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

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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.”


Netanyahu using Iran war to stay in power ‘forever’: former US president Clinton

Netanyahu using Iran war to stay in power ‘forever’: former US president Clinton
Updated 8 sec ago
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Netanyahu using Iran war to stay in power ‘forever’: former US president Clinton

Netanyahu using Iran war to stay in power ‘forever’: former US president Clinton

DUBAI: Former president Bill Clinton said Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been wanting to fight Iran for a longtime because that way he can stay in the office forever.
“Netanyahu has long wanted to fight Iran because that way he can stay in office forever and ever. I mean, he’s been there most of the last 20 years,” the former president said during an appearance on “The Daily Show”.
Clinton said he called on US President Donald Trump to “defuse” the current conflict between Israel and Iran, and end the “outright constant killing of civilians.”
“But I think we should be trying to defuse it, and I hope President Trump will do that.”
The former president said he does not think either Netanyahu or Trump want to trigger a full-scale regional disaster. 
He also emphasized the importance of the US protecting its allies in the region, while simultaneously advocating for restraint.
“We have to convince our friends in the Middle East that we’ll stand with them and try to protect them,” he stated.
“But choosing undeclared wars in which the primary victims are civilians, who are not politically involved, one way or the other, who just want to live decent lives, is not a very good solution.”
The US by far has stayed out of direct action in the conflict between Iran and Israel. But it has helped Israel shoot down missiles from Tehran and has supplied it with military equipment.


Putin says Russia has told Israel there’s no evidence Iran wants nuclear weapons, Sky News Arabia reports

Putin says Russia has told Israel there’s no evidence Iran wants nuclear weapons, Sky News Arabia reports
Updated 2 min 14 sec ago
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Putin says Russia has told Israel there’s no evidence Iran wants nuclear weapons, Sky News Arabia reports

Putin says Russia has told Israel there’s no evidence Iran wants nuclear weapons, Sky News Arabia reports
  • Putin: Russia is ready to support Iran in developing a peaceful nuclear program, and has the right to do so

MOSCOW: Russia has repeatedly told Israel that there is no evidence Iran is aiming to get nuclear weapons, Sky News Arabia on Saturday quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying in an interview.

“Russia, as well as the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), has never had any evidence that Iran is preparing to obtain nuclear weapons, as we have repeatedly put the Israeli leadership on notice,” Sky News Arabia quoted Putin as saying.

Russia is ready to support Iran in developing a peaceful nuclear program, Putin was quoted as saying, adding that Iran has the right to do so.

Speaking at an economic forum in St. Petersburg on Friday, Putin said Russia was sharing its ideas on how to stop the bloodshed in the Iran-Israel conflict with both sides.

He did not give details of those ideas.


VP Vance says US troops still ‘necessary’ in Los Angeles

VP Vance says US troops still ‘necessary’ in Los Angeles
Updated 19 min 19 sec ago
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VP Vance says US troops still ‘necessary’ in Los Angeles

VP Vance says US troops still ‘necessary’ in Los Angeles
  • Many in Los Angeles are angry about immigration raids carried out as part of Trump’s ambition to deport vast numbers of undocumented migrants around the country

LOS ANGELES: US Vice President JD Vance said on Friday that the thousands of troops deployed to Los Angeles this month were still needed despite a week of relative calm in the protest-hit city.
President Donald Trump has sent roughly 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines, purportedly to protect federal property and personnel, after demonstrations over immigration raids.
“Unfortunately, the soldiers and Marines are still very much a necessary part of what’s going on here because they’re worried that it’s going to flare back up,” Vance told reporters in Los Angeles.
He was speaking the day after an appeals court ruled that Trump could continue to control the California National Guard, which would normally fall under Governor Gavin Newsom’s authority.
California officials have heavily criticized Trump over his use of the military, saying it escalated protests that local law enforcement could have handled.
The demonstrations were largely peaceful and mostly contained to a small part of Los Angeles, the second-largest US city, although there were instances of violence and vandalism.
“If you let violent rioters burn Great American Cities to the ground, then, of course, we’re going to send federal law enforcement in to protect the people the president was elected to protect,” Vance said, adding that Trump would deploy them again if needed.
The Republican further accused Newsom — a possible contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028 — and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of encouraging protesters.
Newsom and Bass have both condemned rioting and violence toward law enforcement while accusing the Trump administration of manufacturing a crisis in the city.
Bass hit back at Vance during a news conference on Friday, accusing him of openly lying and saying that local law enforcement agencies handled crowd control.
“How dare you say that city officials encourage violence. We kept the peace. You know that the federal officials that were here protected a federal building — they were not involved in crowd control,” she said.
Bass said that even when there was vandalism, at its height “you are talking about a couple of hundred people who are not necessarily associated with any of the peaceful protests.”
“Los Angeles is a city that is 500 square miles and any of the disruption that took place took place at about 2 square miles in our city,” she said, accusing Vance of adding to “provocation” and sowing “division.”


