Gates Foundation chief sees Middle East strife undermining long-term efforts on malnutrition and immunization

Gates Foundation chief sees Middle East strife undermining long-term efforts on malnutrition and immunization
Mark Suzman attends Goalkeepers 2023: Daytime Event at Jazz at Lincoln Center on September 20, 2023 in New York City. (File/AFP)
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Updated 30 September 2024
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Gates Foundation chief sees Middle East strife undermining long-term efforts on malnutrition and immunization

Gates Foundation chief sees Middle East strife undermining long-term efforts on malnutrition and immunization
  • Mark Suzman says conflicts and humanitarian disasters in places like Gaza and Sudan overlap with cases of malnutrition
  • Lauds “true leadership role” being played by Arab Gulf states through prudent and precise humanitarian investment

NEW YORK CITY: As world leaders gather in New York for the UN General Assembly, any residual optimism about the prospect of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by the end of the decade looks fainter than ever before.

Mark Suzman, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, believes the world had already been falling behind with regard to the SDGs even prior to this latest crisis. Speaking to Arab News, he issued a stark warning on the consequences for humanity if the aims go unmet.

Following the publication of the foundation’s annual Goalkeepers report, Suzman appealed for a renewed global commitment to achieving the 2030 goals — 15 years after the ambitious targets, ranging from eradicating poverty to combating climate change, were set.

The theme of this year’s report is focused on what Suzman described as the “blight of malnutrition” — a scourge that has ravaged parts of the Middle East and North Africa owing to conflicts in Gaza, Yemen, and Sudan, inflationary pressures, and the impact of climate change.




Coletta Kemboi selling her milk at a market in Eldoret City, Kenya. (Gates Archive)

Despite recording significant progress across key indicators since the start of the new millennium, recent data has revealed a slowdown in development across the board, presenting what Suzman called a “broad picture of stagnation.”

The Gates Foundation, launched in 2000, is the second-largest charitable body in the world.

Suzman said the world had reason to feel optimistic in the wake of the new millennium. Buoyed by successful global health and vaccination campaigns, a halving of preventable child mortality took place between 2000 and 2020 — from 10 million deaths per year to fewer than five million.




Acute malnutrition measurement 2. (UNICEF)

“A lot of that was on the back of massively increased vaccination rates and the scale up of vaccines through the GAVI Vaccine Alliance,” he said, referring to the global public-private health partnership devoted to increasing access to immunization in poor countries.

“During the first 15 years of the 21st century and the first five years of the SDGs, we had rapid progress, especially in the areas of global health that the foundation focuses most deeply on.”

Amid faltering SDG progress, however, “we are now at a stage, where, in 2024, the world has not gone back and has yet to achieve its 2019 vaccination rates.”




The distribution of WFP-provided aid resumes after its suspension since the killing on July 21 of the head of the UN agency's office in Taez in a shooting in a nearby city. (File/AFP)

And it is not only vaccination campaigns that have stagnated. Progress on beating hunger has also lagged — something the Goalkeepers report says could result in unimaginable human suffering if the world fails to act.

A lack of immediate global action on malnutrition linked to climate change is expected to condemn an additional 40 million children to stunting and 28 million more to wasting between 2024 and 2050, the report found.

A slowdown in foreign aid to the African continent — despite more than half of all child deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa — threatens to leave hundreds of millions of children at serious risk of dying or suffering from preventable diseases.

Malnutrition has receded from global awareness as other needs — like the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and the European migration crisis — have gained prominence.




Children react following an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Falluja near the Jabalia refugee camp in the norther Gaza Strip. (File/AFP)

“But our view is that these are all important priorities and they should not be at the expense of these critical long-term investments in global health,” said Suzman.

“And that’s one of the reasons why we picked nutrition this year. Because we highlight that as an area which has both been underinvested in historically, but actually has, we believe, the potential for some relatively low-cost, high-impact interventions now.”

One solution being deployed in Africa is food fortification, which, at relatively miniscule cost, has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives each year, according to the Goalkeepers report.

