Honorees include Brazil's President Lula and 10 leaders working
to improve health and nutrition in their communities
NEW YORK, Sept. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- 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 took place during United Nations General
Assembly week and 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 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."
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.
Celebrating Global Goalkeepers
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.
The event also honored 10 Goalkeepers Champions—experts,
innovators, advocates, and leaders from around the world—who are
leading the charge towards a more nourished world: Dr. Tahmeed
Ahmed of Bangladesh, Ladidi
Bako-Aiyegbusi of Nigeria,
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. Please read the champions bios and the
full press release here. Please find the Goalkeepers champions'
bios and the full press release here.
Photos from the event can be found here.
The full text of the 2024 Goalkeepers report can be found
here:
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/goalkeepers/report/2024-report/
Additional Goalkeepers materials are available
here:
Goalkeepers 2024 Report Materials
Goalkeepers 2024 Data Visualizations
Goalkeepers 2024 Images
Media contact: media@gatesfoundation.org
About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided
by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy,
productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving
people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out
of hunger and extreme poverty. In the
United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially
those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities
they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by
CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction
of Co-Chairs Bill Gates and Melinda French
Gates and the board of trustees.
About Goalkeepers
Goalkeepers is the foundation's
campaign to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development
Goals (Global Goals). By sharing stories and data behind the Global
Goals through an annual report, the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation hopes to inspire a new generation of leaders—Goalkeepers
who raise awareness of progress, hold their leaders accountable,
and drive action to achieve the Global Goals.
About the Global Goals
On September 25, 2015, at the United Nations
headquarters in New York, 193
world leaders committed to the 17 Sustainable Development
Goals (Global Goals). These are a series of ambitious
objectives and targets to achieve three extraordinary things by
2030: end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and fix climate
change.
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