Many in Los Angeles are angry about immigration raids carried out as part of Trump’s ambition to deport vast numbers of undocumented migrants around the country.
Outrage at the use of masked, armed immigration agents also sparked protests in other cities, including San Francisco, New York, Chicago and San Antonio, Texas.
Tensions spiked when California Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat, was handcuffed and forcibly removed last week when attempting to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem questions during her news conference.
Vance misnamed the senator when referring to the incident, saying: “I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question but unfortunately I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn’t a theater.”
Bass reacted to the comment with outrage.
“How dare you disrespect him and call him Jose. But I guess he just looked like anybody to you,” she said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had said Padilla’s treatment “reeks of totalitarianism,” while the White House claimed — despite video evidence to the contrary — that Padilla had “lunged toward Secretary Noem.”


Superyacht is pulled from the seabed 10 months after sinking off Sicily

Superyacht is pulled from the seabed 10 months after sinking off Sicily
Updated 4 min 6 sec ago
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Superyacht is pulled from the seabed 10 months after sinking off Sicily

Superyacht is pulled from the seabed 10 months after sinking off Sicily

ROME (AP) — A British-flagged luxury superyacht that sank off Sicily last year, killing U.K. tech magnate Mike Lynch and six others, partially resurfaced Saturday as salvage recovery crews finalized the complex operation to bring it ashore for further investigation.
The white top and blue hull of the 56-meter (184-foot) Bayesian was visible on the surface but was not clear of the sea yet in a holding area of a yellow floating crane barge.
“Pumping out of sea water will continue and it will be lunchtime, following a series of lifting and resting procedures to satisfy the salvage team, before Bayesian is fully and finally out of the water,” said David Wilson, spokesman for TMC Maritime, which is conducting the recovery operation.
The Bayesian sank Aug. 19 off Porticello, near Palermo, during a violent storm as Lynch was treating friends to a cruise to celebrate his acquittal two months earlier in the U.S. on fraud charges. Lynch, his daughter and five others died. Fifteen people survived, including the captain and all crew members except the chef.
Italian authorities are conducting a full criminal investigation.
TMC Maritime said the vessel has been slowly raised from the seabed, 50 meters (165-feet) down, over the past three days to allow the steel lifting straps, slings and harnesses to be secured under the keel.
Eight steel lifting straps are being used to support the hull upright and to form part of a steel wire lifting system that began raising the vessel out of the water Saturday. As it is lifted up, sea water is pumped out of the hull.
TMC Maritime said the vessel will be held upright, out of the water, for checks and preparations for its final journey.
On Sunday, it is anticipated the floating crane platform will move the Bayesian to the Sicilian port of Termini Imerese, where a special steel cradle is waiting for it.
The Bayesian is missing its 72-meter (236-foot) mast, which was cut off and left on the seabed for future removal. The mast had to be detached to allow the hull to be brought to a nearly upright position that would allow the craft to be raised.
British investigators said in an interim report issued last month that the yacht was knocked over by “extreme wind” and couldn’t recover.
The report said the Bayesian had chosen the site where it sank as shelter from forecast thunderstorms. Wind speeds exceeded 70 knots (81 mph) at the time of the sinking and “violently” knocked the vessel over to a 90-degree angle in under 15 seconds.
Lynch, who sold Autonomy, a software maker he founded in 1996, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011, had been acquitted on fraud charges in June 2024 by a federal court jury in San Francisco.


Many Americans are witnessing immigration arrests for the first time and reacting

Many Americans are witnessing immigration arrests for the first time and reacting
Updated 50 min 7 sec ago
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Many Americans are witnessing immigration arrests for the first time and reacting

Many Americans are witnessing immigration arrests for the first time and reacting
  • More Americans are witnessing people being hauled off as President Donald Trump’s administration aggressively works to increase immigration arrests

