Base technology for Africa on the best science and countries’ national needs

Lead Editor

Nation Media Group

The CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mark Suzman, who will be in Nairobi in the coming week to meet with the Foundation's partners, spoke to Jackson Mutinda about their plan for East Africa

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Yeah, we did a record budget, the largest budget ever of any philanthropy in history — $8.3 billion. it was a reflection of our board and Bill and Melinda feeling that, for the issues we work on as a foundation — giving every person the opportunity to lead a healthy and productive life — this is the most challenging time in the Foundation's history. We were founded in 2000, we have been part of an unprecedented two decades of steady progress. Kenya is a good example of that. While there have been ups and downs, in aggregate for the first two decades of the 21st century, there were significant reductions in poverty, reductions in preventable child mortality, reductions in maternal mortality, reductions in HIV, TB and malaria deaths, and improvements in agricultural productivity. And what we've seen with the Covid crisis, not just in Kenya but across the continent and really across much of Asia and Latin America, is that progress is stalled and, in many areas, reversed. We haven't fully recovered from the Covid crisis.

But there's another new vaccine that's been developed at Oxford. We're still waiting for the large Phase 3 trials, but there certainly are lessons available on what could be better vaccines. There are also other tools available. One that we've been investing in is monoclonal antibodies. There were trials in West Africa in the past couple of years, which showed almost 100 percent efficacy. If you gave children monoclonal antibodies ahead of the malaria high season, they did not get malaria. Now, the problem with something like that at the moment is it’s too expensive. They're not ready for primetime for millions of people, but they show us the potential. Can we drive down the cost? Why were those so effective? Can we use some of the lessons from the effectiveness of the antibodies to actually inform the next generation of vaccines to make them much more effective?

It's important take a step back and ask, what is the most important issue that needs to be tackled, not just Africa but globally, to increase productivity of core crops and livestock? And that is more important than ever because of climate change. Climate change is making the demand for more drought- and flood-resilient, disease-resistant crops more than ever. So, our view at the Foundation is we make a very wide range of investments across conventional and GM and other related things. About saying what's going to work best in which area, we are neutral. We just want what's going to increase productivity, nutrition, disease resistance. And what you need is a strong, robust, informed scientific and regulatory framework both globally and nationally. And it does need to be national because unlike, say, medicines, crops can grow and outbreak differently in different regions. Ultimately, all countries, like Kenya, need to make choices based on science and the best regulatory evidence of what's most needed in the country. But, certainly, we feel that in that context there is a place for GM crops that have proven safety and health records.