How Better Nutrition for Children Helps Solve Two of the World’s Biggest Problems

Fifty-one percent. This is the alarming dropout rate of Ghanaian girls who do not complete junior high school. Many drop out to get married. Child marriage is a common practice that affects 4 out of every 10 girls in sub-Saharan Africa.

In Ghana, 27% of girls are married before reaching the legal age. The percentage is even higher in rural areas and among the poorest population, particularly in the Northern Regions, where it has increased in recent years, impelled by cultural practices and poverty. 

Kids' educational test scores are a major cause for concern across the world. Learning plummeted nearly everywhere during the COVID-19 pandemic—but even before that, standardized test result measures in mathematics, science and reading were heading in the wrong direction.

“World leaders have promised everything to everyone. But they are failing….” says Bjørn Lomborg, “…The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are supposed to be delivered by 2030. The goals literally promise everything, like eradicating poverty, hunger and disease; stopping war and climate change, ending corruption, fixing education along with countless other promises. This year, the world is at halftime for its promises, but nowhere near halfway.”