Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: We want to welcome Bill Gates joining us to discuss
Speaker 2: what is the Goalkeepers Report for twenty twenty four, the
Speaker 2: title of which is the Race to Nourish a Warming World. Now,
Speaker 2: in this report you talk of a global health boom
Speaker 2: that we all experienced from the year twenty to twenty
Speaker 2: twenty that has come to a screeching halt, and in
Speaker 2: particular you single out the worst child health crisis being malnutrition.
Speaker 2: Why is malnutrition such an issue?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, the incredible progress we made since turn of
Speaker 3: the century until it started pandemic, and it really should
Speaker 3: be celebrated.
Speaker 1: We brought a child to death.
Speaker 3: Down from over ten million year to under five million,
Speaker 3: and then it plateaued.
Speaker 1: It plateaued, you.
Speaker 3: Know, because of interest costs for the poor countries and
Speaker 3: the pandemic itself. But we want to get back to
Speaker 3: that rapid improvement. We do need to make products on
Speaker 3: malnutrition to do that, because if you don't get the
Speaker 3: right food when you're before you're born and in your
Speaker 3: early years, your brain in your body never developed and
Speaker 3: so your mental and physical capabilities are far far short
Speaker 3: of what they should be, which is not only a
Speaker 3: tragedy for you, but your country, where the young people
Speaker 3: is the key driver for their economic growth, they get
Speaker 3: into a poverty trap when they have very, very high malnutrition.
Speaker 2: The long term implications for the individual clear. Can you
Speaker 2: paint the economic impact of this? Have you risen the
Speaker 2: data on it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So.
Speaker 3: The whole generation that's malnourished, then as they grow up,
Speaker 3: your investments in educating them aren't going to work as
Speaker 3: well your ability to move to higher pain activities. It
Speaker 3: gets stalled. And without that engine of productivity, you don't
Speaker 3: get the tax collection that lets you put even more
Speaker 3: into the school system.
Speaker 1: And so that's where you get prepped.
Speaker 3: Particularly in Africa where the conditions are challenging. The population
Speaker 3: growth makes it more challenging, and then climate change, which
Speaker 3: is affecting the ability to grow food, is its most
Speaker 3: negative effect, particularly near the equator.
Speaker 2: In poor countries, I think a figure of some three
Speaker 2: trillion dollars in productivity is lost. But sort of the
Speaker 2: irony of all of this bill is that in many
Speaker 2: ways the solutions aren't rocket science. It's about giving prenatal
Speaker 2: nutrients to mothers in the form of a bit of
Speaker 2: fullic acid or vitamins to be enriched. What else could
Speaker 2: be done though, to more seriously impact and reduce this malnutrition.
Speaker 3: Well, in the last ten years, we've gained a deep
Speaker 3: understanding of what goes on that if you don't get
Speaker 3: the right food, your actually your stomach gets inflamed and
Speaker 3: then you can't even absorb the food that you're eating,
Speaker 3: and that's partly you're not getting the right vitamins. You know,
Speaker 3: we can help with that by making sure that during
Speaker 3: pregnancy your mother gets those vitamins and then later that
Speaker 3: the food you eat are fortified in the right ways.
Speaker 3: And that can be done vary inexpensively and so cheap.
Speaker 3: Solutions that are ready to scale dress almost half of
Speaker 3: this problem. And then we have a pipeline of innovation
Speaker 3: that'll go after the rest of it.
Speaker 1: But it you know, it's.
Speaker 3: Clear what we need to do to enable these kids
Speaker 3: to achieve their potential.
Speaker 2: Can you talk about that pipeline of innovation a little
Speaker 2: bit more?
Speaker 3: What excited you that, Well, what we've seen is that
Speaker 3: the microbiome, which is the term for.
Speaker 1: All the bacteria.
Speaker 3: Growing in your gut, it can get into a bad state,
Speaker 3: and so we want to get it back to that
Speaker 3: non and flamed state. And one I approach that we're
Speaker 3: trialing is actually to eat a probiotic. We're actually the
Speaker 3: good bacteria get into your stomach and out compete the
Speaker 3: bad bacteria. We think that will be quite beneficial.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: We have that out in countries to see the effects,
Speaker 3: and then we'd have to drive the price of that
Speaker 3: down so that you can join these other tactics has
Speaker 3: proven ways to help out all of these kids.
