DAVOS: Under directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI) announced it will contribute around AED30 million (US 8.1 million) to support programs by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The announcement was made during MBRGI’s participation in the World Economic Forum, held in Davos Switzerland from 15 to 19 January 2024, where it signed a commitment to partnering with UNICEF, with the aim of enhancing life conditions and providing a nutrition safety net for vulnerable children and women around the world, especially in crisis-affected countries where malnutrition is a serious issue.
Through this agreement, both MBRGI and UNICEF hope to ensure vulnerable children and women access the essential nutrition services they need to protect them from malnutrition and achieve their long-term development potential.
Under the agreement, MBRGI joins other global part
ners including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children Investment Fund Foundation in pledging of around AED 30 million (US$8.1 million) funds toward the he UNICEF-led Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) – a new financing mechanism designed to accelerate the scale-up of sustainable policies, programmes and supplies to end child wasting. The funding will enable critical nutrient supplements and therapeutic treatment to reach more than 270,000 children and women over the next three years, in line with MBRGI’s aims of fighting hunger and malnutrition and helping underprivileged populations around the world.
Saeed Al Eter, Assistant Secretary General of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI) said: ‘The collaboration with UNICEF is inspired by the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, of helping the underprivileged. The pledged AED 30 million to CNF to provide micronutrient supplements and meals to ove
r 270,000 children and women over the next 3 years is an extension of MBRGI’s collaboration with international organizations to create sustainable solutions that address this issue.
‘MBRGI’s support of the Child Nutrition Fund by UNICEF to end child wasting around the world, reflects our recognition of the seriousness of child malnutrition and its effects on development and progress, and our confidence that CNF’s comprehensive framework is capable of affecting a meaningful and sustainable change in terms of preventing and treating child wasting,’ he added.
‘UNICEF is grateful to commence this partnership with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives and for their support to maternal and child nutrition programmes in vulnerable communities,’ said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Kitty van der Heijden. ‘Good nutrition is the bedrock of child survival, growth, and development. Well-nourished children are better able to grow, develop and learn to their full potential. They are also more resilient i
n the face of illness and crisis. In partnership with MBRGI, UNICEF will achieve critically needed nutrition outcomes for children and women.’
This partnership between MBRGI and UNICEF is a commitment to a brighter future for the most vulnerable children and women, and testament to the power of collaboration in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in the face of increasing global challenges such as inequities, conflict, and climate crises.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), undernourishment causes the death of 1.3 million children every year – that’s 45% of total children’s deaths. On the other hand, 52 million children under 5 years of age are wasted, 17 million are severely wasted, 155 million are stunted and 41 million are overweight or obese.
MBRGI manages dozens of initiatives and establishments that implement humanitarian programs around the world under five key pillars: Humanitarian Aid Relief, Healthcare and Disease Prevention, Spreading Education Knowledge, Inno
vation Entrepreneurship, and Empowering Communities. In 2022, MBRGI spent AED 1.4 billion on projects across these pillars, benefiting 102 million people in 100 countries. Humanitarian Aid Relief spending amounted to AED 910 million, reaching 30.2 million people.
Under this pillar, MBRGI also conducted a series of food aid campaigns that started with the ’10 Million Meals’ campaign in Ramadan 2020 as the first and largest show of social solidarity, helping those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was followed by the ‘100 Million Meals’ campaign in 2021 that extended its reach to 20 countries across Africa and Asia, and the ‘1 Billion Meals’ campaign of 2022 which distributed meals in 50 countries around the world, highlighting UAE’s efforts to end hunger. Most recently, MBRGI launched the ‘1 Billion Meals Endowment’ initiative in Ramadan 2023, which aims to establish the largest sustainable food aid endowment fund.
Source: Emirates News Agency