Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists”: Ministers of Finance champion investment in Early Years — through the Global Finance Facility
Shawn K. Baker, director of nutrition at the Gates Foundation; Mariam Claeson, director of the Global Financing Facility; and Julie McLaughlin, adviser to the vice president for human development at the World Bank Group, discuss the Human Capital Summit, held earlier this month during the IMF-World Bank Group Annual Meetings. They write, “We have learnt that early childhood experiences have a profound impact on brain development, affecting learning, health, behavior, and adult income. … Investing in healthy mothers, exclusive breastfeeding, and proper infant and young child feeding are three important places to start. The Global Financing Facility (GFF) is ensuring that pregnant women, mothers, newborn, children, and adolescents access high-quality health, nutrition, and reproductive services that enable a healthy, safe and planned pregnancy, delivery, and post-natal care, and well-child care…” (10/19).