By adding nutrients to common ingredients like bouillon cubes and iodized salt, about 16.6 million cases of anemia could be prevented in Nigeria and 5,000 preventable deaths avoided in Ethiopia.




Goalkeeper, Sushama Das, (in red on the right) enjoys lunch with her family in Astaranga Village, Odisha State, India. (Gates Archive)

New technologies in the dairy industry to increase the amount of milk produced in Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania could prevent millions of cases of childhood stunting over the next 30 years, the report found.

The low-cost, high-stakes equation is at the heart of Suzman’s message in arguing for immediate intervention to end malnutrition.

“This is a true global crisis,” he said. “We’re talking about one in four children who do not get enough to eat and the effects are permanent. When you’ve suffered from stunting or wasting, your body and brain will never develop to its full potential.

“We have some data in the report that shows it’s not just about resilience and health. These children are less likely to stay in school.

IN NUMBERS

* 16.6m Anemia preventable in Nigeria with addition of nutrients to food.

* $3tn Estimated productivity loss globally owing to malnutrition.

* 50% Reduction in child mortality between 2000 and 2020.

“If you don’t stay in school, you’re less likely to have strong educational outcomes, you’re less likely to get a job and you’re more likely to live in poverty.

“And if you aggregate that up across societies, this is a long-term drag on economic and social prosperity, and we should not be allowing this to happen as a world.”

One method that the foundation is employing in its appeal to leaders and policy makers is constructing a macro view on malnutrition and other global health issues.

The Goalkeepers report underlines one statistic in particular that is likely to alarm policy makers — every year, more than $3 trillion in productivity is lost because of malnutrition, due to the combined loss in physical and cognitive abilities across human populations.

For low-income countries, the cost can be even greater, at 3-16 percent of gross domestic product. The result is that some of the world’s poorest countries must confront the equivalent of a permanent 2008-level recession every year, the report warned.




9-month-old Hafsat Abubakar is held by her mother, Safiya Ibrahim, at their home in the Sarkin Adar Gidan Igwai neighbourhood of Sokoto. (UNICEF)

By highlighting the economic toll of failing to act, Suzman has found a means to engage with government ministers and policy makers around the world. The numbers behind this human suffering “become more concrete if you’re trying to talk to a finance minister,” he said.

“The additional healthcare burden, for those who are malnourished — it’s a 20 year cycle. The returns on investing in a healthy child come through 20 years later when they become healthy, productive members of an economy. And that’s not something that politicians, if they’re focusing on the next year or two, will necessarily pay attention to.

“We’re really trying to highlight that because also it makes sense from an international aid perspective. You want to invest in long-term health and resilience of populations, because they’re more likely to then provide productive opportunities for their own citizens and build an all-round healthier world.

“Trying to highlight those numbers and that impact is exactly what this report is intended to do for policy makers and funders.”




A nurse registers women for prenatal consultations at the health center in Gisenyi, Rwanda on April 30, 2019. (Gates Archive)

Conflicts and humanitarian disasters often overlap with cases of malnutrition, said Suzman, highlighting the examples of famine-struck Gaza and Sudan. But the long-term building of development structures and health systems can help build resilience.

“The number of mothers and children facing malnutrition (in Gaza and Sudan) is just much higher than it should be and needs to be addressed urgently,” he said.

Suzman believes national and multilateral initiatives to provide urgent cash can offer a ray of hope amid persistent funding gaps. He said the Gulf states had been able to “play a true leadership role” through prudent and precise humanitarian investment.




Dr. Nsanzimana Sabin, the Minister of Health, personally administers the inaugural doses of Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation to a pregnant woman, symbolizing the commencement of a transformative healthcare initiative. (UNICEF)

In particular he highlighted the Lives and Livelihoods Fund, an initiative that provides affordable financing to the poorest 30 member countries of the Islamic Development Bank.

“We helped set it up with the governments of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar,” he said. “The fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced an additional $100 million contribution earlier this year, which we’re matching.

“That’s supporting efforts like rice resilience across West Africa or child mortality, maternal mortality investments also in some of these crisis situations.

