LONDON: According to Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, malnutrition is now the most acute child health issue worldwide, and the problem will only worsen because of climate change. Before the publication of the Goalkeepers 2020 report, the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation called for the world to take immediate steps to solve this problem. 

 The report outlines that this is due to climate change, which will see 40 million more children develop stunted growth while another 28 million are likely to suffer from wasting by 2050. These are the worst forms of malnutrition that have very adverse effects on the physical and mental growth of children. 

 “If children do not get the right nutrition, especially when they are still young and even in the wombs of their mothers, they can never catch up,” Gates said in an online interview with Reuters. He stressed that children who are not well fed are likely to succumb to diseases such as measles and malaria, which are prominent in the region, thus dying at a young age. 

 Gates also stressed that roughly 90% of the effects of climate change are related to the food system, while droughts and floods hinder the growth of crops. “And when your crops fail, say, through acts of nature, food for children is directly affected by climate change, thus worsening the situation,” he expounded. 

 The report, which investigates the level of achievement of the SDGs in poverty reduction and improving people’s general health status, says the problem is enormous. According to WHO, the number of children with stunting in 2023 was about 148 million, and children with wasting were 45 million. 

 Gates called on countries worldwide to provide more significant nutrition funding through fresh programmes such as the CFI, a UNICEF-managed multilateral financing vehicle for donor funding. However, he emphasised that this should not be detrimental to other proven control measures like childhood vaccinations. 

 ”Nutrition has been neglected,” Gates said, noting that approaches such as food supplementation or fortification of prenatal multi-vitamins could be as impactful as vaccines in the children’s health in the poorest countries. 

 JANUARY Earlier this year, the Gates Foundation outlined plans to spend $6.8 billion on worldwide health programmes, the highest ever, yet funding for such activities still needs to be increased. 

 Gates ended his speech by insisting on the need to extend nutrition research and invest wisely for such research to be productive. “It is shocking to see how important this cause is; it is even more shocking to realise its relevance and need to address the problem of malnutrition for children in different parts of the world to grow strong and achieve their potential. ”