SAN DIEGO: Adam Greenfield was home nursing a cold when his girlfriend raced in to tell him Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles were pulling up in their trendy San Diego neighborhood.
The author and podcast producer grabbed his iPhone and bolted out the door barefoot, joining a handful of neighbors recording masked agents raiding a popular Italian restaurant nearby, as they yelled at the officers to leave. An hour later, the crowd had grown to nearly 75 people, with many in front of the agents’ vehicles.
“I couldn’t stay silent,” Greenfield said. “It was literally outside of my front door.”
More Americans are witnessing people being hauled off as they shop, exercise at the gym, dine out and otherwise go about their daily lives as President Donald Trump’s administration aggressively works to increase immigration arrests. As the raids touch the lives of people who aren’t immigrants themselves, many Americans who rarely, if ever, participated in civil disobedience are rushing out to record the actions on their phones and launch impromptu protests.
Arrests are being made outside gyms, busy restaurants

Greenfield said on the evening of the May 30 raid, the crowd included grandparents, retired military members, hippies, and restaurant patrons arriving for date night. Authorities threw flash bangs to force the crowd back and then drove off with four detained workers, he said.
“To do this, at 5 o’clock, right at the dinner rush, right on a busy intersection with multiple restaurants, they were trying to make a statement,” Greenfield said. “But I don’t know if their intended point is getting across the way they want it to. I think it is sparking more backlash.”
Previously, many arrests happened late at night or in the pre-dawn hours by agents waiting outside people’s homes as they left for work or outside their work sites when they finished their day. When ICE raided another popular restaurant in San Diego in 2008, agents did it in the early morning without incident.
White House border czar Tom Homan has said agents are being forced to make more arrests in communities because of sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with ICE in certain cities and states. ICE enforces immigration laws nationwide but seeks state and local help in alerting federal authorities of immigrants wanted for deportation and holding that person until federal officers take custody.
Vice President JD Vance, during a visit to Los Angeles on Friday, said those policies have given agents “a bit of a morale problem because they’ve had the local government in this community tell them that they’re not allowed to do their job.”
“When that Border Patrol agent goes out to do their job, they said within 15 minutes they have protesters, sometimes violent protesters who are in their face obstructing them,” he said.
’It was like a scene out of a movie’
Melyssa Rivas had just arrived at her office in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, California one morning last week when she heard the frightened screams of young women. She went outside to find the women confronting nearly a dozen masked federal agents who had surrounded a man kneeling on the pavement.
“It was like a scene out of a movie,” Rivas said. “They all had their faces covered and were standing over this man who was clearly traumatized. And there are these young girls screaming at the top of their lungs.”
As Rivas began recording the interaction, a growing group of neighbors shouted at the agents to leave the man alone. They eventually drove off in vehicles, without detaining him, video shows.
Rivas spoke to the man afterward, who told her the agents had arrived at the car wash where he worked that morning, then pursued him as he fled on his bicycle. It was one of several recent workplace raids in the majority-Latino city.
The same day, federal agents were seen at a Home Depot, a construction site and an LA Fitness gym. It wasn’t immediately clear how many people had been detained.
“Everyone is just rattled,” said Alex Frayde, an employee at LA Fitness who said he saw the agents outside the gym and stood at the entrance, ready to turn them away as another employee warned customers about the sighting. In the end, the agents never came in.
Communities protest around ICE buildings
Arrests at immigration courts and other ICE buildings have also prompted emotional scenes as masked agents have turned up to detain people going to routine appointments and hearings.
In the city of Spokane in eastern Washington state, hundreds of people rushed to protest outside an ICE building June 11 after former city councilor Ben Stuckart posted on Facebook. Stuckart wrote that he was a legal guardian of a Venezuelan asylum seeker who went to check in at the ICE building, only to be detained. His Venezuelan roommate was also detained.
Both men had permission to live and work in the US temporarily under humanitarian parole, Stuckart told The Associated Press.
“I am going to sit in front of the bus,” Stuckart wrote, referring to the van that was set to transport the two men to an ICE detention center in Tacoma. “The Latino community needs the rest of our community now. Not tonight, not Saturday, but right now!!!!”
The city of roughly 230,000 is the seat of Spokane County, where just over half of voters cast ballots for Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
Stuckart was touched to see his mother’s caregiver among the demonstrators.
“She was just like, ‘I’m here because I love your mom, and I love you, and if you or your friends need help, then I want to help,’” he said through tears.
By evening, the Spokane Police Department sent over 180 officers, with some using pepper balls, to disperse protesters. Over 30 people were arrested, including Stuckart who blocked the transport van with others. He was later released.
Aysha Mercer, a stay-at-home mother of three, said she is “not political in any way, shape or form.” But many children in her Spokane neighborhood — who play in her yard and jump on her trampoline — come from immigrant families, and the thought of them being affected by deportations was “unacceptable,” she said.
She said she wasn’t able to go to Stuckart’s protest. But she marched for the first time in her life on June 14, joining millions in “No Kings” protests across the country.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt as strongly as I do right this here second,” she said.