“So, we hope that that type of partnership can actually help address crises both in the region and more broadly, while also using our voice to support the very important humanitarian efforts that are underway in the crisis situations.”




Displaced Sudanese who have returned from Ethiopia gather in a camp run by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan's border town of Gallabat. (File/AFP)

Earlier this year, Gaza reported its first case of polio in 25 years. Its reemergence alarmed health officials and policy makers, coming decades after a global campaign to eradicate the virus saw significant success.

Suzman described the polio case as a “completely avoidable tragedy” that was precipitated by Israel’s ongoing military operation in the Palestinian enclave.

The conflict, as well as ongoing violence in Syria, Yemen and Sudan, are further examples of the ability of short-term crises to undermine long-term development efforts, he said.

“The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has stepped in to launch and now complete a critical vaccination campaign (in Gaza). We’ve actually seen that in other crises. The GPEI has also worked in Syria and Yemen. This is a challenge.”




The war which has raged since April 2023 between Sudan's regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has left tens of thousands dead and displaced more than ten million people, according to the United Nations. (File/AFP)

Suzman has particular praise for Saudi Arabia’s commitment of $500 million to the GPEI earlier this year, describing the donation as “really profoundly important.”

“We’re the largest global funders of polio campaigns, but Saudi Arabia is now very much one of the top funders and I think it’s an appreciation of the fact that we need to tackle these issues in all crisis situations, because you still have to vaccinate every child globally long as there are any cases circulating in any country,” he said.

“It’s a very good example of the broader challenges of health financing and the risks that stay with you if you take your eye off the ball. If you allow these things to happen, the consequences can be profound.”

The scale of the problem, as revealed by the Gates Foundation’s annual report, is both immense and intimidating, with far-reaching global consequences.




A young Palestinian man sits next to a mural that he painted on the rooftop of a destroyed house in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, to show his solidarity with the people of Gaza and Lebanon. (File/AFP)

Suzman, however, remains convinced that eradicating malnutrition, boosting health indicators and building climate resilience are not Sisyphean tasks, but achievable targets that can be realized through cheap, targeted investment.

“We want this report to be read by government leaders, policymakers, philanthropists and private sector leaders who work in this space,” he said.

“We want them both to understand the magnitude of the challenge and why malnutrition, actually, does affect them — understand connections, not just the humanitarian tragedy.”

What is his message to people with the power to effect change?




Portrait of Elena Swain, daughter of Goalkeeper, Sushama Das, with her son, Sraboni, in Astaranga Village, Odisha State, India. (Supplied)

“The scale of funding we’re talking about is very doable and achievable.”

The return on investment would not only save the lives of children in some of the world’s poorest and most conflict-ridden countries, but will, over the next two decades, build a “healthier and more resilient world,” he said.

“That’s the message we hope will come out. And we hope policymakers will listen to it.”


Thousands march in Germany to demand release of Kurd leader

Thousands march in Germany to demand release of Kurd leader
Updated 23 sec ago
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Thousands march in Germany to demand release of Kurd leader

Thousands march in Germany to demand release of Kurd leader
  • The protest followed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statements in late October that he wanted to “reach out to our Kurdish brothers”

FRANKFUR, Germany: Thousands of protesters marched in the western German city of Cologne on Saturday to demand the release of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdish PKK militant group who was arrested 25 years ago.
Amid signs of easing tensions between the Turkish government and the PKK, the demonstrators carried banners bearing the image of the PKK’s founder and historic leader, who has been detained in an island prison off the coast of Istanbul since 1999.
The protest followed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statements in late October that he wanted to “reach out to our Kurdish brothers.”
The head of Turkish nationalist party MHP, Erdogan’s main coalition ally, has invited Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence, to speak before parliament to announce the dissolution of the PKK, raising the possibility of his release.
Cologne police reported no incidents during the march, though they did intervene twice to remove “symbols that could have a link to the PKK.”
The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkiye and its Western allies, and showing its symbols is illegal in Germany.
The conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state has caused more than 40,000 deaths since 1984.
Turkiye is the third largest country of origin for asylum seekers in Germany this year, after Syria and Afghanistan, according to the Interior Ministry.
Most of the applicants claim to be ethnic Kurds, according to the German daily FAZ.

