The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has honoured Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Nigeria’s Ladidi Bako-Aiyegbusi who is the director of nutrition at the Ministry of Health for their role in children’s health.
The duo among nine others were honored with the award of nutrition champions at the Gatekeepers event that took place in New York, as part of activities marking the 79 UN General Assembly.
The 2024 Global Goalkeeper Award, which recognizes a leader who has driven progress on a global scale toward achieving the Global Goals, was presented to Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
During his first term, President Lula launched Bolsa Familia, a robust anti-poverty and social inclusion program that helped lift millions out of poverty and reduce the nation’s stunting rate from 37% to 7% over three decades.
President Lula is building on this domestic legacy to champion the Global Alliance on Hunger and Poverty as the signature initiative of Brazil’s G20 presidency.
The initiative embraces proven, evidence-based strategies to improve food security, enhance health, reduce poverty, and promote equity at scale.
Also, Ladidi Bako-Aiyegbusi of Nigeria is the director of nutrition for the Ministry of Health of Nigeria, where she guides the federal government’s plans to train 38,180 frontline health workers to enhance maternal, infant, and childhood nutrition, communication, and services.
At its event, Goalkeepers 2024: Recipe for Progress, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation honored remarkable leaders who are advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) with solutions to keep people healthy and nourished in a rapidly warming world.
The annual event was hosted by Janet Mbugua, media personality and anchor.
The event, which highlighted opportunities to ensure better nutrition for all so everyone can reach their full potential, also featured special guests, including Jon Batiste, singer, songwriter, and composer; Christy Turlington Burns, founder and president of Every Mother Counts; Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Saul Guerrero Oteyza, UNICEF’s senior advisor on financing for child nutrition and development; Muhammad Ali Pate, coordinating minister for health and social welfare of Nigeria; and Marcus Samuelsson, award-winning celebrity chef and philanthropist. Adriana Diaz, co-host of CBS Mornings Plus, and Francine Lacqua, anchor for Bloomberg Television, served as session moderators.
“Goalkeepers is about bringing together a community of global changemakers who champion the Sustainable Development Goals to energize and inspire each other to continue making progress,” said Mark Suzman, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“This year, we’re focused on the more than 400 million children who aren’t getting the nutrients they need to grow and thrive. While climate change is making that challenge harder to solve, progress is possible. By scaling up existing tools, investing in promising research, and lifting champions like the ones we’re celebrating today, we can help ensure all children can reach their full potential—and build global resilience as the world gets hotter.”
In 2023, the World Health Organization estimated that 148 million children experienced stunting, a condition where children don’t grow to their full potential mentally or physically, and 45 million children experienced wasting, a condition where children become weak and emaciated, leaving them at much greater risk of developmental delays and death. These are the most severe and irreversible forms of chronic and acute malnutrition.
The event followed last week’s release of the foundation’s eighth annual Goalkeepers report, “A Race to Nourish a Warming World.” The report finds that without immediate global action, climate change will condemn an additional 40 million children to stunting and 28 million more to wasting between 2024 and 2050. It highlights proven tools that are helping solve malnutrition, building people’s resilience to the worst impacts of climate change, and further driving down childhood deaths. The report calls for renewed commitments to global health spending, including for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Global Fund, and the Child Nutrition Fund.
Others honoured include; Dr. Tahmeed Ahmed of Bangladesh; Beza Beshah Haile of Ethiopia; Dr. Zahra Hoodbhoy of Pakistan; Dr. Nancy Krebs of the United States; Dr. Jemimah Njuki of Kenya; Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana of Rwanda; Lilian dos Santos Rahal of Brazil; Bhavani Shankar of the United Kingdom and Ratan Tata of India.
