Gates Doubles Spending Against Hunger

  • Overseas
  • 2015

In 2015, Melinda Gates announced that the foundation she and her husband steer would double its investments against hunger in the developing world. “Malnutrition is the underlying cause of nearly half of all under-five child deaths,” she noted, promising that the Gates Foundation would spend $776 million over the next six years to help change that. Malnutrition is now concentrated in a small number of countries where Gates will focus its efforts—India, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Burkina Faso. Emphasis will be placed on improving the nutrition of women and girls as soon as they become pregnant, educating mothers on infant feeding, encouraging breastfeeding, increasing sanitation to reduce energy-sapping infections, fortifying purchased foods with nutrients known to be underconsumed, and focusing on keeping children fed from birth to age two, when neurological development and other crucial growth is most rapid.