 

 


Trump defense nominee’s thin CV, tattoos under scrutiny

Trump defense nominee’s thin CV, tattoos under scrutiny
Updated 7 min 49 sec ago
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Trump defense nominee’s thin CV, tattoos under scrutiny

Trump defense nominee’s thin CV, tattoos under scrutiny
  • Hegseth boasts degrees from elite US universities, including an undergraduate from Princeton and a master’s from Harvard

WASHINGTON: Facing questions about an alleged sexual assault and medieval-themed tattoos linked to extremist groups, Donald Trump’s defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth would struggle to be confirmed for the job under normal circumstances.
But these are not normal times in Washington.
Hegseth, a Fox News host, was picked by Trump on Tuesday in one of several nominations that wrong-footed even some in his remodeled Republican Party and threw down a challenge to the Senate.
To take up the position as head of the Pentagon to oversee 3.4 million employees, Hegseth will require confirmation from the upper house — and Trump is publicly pressuring lawmakers to show loyalty to his agenda.
Revelations in recent days about the 44-year-old have made his path to power more difficult, including that the thrice-married former soldier was investigated for sexual assault in California in 2017.
No charges were filed over an encounter in a Monterey hotel that saw an unnamed accuser lodge a police report, but the claim has led to questions about the vetting process for the former soldier.
“He was cleared,” his lawyer Timothy Parlatore told NBC News on Friday. “There’s not much more that I can say. It didn’t happen.”
His tattoos have also raised questions, leading to him being stood down by his Army National Guard unit when it was called up for the inauguration of President Joe Biden in 2020.
Speaking on a podcast with fellow veteran Shawn Ryan earlier this month, he revealed that one of his fellow soldiers had flagged him as a possible white nationalist because of his body art.
He claimed it was because of the medieval Jerusalem Cross on his chest, but he also has the words “Deus Vult” on his bicep — a phrase meaning “God wills it” that was used by anti-Muslim crusaders in the Middle Ages.
European medieval imagery and slogans have been widely adopted by white supremacists and neo-Nazis in recent years, but Hegseth says his tattoos simply reflect his faith.
“It’s a Christian symbol,” the author of a 2020 book entitled “American Crusade” said of the Jerusalem Cross.
His handling of medieval weaponry has gone viral in recent days after a video re-emerged of him taking part in a televised axe-throwing contest which saw him miss the target and strike a bystander, who narrowly escaped serious injury.
His CV includes combat experience in Afghanistan and Iraq and he rose to the rank of major in the National Guard — a lowly status compared to the generals and admirals he would oversee at the Pentagon.
Hegseth boasts degrees from elite US universities, including an undergraduate from Princeton and a master’s from Harvard.
Square-jawed and outspoken, he came to Trump’s attention on the “Fox & Friends Weekend” show that he co-hosts.
“You know the military better than anyone,” Trump told him during an appearance in early June, adding that he often thought about putting him in charge of the Pentagon.
A former Republican operative who vetted Hegseth when Trump was considering him for the more junior veterans affairs secretary in 2016 wrote this week that he remained unqualified and an “empty vessel.”
Lacking major experience in foreign affairs or congressional politics, his only civilian management credential included being CEO of a small non-profit, Justin Higgins, who has since switched to the Democrats, wrote for MSNBC.
“It’s not hard to imagine that he would do and say whatever Trump wants,” he added.
Hegseth’s main policy focus in his books and media appearances is tackling what he calls “woke shit” in the armed forces — and he has expressed support for purging the top brass.
He told Ryan on his podcast that his experiences taught him that “the bigotry we saw on the outside (of the army) should not be tolerated inside the military” but that progressive efforts to tackle racism and sexism had gone too far.
“The army that I enlisted in, that I swore an oath to in 2001 and was commissioned in in 2003 looks a lot different than the army of today because we’re focused on a lot of the wrong things,” he said.


