Bezos, Gates, and other donors pledge $2 billion to tackle child malnutrition
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Nearly a dozen foundations and philanthropists including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his parents, Jackie and Miguel Bezos, the Gates Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, pledged more than $2 billion to address global child malnutrition at an event in Paris on Thursday evening. The financial commitments were announced at a Nutrition for Growth Summit event co-hosted by the Washington nonprofit Stronger Foundations for Nutrition—which works with philanthropies globally to direct funding to nutritional interventions—and the OECD Network of Foundations Working for Development.
The pledges come as U.S. international aid for global nutrition—which has ranged as high as $5 billion a year, according to the congressional Research Service—is facing severe cutbacks as President Donald Trump’s administration aims to cut this funding. The government’s efforts to dismantle the U.S.
Agency for International Development—which administers food aid through several programs—was blocked by a Maryland district judge on March 18 as “likely unconstitutional." But the government has appealed the decision and the future of food aid remains uncertain. The funds pledged by the Bezos family, Gates, Rockefeller, and others are substantial, but remain “woefully insufficient" to replace the loss of U.S. funding, Matt Freeman, Stronger Foundations for Nutrition’s executive director, told Barron’s.
Read on livemint.com