Speaker 2: The innovation is obviously something we lean into when we
Speaker 2: think ultimately of Bill Gates. You're the tech guy who's
Speaker 2: every other question at the moment, I'm sure is about
Speaker 2: generative AI. Is there anything within these new developments that
Speaker 2: the whole world is obsessing about that is helping in
Speaker 2: practical ways for malnutrition and for world health?
Speaker 3: Well, the you know, malnutrition in some ways it's you know,
Speaker 3: such a basic thing.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: You know, so we do need to raise money to
Speaker 3: get resources for this so that the poor countries, you know,
Speaker 3: get out of the poverty trap and then are are
Speaker 3: self sufficient. The innovation, UH is going to accelerate tools
Speaker 3: like AI or helping us understand that God the immune system,
Speaker 3: you know, how to design vaccines UH in a in
Speaker 3: a very deep way. And you know, the key thing
Speaker 3: that the Foundation has innovation is making sure it's not
Speaker 3: just helping the rich countries, but it's helping the poor
Speaker 3: ust And so, you know, can they get medical advice
Speaker 3: in their native language on their cell phone. Can they
Speaker 3: have their diseases that are so ignored, like malaria, Can
Speaker 3: we use AI to develop ways to not only reduce
Speaker 3: that but eventually eradicate it. And so, you know, that's
Speaker 3: where the Foundation is looking at the innovation and making
Speaker 3: sure that it's benefiting those most in need.
Speaker 2: The Foundation talking with global leaders often, I'm sure global
Speaker 2: leaders of wealthy developed nations who are preoccupied right now
Speaker 2: with their own political instabilities, their own worries about the
Speaker 2: cost of living. Will you get the help you need
Speaker 2: from developed nations? Do you think?
Speaker 1: Now that's a very good question. You know.
Speaker 3: The dream is that even in the face of huge
Speaker 3: budgetary challenges that all countries have, that they would be
Speaker 3: willing to have one to two percent that go to
Speaker 3: help the poorest, to help help these countries move forward.
Speaker 3: And these are things where you're saving a life for
Speaker 3: less than a thousand dollars per life. Saved, so, you know,
Speaker 3: very catalytic, very well measured. You know, I wouldn't be
Speaker 3: putting my money in unless I knew that it was
Speaker 3: extremely well spent. And so we're trying to keep this
Speaker 3: on the agenda to continue that miracle that took place
Speaker 3: where we made so much progress getting rid of childhood death.
Speaker 2: You talk of that miracle, and I've got to ask you,
Speaker 2: as someone who you know, almost sees us taking those
Speaker 2: steps ahead, and then it feels as though something gets
Speaker 2: in the way. Call it a war, call it a
Speaker 2: global epidemic, and we take what feels like two steps back.
Speaker 2: Do you ever just loose confidence? Do you ever feel
Speaker 2: that this is a fight that caught me one?
Speaker 3: Well, I will say that when we set the current
Speaker 3: goals the United Nations, which are called the Sustainable Development Goals,
Speaker 3: we didn't anticipate a pandemic. We didn't dissipate the financial
Speaker 3: difficulties that the African countries would find themselves in paying
Speaker 3: more in interest than they can for health and education.
Speaker 3: And we didn't anticipate the wars that have broken out
Speaker 3: both Ukraine and several others including the Middle East. And
Speaker 3: so the goals we set for twenty thirty. You know,
Speaker 3: you look back and you know it feels a bit naive,
Speaker 3: but you know, every life saved really counts. You know,
Speaker 3: here we're talking about millions of lives. We're talking about
Speaker 3: making these countries stable, having health systems so that if
Speaker 3: potential pandemics getting started, they can stop it before it
Speaker 3: spreads globally, So not only the moral benefits, but the
Speaker 3: global benefits are pretty strong. And yes, it's harder today
Speaker 3: than it was a few years ago to get through
Speaker 3: the noise level to get this cause to be heard.
Speaker 3: But you know, because it's you know, it's about helping
Speaker 3: other humans, I think we'll succeed.
Speaker 1: You know, we're very committed to it.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you for talking us through accelerating the progress
Speaker 2: towards the global goals. Appreciate it, Bill Gates, Thank you
Speaker 2: for your time.
Speaker 1: Thank you