does your foundation integrate cultural knowledge and navigate sensitivities in its nutrition programmes?
The communities we seek to support understand their own needs best. We believe in the importance of home-grown solutions to development challenges. That’s why our work is channeled through both multinational and local partners, who are positioned to understand the wants and needs of Nigerians while bringing proven solutions to scale. For instance, we support the Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture to help local farmers increase the production of a wide range of affordable, nutritious foods. We are working to accelerate projects that supply farmers with improved varieties of crops like beans that are high in iron, sweet potatoes naturally rich in Vitamin A, and new varieties of naturally hardy cassava, millet and sorghum. These efforts are crucial for community health, but they also impact local and national economies. Larger yields mean that Nigeria can go from a net importer to a net exporter of agricultural goods. That, in turn, means better lives for farmers and their families, more funding for other priorities, and a path to true food security for the country. None of these efforts would be possible without local community stakeholders. Long before improved products are introduced to the market, farmers and other community representatives share their perspectives, aspirations and feedback, which in turn informs how these transformative products are developed, tested and released.
How is your foundation addressing the intersection of nutrition and climate change in Nigeria, and what innovative or adaptive strategies are you implementing?
Nigeria today has the second highest rate of food insecurity on earth, and climate change is only accelerating the problem. Arable land has disappeared. Pests have wiped out harvests. And prices for staple foods have soared. Climate-related losses on many African farms are more than double those seen globally. The poorest farmers are the ones hit hardest, having to cope with more droughts, pests, and diseases, which in turn exacerbate food shortages, and push up food prices. We’ve been working with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation to better understand the climate-induced hunger crisis. By 2050, climate change will condemn nearly 40 million more children to stunting—in addition to the 400 million children who already aren’t getting enough nutrients. The good news is that the pace of innovation is accelerating just as quickly as climate change. Our vision is an agricultural transformation led by smallholder farmers, who have the knowledge, tools, and technologies to improve their livelihoods. One innovation, led by Ladidi Bako-Aiyegbusi, the Director of Nutrition at the Nigerian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, involves fortifying bouillon cubes with vital nutrients. This could prevent more than 11,000 deaths from neural tube defects, and avert 16.8 million cases of anaemia each year in Nigeria. We are working closely with the government and private sector to formalise and expand on bouillon fortification with iron, folic acid, B12, and zinc, so it can do even more good. There are so many promising solutions to improve nutrition. And by embracing them, Nigeria can save many lives.
