First commitment pledged by U.S. philanthropy Kirk Humanitarian to support global scale up of prenatal vitamins for women worldwide
PARIS (May 31, 2024) — On the sidelines of the tennis Grand Slam tournament at Roland-Garros, today the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE), the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Gates Foundation) and partners gathered leaders from across tennis, government, philanthropy, the United Nations, and civil society for a series of events to take action on the most pressing health and nutrition issues facing women and girls around the world. The events begin the official countdown to the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit, which will be hosted next March 27-28, by the Government of France.
More than 1 billion women and girls lack access to the nutritious diets and essential services they need to survive and thrive, and women and girls are 50% more likely to suffer from malnutrition than boys and men. While the majority of expectant mothers in high-income countries take multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS)—commonly known as prenatal vitamins—throughout their pregnancies, most women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) lack access to this simple, low-cost and lifesaving resource. Prenatal vitamins provide key nutrients that dramatically reduce the risk of stillbirth, infant mortality, and babies born small and vulnerable, and they improve women’s health.
New N4G commitment highlights critical role of women’s nutrition
The Government of France welcomed a USD$125 million commitment from Kirk Humanitarian, a U.S.-based philanthropy dedicated to increasing MMS access to women in LMICs.
The commitment will support global efforts to introduce and scale MMS over the next five years in countries with the highest burden of anemia and malnutrition. It is the first pledge toward N4G, a global pledging moment to drive greater action toward ending malnutrition and helping ensure everyone, everywhere can reach their full potential. At the events, the French ministry announced it will prioritize gender and the nutritional needs of women and girls for the first time at the summit.
“We are at an inflection point in global efforts to reach as many women as possible with high-quality prenatal vitamins,” said Spencer Kirk, founder and managing director of Kirk Humanitarian. “Country demand and readiness to scale this lifesaving intervention has never been greater, and mechanisms like the Child Nutrition Fund enable collaboration between governments and donors like never before. Kirk Humanitarian is pleased to make our N4G commitment now, rather than waiting until 2025, so resources can be deployed immediately to accelerate progress toward reaching global nutrition targets for women and newborns.”
Supporting UNICEF’s Improving Maternal Nutrition Acceleration Plan
As part of its funding commitment, Kirk Humanitarian announced it will provide an in-kind donation worth USD$34.4 million to the UNICEF-led Child Nutrition Fund of all the MMS product needed to support UNICEF’s Improving Maternal Nutrition Acceleration Plan. Launched in March 2024, the plan aims to ensure women and children can reach their full potential by preventing anemia and malnutrition in pregnant women. It will fast track delivery of a package of essential services—including MMS—to 16 million women across 16 high-burden countries by the end of 2025.
“More than 500 million women around the world, including 32 million pregnant women, suffer from anemia, which can have devastating consequences for women’s lives and the survival, growth and development of their young children,” said Victor Aguayo, UNICEF Director for Child Nutrition and Development. “The contribution by Kirk Humanitarian will support UNICEF’s work to give mothers and their newborns the nutrients they need to thrive. To be fully realized, this contribution in kind requires additional donor resources to support the delivery of a comprehensive package of key antenatal care services.”
Governments and donors are jointly strategizing and pooling resources in support of country-led plans to rapidly scale up life-saving solutions for maternal and child nutrition through the UNICEF-led Child Nutrition Fund—a new financing mechanism that includes a 1:1 match for governments who procure essential nutrition supplies like MMS. At the event, the governments of Bangladesh and Nigeria shared how the Child Nutrition Fund is enabling their efforts to save lives and improve maternal and child health.
New global MMS investment roadmap launches
In recognition of MMS as one of the highest-impact and most cost-effective tools to support pregnant women and their babies’ health, a collaborative of private philanthropies (the Gates Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, the Eleanor Crook Foundation and Kirk Humanitarian) launched a global investment roadmap designed to catalyze and prioritize action and investment in this underutilized intervention.
The roadmap presents an opportunity to reach at least 260 million women in 45 countries with MMS by the end of 2030, an ambition that would deliver profound health and nutrition impacts for mothers and babies. The plan would save more than half a million lives, improve birth outcomes for more than five million babies, and prevent anemia in over 15 million pregnant women. At a cost of just over $4 per pregnancy (a total cost of $1.1 billion over seven years – $720 million from donors and the remainder coming from domestic resources), the roadmap would translate to monumental health and nutrition gains while directing coordinated efforts to strengthen and improve health systems and antenatal care services in parallel.
Today’s commitment from Kirk Humanitarian represents 17 percent of the donor share as identified in the new MMS Investment Roadmap, bringing the donor financial share down to $595 million between now and 2030.
WTA Foundation’s Women Change the Game and Global Women’s Health Fund leverage new resources for women’s health and nutrition
The Roland-Garros events fall under the banner of Women Change the Game, a campaign from the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Foundation and the Gates Foundation, launched earlier this year, to unite the power of women’s tennis and philanthropy to mobilize awareness and resources for life-saving women’s health and nutrition commodities and services, particularly for vulnerable women in LMICs.
“As we continue to combat rising levels of malnutrition and hunger, this next year will be pivotal,” said Marion Bartoli, former French professional tennis player who held a career high WTA ranking of No.7 and won eight career WTA singles titles. “Together with our partners, the WTA Foundation will continue to work alongside French leaders to elevate women’s nutrition as a global priority in the leadup to Nutrition for Growth 2025 and beyond.”
“Every expecting mother should receive high quality health care,” said Anita Zaidi, President, Gender Equality Division at the Gates Foundation. “As more women gain access to antenatal care services around the world, we must ensure that includes nutrition counseling and support. Investing in MMS is a commitment to supporting all women—no matter where they live—with the quality care that they and their babies deserve.”
At the evening event at Roland-Garros, Kirk Humanitarian also announced an additional $5 million match challenge to unlock new individual and philanthropic commitments to the WTA Foundation’s Global Women’s Health Fund over the next year. Through the Greenway Foundation, payment systems company Greenway also announced it was partnering with the WTA Foundation’s Global Women’s Health Fund through its innovative revenue model, collecting a 1% top-up on all payments made by Greenway cards in support of global health and nutrition efforts.
In its first year, the Fund aims to raise funding to support 1 million women living in LMICs with prenatal vitamins, where access to this lifesaving commodity is limited. Every dollar raised through the Fund will be directed toward the UNICEF-led Child Nutrition Fund.
About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of Co-chairs Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates and the board of trustees.
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