Bill Gates And Aliko Dangote Foundations Move To End Undernutrition With N30bn

Aliko Dangote Foundation
and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation yesterday in
Abuja, announced a combined commitment
of $100 million, (N30 billion) over the next
five years (2016-2020) aimed at ending
undernutrition in Nigeria. This commitment
is expected to improve the lives of at least
five million families by 2020. This

commitment was announced by Aliko
Dangote and Bill Gates, during a joint press
conference in Abuja, Nigeria.
“Nutrition is one of the highest impact
investments we can make in Nigeria’s
future growth and prosperity. We know that
well-nourished children are more likely to
grow up to be healthy, fend off preventable
diseases, achieve more in school and even
earn higher income as adults,” said Bill
Gates. “This partnership builds on our
foundation’s strong commitment to Nigeria
– one of several countries where we are
working closely with the government, the
private sector and civil society to improve
health and development outcomes.”
In a joint statement, the two foundations
said they will begin a joint planning process
to determine details of the partnership.
Programmes will include community-based
approaches and proven interventions linked
to behaviour change, fortification of staple
foods with essential micronutrients, the
community management of acute
malnutrition and investments in the local
production of nutritious foods. A key
objective will be improving the livelihoods of
households by supporting nutrition-sensitive
agricultural programmes that can increase
family income, improve diets and empower
women and youths.
The two foundations also welcomed the
increased political attention to undernutrition
in Nigeria and noted that leadership will be
critical to future progress.
“In the spirit of our new partnership, we
encourage even more deliberate and
significant commitments from the
government of Nigeria at all levels to step
up investments in nutrition. It is time to
make strategic investments in interventions
to eliminate malnutrition in Nigeria. This will
be achieved through a massive scale-up of
interventions, matched with effective
coordination of efforts and innovative
sustainable solutions. We have to ensure
that children who are already malnourished
receive help and are prevented from dying
while we improve the conditions that led to
them being malnourished in the first place’,”
said Aliko Dangote