Improve nutrition for mothers-to-be and save lives

CBC news, Thursday, August 14, 2008 If Bill Gates, say, offered you $10 billion to solve the big problems of the world, what would you spend it on? Counterterrorism? Global warming? World hunger? What about on the three great plagues of the modern era: HIV, malaria, TB? Where do you think you would get the most bang for your buck? These are exactly the questions a think-tank called the Copenhagen Consensus has been asking, on three occasions now, over the past four years, with the support of such influential publications as The Economist magazine and, this year, the Wall Street Journal.

In 2017, $146 billion was spent on aid and development. Even this large sum remains a fraction of what would be needed to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet, despite the scarce resources, there is surprisingly little discussion about setting priorities in development spending.

A global food crisis is looming, so policymakers everywhere need to think hard about how to make food cheaper and more plentiful. That requires making a commitment to producing more fertilizer and better seeds, maximizing the potential offered by genetic modification, and abandoning the rich world’s obsession with organics.