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Innovation: cause for optimism amid the global food crisis
How long will food prices keep rising? Will food itself become scarce? There's a lot of doom and gloom these days about the global food crisis, made even worse by Russia's war in Ukraine.
But there are some reasons to be hopeful, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman said during a livestream conversation about the global food crisis hosted by GZERO Media in partnership with the organization he leads.
The Gates Foundation, he explained, has long been investing in innovations that can massively increase productivity by smallholder farmers across the developing world. Think drought-tolerant seeds or flood-resistant rice.
What's more, new tools like apps to customize fertilizer use and digitally map soil are becoming available to smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The goal is to double smallholder productivity.
Still, Suzman points out, none of that will matter without investing more in climate adaptation — especially better use of water.
Global food crisis: when food isn't merely expensive
Shortages as a result of Russia's war in Ukraine have aggravated a pre-existing global food crisis that could push a billion people — most of them in the poorest parts of the world — into starvation. It's not just one thing: droughts, COVID-induced supply chain snarls, and high energy prices have all gotten us to this point. And it’ll get worse later on if we don’t find ways to future-proof global food systems.
So, what are we gonna do about it? Several experts weighed in during the livestream discussion "Hunger Pains: The growing global food crisis," hosted by GZERO Media in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Indeed, we are moving toward a long-term scenario in which countries will simply be unable to produce and export as food as they are now, said Mark Suzman, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. And that's going to have political consequences.
If more people around the world can't get enough to eat, Eurasia Group and GZERO President Ian Bremmer warned that'll erode the very fabric of globalization — the global middle class. What's more, he added, when people get hungrier, they'll get angrier, and less interested in global solutions to their problems, which will, in turn, be reflected in their choice of government.
The magnitude of the challenge is daunting, said Suzman. Just think of the millions of children who'll become stunted from malnutrition, which means their brains will never become fully developed. He thinks the scale and size of the response so far fall far short of what's needed.
Ertharin Cousin, former head of the UN's World Food Programme, noted how the pandemic laid bare the failure of regional food systems to feed everyone, and now of course the war in Ukraine has made everything worse, for instance by slashing the WFP's capacity to supply food to the needy without Ukrainian grains. If we don't completely rethink the ways we produce and distribute food, she said we may soon transition from an affordability crisis to an availability crisis.
For her part, Kathryn Hollifield, from the World Bank's Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, unpacked the systemic challenges that are hurting the odds of meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals by the 2030 deadline.
Thomas Njeru, who knows a thing or two about smallholder farming because he grew up on a small farm in his native Kenya before co-founding a micro-insurance firm for smallholders, called for big agribiz to do more to increase the productivity of smallholders so we don't end up with situations like tomatoes costing four times more in Nairobi than in Chicago.
Finally, David Laborde, a research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, predicted that we have already reached peak global food inflation, although prices might rise further at the local level in some countries. He has a very clear message for governments thinking of export bans to address shortages: don't do it, because in the long run it'll hurt your farmers too.
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- Why we're in the current food crisis — and who could fix it - GZERO ... ›
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What's causing the global food crisis? Watch our live townhall discussion
WATCH: In partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GZERO Media presents “Hunger Pains,” a livestream event focused on the growing global food crisis, which could push more than a billion people towards starvation. Food supply chains, already disrupted by the COVID pandemic, are now further roiled by the ongoing war in Ukraine. Droughts and floods tied to climate change are impacting harvests globally and prices continue to rise, driving those most in need further into poverty.
Our experts will discuss the scope of the growing crisis, examine immediate needs and policy priorities, and review solutions that could help future-proof food supplies.
