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We want to welcome Bill Gates joining us to discuss what is the Goalkeepers Report for twenty twenty four, the title of which is the Race to Nourish a Warming World. Now, in this report you talk of a global health boom that we all experienced from the year twenty to twenty twenty that has come to a screeching halt, and in particular you single out the worst child health crisis being malnutrition. Why is malnutrition such an issue?
Yeah, So, the incredible progress we made since turn of the century until it started pandemic, and it really should be celebrated.
We brought a child to death.
Down from over ten million year to under five million, and then it plateaued.
It plateaued, you.
Know, because of interest costs for the poor countries and the pandemic itself. But we want to get back to
that rapid improvement. We do need to make products on malnutrition to do that, because if you don't get the right food when you're before you're born and in your early years, your brain in your body never developed and so your mental and physical capabilities are far far short of what they should be, which is not only a tragedy for you, but your country, where the young people is the key driver for their economic growth, they get into a poverty trap when they have very, very high malnutrition.
The long term implications for the individual clear. Can you paint the economic impact of this? Have you risen the data on it?
Yeah, So.
The whole generation that's malnourished, then as they grow up, your investments in educating them aren't going to work as well your ability to move to higher pain activities. It gets stalled. And without that engine of productivity, you don't get the tax collection that lets you put even more into the school system.
And so that's where you get prepped.
Particularly in Africa where the conditions are challenging. The population growth makes it more challenging, and then climate change, which is affecting the ability to grow food, is its most negative effect, particularly near the equator.
In poor countries, I think a figure of some three trillion dollars in productivity is lost. But sort of the irony of all of this bill is that in many ways the solutions aren't rocket science. It's about giving prenatal nutrients to mothers in the form of a bit of fullic acid or vitamins to be enriched. What else could be done though, to more seriously impact and reduce this malnutrition.
Well, in the last ten years, we've gained a deep understanding of what goes on that if you don't get the right food, your actually your stomach gets inflamed and then you can't even absorb the food that you're eating, and that's partly you're not getting the right vitamins. You know, we can help with that by making sure that during pregnancy your mother gets those vitamins and then later that the food you eat are fortified in the right ways. And that can be done vary inexpensively and so cheap.
Solutions that are ready to scale dress almost half of this problem. And then we have a pipeline of innovation that'll go after the rest of it.
But it you know, it's.
Clear what we need to do to enable these kids to achieve their potential.
Can you talk about that pipeline of innovation a little bit more?
What excited you that, Well, what we've seen is that the microbiome, which is the term for.
All the bacteria.
Growing in your gut, it can get into a bad state, and so we want to get it back to that non and flamed state. And one I approach that we're trialing is actually to eat a probiotic. We're actually the good bacteria get into your stomach and out compete the bad bacteria. We think that will be quite beneficial.
You know.
We have that out in countries to see the effects, and then we'd have to drive the price of that down so that you can join these other tactics has proven ways to help out all of these kids.
The innovation is obviously something we lean into when we think ultimately of Bill Gates. You're the tech guy who's every other question at the moment, I'm sure is about generative AI. Is there anything within these new developments that the whole world is obsessing about that is helping in practical ways for malnutrition and for world health?
Well, the you know, malnutrition in some ways it's you know, such a basic thing.
Uh.
You know, so we do need to raise money to get resources for this so that the poor countries, you know, get out of the poverty trap and then are are self sufficient. The innovation, UH is going to accelerate tools like AI or helping us understand that God the immune system, you know, how to design vaccines UH in a in
a very deep way. And you know, the key thing that the Foundation has innovation is making sure it's not just helping the rich countries, but it's helping the poor ust And so, you know, can they get medical advice in their native language on their cell phone. Can they have their diseases that are so ignored, like malaria, Can we use AI to develop ways to not only reduce
that but eventually eradicate it. And so, you know, that's where the Foundation is looking at the innovation and making sure that it's benefiting those most in need.
The Foundation talking with global leaders often, I'm sure global leaders of wealthy developed nations who are preoccupied right now with their own political instabilities, their own worries about the cost of living. Will you get the help you need from developed nations? Do you think?
Now that's a very good question. You know.
The dream is that even in the face of huge budgetary challenges that all countries have, that they would be willing to have one to two percent that go to help the poorest, to help help these countries move forward. And these are things where you're saving a life for less than a thousand dollars per life. Saved, so, you know, very catalytic, very well measured. You know, I wouldn't be putting my money in unless I knew that it was
extremely well spent. And so we're trying to keep this on the agenda to continue that miracle that took place where we made so much progress getting rid of childhood death.
You talk of that miracle, and I've got to ask you, as someone who you know, almost sees us taking those steps ahead, and then it feels as though something gets in the way. Call it a war, call it a global epidemic, and we take what feels like two steps back. Do you ever just loose confidence? Do you ever feel that this is a fight that caught me one?
Well, I will say that when we set the current goals the United Nations, which are called the Sustainable Development Goals, we didn't anticipate a pandemic. We didn't dissipate the financial difficulties that the African countries would find themselves in paying more in interest than they can for health and education. And we didn't anticipate the wars that have broken out both Ukraine and several others including the Middle East. And
so the goals we set for twenty thirty. You know, you look back and you know it feels a bit naive, but you know, every life saved really counts. You know, here we're talking about millions of lives. We're talking about making these countries stable, having health systems so that if potential pandemics getting started, they can stop it before it spreads globally, So not only the moral benefits, but the
global benefits are pretty strong. And yes, it's harder today than it was a few years ago to get through the noise level to get this cause to be heard. But you know, because it's you know, it's about helping other humans, I think we'll succeed.
You know, we're very committed to it.
Well, thank you for talking us through accelerating the progress towards the global goals. Appreciate it, Bill Gates, Thank you for your time.
Thank you