India’s Modi launches diplomatic tour in Nigeria

India’s Modi launches diplomatic tour in Nigeria
Updated 40 min 52 sec ago
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India’s Modi launches diplomatic tour in Nigeria

India’s Modi launches diplomatic tour in Nigeria
  • Aside from power politics, Modi’s visit will also seek to enhance economic cooperation, with a number of technical agreements to be signed

ABUJA: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Nigeria on Saturday as the giants of Asia and of Africa press for a greater role in world affairs.
Nigeria’s capital Abuja was the first stop in a tour that will take the Indian premier on to the G20 summit in Brazil, and to Guyana.
The visit was billed by New Delhi as a meeting of the largest democracy in the world and the largest in Africa, or “natural partners.”
“May this visit deepen the bilateral relationship between our nations,” Modi posted on social media on arrival.
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu posted that the visit would expand “the strategic partnership between both countries.”
Modi will talk with Tinubu at his official residence in Abuja on Sunday.
Photos posted on Modi’s account showed him welcomed by Nigerian officials and a cheering crowd from the country’s 60,000-strong Indian community.
The visit comes amid a revived push by both India and Nigeria for permanent representation on the United Nations Security Council.
The five permanent members of the top UN body — the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain — hold a powerful veto.
In recent years, supporters of a more “multipolar” world have pushed for more African, Asian and Latin American countries to be added to the group.
Nigeria’s 220-million-strong population is comfortably the largest in Africa, but in diplomatic strength it is rivalled by South Africa.
If UN members bow to the pressure to give increased representation to an African country, Abuja and Pretoria could end up competing for the place.
India is the world’s most populous nation, its 1.4 billion people representing a sixth of humanity, and a nuclear-armed power.
It has long sought a permanent UN Security Council seat.
India is also a member of the nine-strong BRICs group with Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.
Nigeria is a BRICs “partner country” but has not been given full membership, with some observers accusing South Africa of holding them up.
Aside from power politics, Modi’s visit will also seek to enhance economic cooperation, with a number of technical agreements to be signed.
Africa has become a theater of competition between the United States, former colonial powers in Europe, Russia, Turkiye and especially China.
India too has made inroads, and ahead of the trip Modi’s office boasted that more than 200 Indian companies had invested $27 billion in Nigerian manufacturing, becoming major employers.
Nigeria is also a destination for Indian development funds, with $100 million in loans and training programs for local workers.


US health officials report 1st case of new form of mpox in a traveler

US health officials report 1st case of new form of mpox in a traveler
Updated 16 November 2024
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US health officials report 1st case of new form of mpox in a traveler

US health officials report 1st case of new form of mpox in a traveler
  • Mpox is a rare disease caused by infection with a virus that’s in the same family as the one that causes smallpox

NEW YORK: Health officials said Saturday they have confirmed the first US case of a new form of mpox that was first seen in eastern Congo.
The person had traveled to eastern Africa and was treated in Northern California upon return, according to the California Department of Public Health. Symptoms are improving and the risk to the public is low.
The individual was isolating at home and health workers are reaching out to close contacts as a precaution, the state health department said.
Mpox is a rare disease caused by infection with a virus that’s in the same family as the one that causes smallpox. It is endemic in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals. Milder symptoms can include fever, chills and body aches. In more serious cases, people can develop lesions on the face, hands, chest and genitals.
Earlier this year, scientists reported the emergence of a new form of mpox in Africa that was spread through close contact including through sex. It was widely transmitted in eastern and central Africa. But in cases that were identified in travelers outside of the continent, spread has been very limited, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 3,100 confirmed cases have been reported just since late September, according to the World Health Organization. The vast majority of them have been in three African countries — Burundi, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Since then, cases of travelers with the new mpox form have been reported in Germany, India, Kenya, Sweden, Thailand, Zimbabwe, and the United Kingdom.
Health officials earlier this month said the situation in Congo appears to be stabilizing. The Africa CDC has estimated Congo needs at least 3 million mpox vaccines to stop the spread, and another 7 million vaccines for the rest of Africa. The spread is mostly through sexual transmission as well as through close contact among children, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups.
The current outbreak is different from the 2022 global outbreak of mpox where gay and bisexual men made up the vast majority of cases.