Join host Diana Fox Carney, senior advisor at Eurasia Group, in a live discussion with:
- Ian Bremmer, President and Founder, Eurasia Group and GZERO Media
- Ertharin Cousin, Former Executive Director, UN World Food Programme
- Kathryn Hollifield, Program Manager, Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP)
- David Laborde, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute
- Thomas Njeru, CEO and Co-Founder, PULA
- Mark Suzman, CEO, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Hunger Pains: The growing global food crisis
Monday, July 11, 2022 | 2:00 pm ET
- Why we're in the current food crisis — and who could fix it - GZERO ... ›
- How Russia's war is starving the world: food expert Ertharin Cousin ... ›
- Will Putin eat the world's bread? - GZERO Media ›
- In a food crisis, export controls are "worst possible" thing to do, says ... ›
- Ukraine and the global food crisis: how bad will it get? - GZERO Media ›
Mark Suzman’s big lesson learned from COVID
When now-CEO Mark Suzman joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2007, global health efforts were focused on the transition to fighting diseases like HIV, malaria, or TB under initiatives such as The Global Fund or PEPFAR.
Fifteen years later, the main lesson he's learned from COVID is is that "we have and did in the end respond albeit late," Suzman said during a livestream discussion on equitable vaccine distribution hosted by GZERO Media in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
What we've seen in the response, he explained, is "to some degree back in the glass half-full, half-empty response" with delays and setbacks caused by nationalism and inequitable vaccine distribution that caused many needless deaths. "
That is not a world we want to live in for the future."
Can the world learn lessons from vaccine inequity?
GZERO Media and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation convened leading experts in public health, research, development, and philanthropy on Thursday to discuss the uneven state of global recovery from health and economic perspectives. Participants included moderator Natasha Kimani of Africa No Filter; Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer; José Manuel Barroso, chair of Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance; Dr. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control; Melanie Saville, director of vaccine research and development for CEPI; and Mark Suzman, CEO of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.They discussed vaccine equity and how we can end the COVID pandemic in a way that better equips the world for similar challenges in the future.
On many streets in the UK and US, it’s almost possible to forget that there’s an ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. With so many westerners double vaccinated and boosted, the threat of the omicron variant has eased. In fact, the CDC just lifted mask recommendations for much of the US. But that doesn’t mean the pandemic is over. For many countries, that’s far from the case.
Moderator Natasha Kimani, the research and media programs lead at Africa No Filter, kicked off the discussion by asking where things stand today as the world marks the second anniversary of the pandemic.
“It depends on where you sit,” says Dr. John N. Nkengasong, a virologist and director of Africa’s CDC. “If you’re sitting in Africa, the glass is half empty. If you’re sitting in the global north, the glass may be half full.”
There’s a reason for optimism in parts of the world that have managed to vaccinate a majority of their populations. But in Africa, says Nkengasong, there’s deep concern because the virus, and its effects remain “very unpredictable and very unsettled.” Optimism elsewhere, he warns, should be approached with caution and humility because more surprises may await us. “There’s still a lot we need to learn about the virus,” he says.
Nkengasong is optimistic the world will overcome the pandemic but is concerned by how long it will take. “We are dealing with a very determined enemy — let there not be doubt in anyone’s mind.”
Sadly, many low-income countries are still struggling to get vaccines and distribute them properly. With only 11 percent of the African continent vaccinated, according to the UN, much more needs to be done.
So, why have some countries fared so well while others have languished?
“The world has not provided equitable distribution,” says Mark Suzman, CEO of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which came at the cost of “lives lost that could’ve been saved.” Before a vaccine was available, countries agreed in principle to distribute a future jab to the most vulnerable. But once a vaccine was developed, Suzman explains, domestic political pressures in western countries led to a free-for-all instead.
Politics aside, the production of such a quick and effective vaccine is remarkable, and the technological innovation is worth heralding. “I think we've put 10 years of development into less than a year,” says Melanie Saville, director of vaccine research and development for CEPI.
But as for the lessons to be learned from their unequal distribution? Suzman points to two areas. First, we must finish addressing the current crisis and ensure effective delivery of vaccines to the unvaccinated. But, second, we must get ahead of future health threats by ensuring there’s enough volume of treatments available in both low- and higher-income countries. To be ready for the next pandemic, he says, we need to have all the tools and structures in place, including good surveillance, research and development, and manufacturing capabilities to respond to health threats within a couple of hundred days.
