Today's Edition
DAVOS (WAM)
Under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI) announced it will contribute around Dh30 million ($8.1 million) to support programs by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The announcement was made during MBRGI’s participation in the World Economic Forum, held in Davos, Switzerland from 15 to 19 January 2024, where it signed a commitment to partnering with UNICEF, with the aim of enhancing life conditions and providing a nutrition safety net for vulnerable children and women around the world, especially in crisis-affected countries where malnutrition is a serious issue.
Through this agreement, both MBRGI and UNICEF hope to ensure vulnerable children and women access the essential nutrition services they need to protect them from malnutrition and achieve their long-term development potential.
Under the agreement, MBRGI joins other global partners including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children Investment Fund Foundation in pledging of around Dh30 million funds toward the UNICEF-led Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) - a new financing mechanism designed to accelerate the scale-up of sustainable policies, programmes and supplies to end child wasting. The funding will enable critical nutrient supplements and therapeutic treatment to reach more than 270,000 children and women over the next three years, in line with MBRGI’s aims of fighting hunger and malnutrition and helping underprivileged populations around the world.
Saeed Al Eter, Assistant Secretary General of MBRGI, said: “The collaboration with UNICEF is inspired by the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, of helping the underprivileged. The pledged Dh30 million to CNF to provide micronutrient supplements and meals to over 270,000 children and women over the next 3 years is an extension of MBRGI’s collaboration with international organizations to create sustainable solutions that address this issue.”
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), undernourishment causes the death of 1.3 million children every year – that’s 45 per cent of total children’s deaths.
