On March 5, 2014, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation officially joined Grand Challenges Canada’s Saving Brains initiative.
The Saving Brains initiative is focused on improving child development worldwide by helping children reach their full potential. The need to do so is demonstrate by data released in 2007 that reported over 200 million children living in developing countries to be unable of reaching their developmental potential.
The Gates Foundation, in partnership with Grand Challenges Canada, has launched the new topic, “Explore New Ways to Measure Fetal and Infant Brain Development.” This new program will be a great addition to the country’s Muskoka Initiative, which is dedicated to the health of both women and children.
With its involvement, the Gates Foundation will be the very first global partner of Grand Challenges Canada. Other extensions of Grand Challenges, such as Grand Challenges Brazil, gained regional partners in the Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal Foundation and the Bernard van Leer Foundation in November 2013.
As of 2014, Grand Challenges Canada’s Saving Brains initiative, currently funded by Canada’s government, has used over $28 billion in about 46 different projects. Saving Brains is determined to see an increase in human capital in low-income and middle-income nations by looking to improve brain development.
In a blog post written by Jeff Murray, the Interim Deputy Director in Family Health for the Gates Foundation, and Karlee Silver, the Vice President of Targeted Challenges for Grand Challenges Canada, the pair address the importance of the new initiative. Murray and Silver note that although there has been great success in reducing deaths of children under the age of five and various causes of mortality, it is now necessary to ensure that these children are not just living, but truly thriving.
“Promoting health, providing enriching and nurturing experiences and protecting children from maltreatment in the early years can set them on a trajectory towards long-term health, productivity and participation in society,” Murray and Silver write.
The ultimate goal is to ensure that young children across the globe are able to live the best possible lives.
Murray and Silver explain that the new initiative undertaken in partnership with the Gates Foundation will explore new approaches for measuring both fetal and infant brain development. They hope that these new methods will be “simple, reliable, non-invasive, objective and universally applicable.”
Developing new approaches to measuring development will also help in measuring an infant’s gestational age at birth. The gestational age is related to brain development and growth in both the fetus and infant stages of life.
In regard to the effect such developments could have worldwide, the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child reported in 2010 that having healthy child development is the foundation of a society that will have a successful future.
In a March 5 press release, Dr. Peter Singer, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada, said, “Together with other partners, we will be able to unleash the power of innovation to ensure children not only survive, but also thrive. This is no less than what any parent would want for their children, anywhere in the world.”
– Julie Guacci
Sources: CNW Group, Grand Challenges Canada, Grand Challenges Canada Press Release, Yahoo Finance Canada
Photo: IDRC