You would think that a global pandemic threatening millions of lives would pull the world together in search of a solution. Instead, we’ve witnessed political fragmentation in the US and vaccine inequity worldwide.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, meanwhile, has managed to take the pandemic off everyone’s radar. What’s a deadly virus compared to the threat of nuclear weapons? “Maybe we should give President Putin a Nobel prize of medicine because, apparently, he made COVID disappear,” quips Manuel Barroso, chair of Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance. Putin, of course, did nothing of the sort, and low oxygen supplies in Ukraine have spotlighted how COVID, as well as many other medical issues, are amplified during times of war.
But the Russian assault on Ukraine has managed to breathe new life into transatlantic cooperation. Could this newfound energy for a bolstered alliance help move the needle on other issues, such as health?
“I think the answer’s yes,” says Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer. The pandemic wasn’t enough to shake up the dysfunctions in geopolitics, he explains, pointing to the politicization of health care at home and vaccine distribution inequity worldwide.
But the idea of a western collision with a nuclear-armed Russia?
That’s enough to shake up the allies and get them moving forward together, and Bremmer expects that cooperation to be long-lasting and to extend beyond the realms of defense and security (the wildcard being China and its future relationship with Russia), which will hopefully make it easier to help end the COVID pandemic and prepare for future health crises.
Looking back at the fight against COVID, Nkengasong likens the struggle in 2020 to one of fighting “a war with bare hands.” Last year, vaccines became the main tool for fighting back. This year, he says, we need to use every tool at our disposal — including self-testing, vaccines, boosting vaccine equity worldwide, ensuring access to new drugs — to prepare for the next variant, which “might cause severe disease.”
Only then, in late 2022, does he think there’s hope for “seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Whatever happened to equitable distribution? Live townhall today at 11 am ET
Today at 11 am ET, GZERO Media and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will convene leading experts in public health, research, development, and philanthropy to discuss the uneven state of recovery from health and economic perspectives.
As the world marks the two-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, most regions are still in the throes of outbreaks, and global vaccination rates are inconsistent – high in high-income countries, low in low-income countries.
How did this happen and why? Despite words of solidarity and a commitment to equity in the early days of the pandemic, the world has not seen that promise fulfilled. Can the gap be rectified to end the acute phase of this pandemic? And what has to be done to solve this for the future?
- José Manuel Barroso, Board Chair, Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance
- Ian Bremmer, President and Founder, Eurasia Group and GZERO Media
- Dr. John Nkengasong, Director, Africa Centers for Disease Control (Africa CDC)
- Melanie Saville, Director, Vaccine Research and Development, CEPI
- Mark Suzman, CEO, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Silver lining from COVID? Women around the world got access to digital payments
There are few silver linings from the pandemic, but for Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman, one of them is "a massive expansion of social payments to women across the world." Women traditionally excluded from such systems in countries like Kenya or Pakistan, he says, finally got online — with immense potential to set up businesses for instance in agriculture. These are the "green shoots that we need to collectively build on" so after COVID we get a "faster, more effective, and more equitable recovery for the entire world."
He spoke during "Measuring what matters: How women are critical to pandemic recovery," a livestream conversation on October 28, 2021, hosted by GZERO Media in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Watch our expert panel on reasons for hope in the COVID crisis
Watch the recording of GZERO Media virtual Town Hall, "Reasons for Hope: COVID and the Coming Year," presented in partnership with Eurasia Group and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Our panel discussed the road ahead in the global response to the COVID crisis. Will there be more multilateral cooperation on issues like gender equality moving forward from the pandemic?
Watch the event recording here: https://www.gzeromedia.com/townhall
Our moderator, CNBC health care correspondent Bertha Coombs, along with Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media, and Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation, spoke with distinguished experts on three key issues:
Heidi Larson, Director, The Vaccine Confidence Project
- How will COVID vaccines be distributed safely?
Minouche Shafik, Director of London School of Economics & Political Science
- How has the pandemic disproportionately impacted women?
Madeleine Albright, Chair, Albright Stonebridge Group and Albright Capital Management; former US Secretary of State
- What is the opportunity for global cooperation emerging from this crisis, and what are the greatest political risks?
Friday, December 4, 2020
12 noon EST/9 am PST/5 pm (17:00) GMT
#GZEROTownHall