Migration agreement violates medical ethics, aid groups say

Activists stage a demonstration in Shengjin, Albania. (Reuters)
Activists stage a demonstration in Shengjin, Albania. (Reuters)
Updated 16 November 2024
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Migration agreement violates medical ethics, aid groups say

Activists stage a demonstration in Shengjin, Albania. (Reuters)
  • Asylum-seekers should be considered at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, humanitarian organizations say

ROME: More than a dozen humanitarian organizations that provide healthcare to migrants criticized Italy’s migration deal with Albania as violating the code of medical ethics and urged health workers not to cooperate with it.

The deal, the centerpiece of Premier Giorgia Meloni’s crackdown on human trafficking, calls for some male migrants rescued at sea to have their asylum cases processed while they are detained at two holding centers in Albania, a non-EU nation.
Italy, which has long demanded Europe shoulder more of the continent’s migration problem, has held up the deal with Albania as a model for the continent and a strong deterrent to would-be refugees setting out on smugglers’ boats from North Africa for a better life.
However, the five-year deal, budgeted to cost Italy €670 million ($730 million), has run into a series of obstacles and legal challenges that have prevented even a single migrant from being processed in Albania.

FASTFACT

The five-year deal, budgeted to cost Italy $730 million, has run into a series of obstacles and legal challenges that have prevented even a single migrant from being processed in Albania.

First, construction delays prevented the opening of the centers for several months. Then, after the first two batches of 20 men were brought to Albania this month, Italian courts issued rulings that resulted in them being taken to Italy anyway.
The matter is before the EU’s Court of Justice in Luxembourg, which has been asked to rule on whether the men come from countries deemed safe for return. All 20 hail from Bangladesh and Egypt.
On Friday, the nongovernmental organizations released a detailed analysis of the procedures to screen migrants first on Italian naval ships and then in the Albanian centers to determine if they are “vulnerable.” Only men deemed to be not “vulnerable” are to be sent to Albania.
The aid groups said there were no proper facilities or instruments to make such a determination. And regardless, practically everyone who has set off on the dangerous Mediterranean crossing has endured the physical, psychological, or sexual abuse that should disqualify them from Albanian detention, they said.
The migrants should be considered at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder or other severe physical and mental health consequences, they said.
“The Italy-Albania Protocol violates the code of medical ethics and human rights and puts the physical and psychological health of migrants at risk,” the statement said.
The groups criticized the international organizations cooperating with the project, identifying the International Organization of Migration and the Knights of Malta’s Italian rescue corps as being “complicit” in human rights violations.
The Knights of Malta strongly rejected the claim, denying their doctors and nurses were in any way taking part in the “selection” of migrants or where they disembark, and said none had participated in the transfer of migrants to Albania.
In a statement, the Knights said their medical teams had worked on Italian naval vessels rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean since 2008, providing necessary first aid.
They said that work continues today unchanged.
The Knights “are proud of what has been accomplished in more than 15 years with the coast guard saving human lives at sea and has no intention of stopping this activity which often is the difference between life and death,” the group said.
There was no immediate reply to an email sent to the IOM seeking comment.
The Italian government has said the rights of the migrants would be fully guaranteed in the Albanian centers.
The deal has been blessed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an example of “out-of-box thinking” to tackle the migration issue.
However, human rights groups say it sets a dangerous precedent and violates Italy’s obligations under international law.
The UN refugee agency has agreed to supervise the first three months of the agreement, and one of its teams is conducting an “independent mission” on board the transfer ship to monitor the screening process.
The legal challenges have come despite the small number of people impacted.
Even though the centers were built to house as many as 3,000 migrants a month, just 20 were transferred in the first two separate ship passages, only to be sent to Italy after the Rome courts intervened.
The statement was signed by Doctors Without Borders, Emergency, Sea-Watch, SOS Mediterranee, and other aid groups.