Rwanda’s minister of health, Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, Kenya’s Dr. Jemimah Njuki, and chief of economic empowerment at UN Women, Ladidi Bako-Aiyegbusi of Nigeria, and Beza Beshah Haile of Ethiopia are among the honored 10 Goalkeepers Champions —recognized by the Gates Foundation yesterday at Gatekeepers event in New York during United Nations General Assembly organized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The champions are experts, innovators, advocates, and leaders from around the world—who are advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) with solutions to keep people healthy and nourished in a rapidly warming world, and leading them towards a more nourished world.
The annual event, hosted by Janet Mbugua, media personality and anchor highlighted opportunities to ensure better nutrition for all so everyone can reach their full potential.
“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 up 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.”
At the event, the 2024 Global Goalkeeper Award 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.
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.
Other 10 Goalkeepers Champions included Dr. Tahmeed Ahmed of Bangladesh, Dr. Zahra Hoodbhoy of Pakistan, Dr. Nancy Krebs of the United States,, Lilian dos Santos Rahal of Brazil, Bhavani Shankar of the United Kingdom and Ratan Tata of India.
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.