The co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and one of the world’s richest men sees helping those countries escape a poverty trap as a “moral and strategic priority.” He said tackling child malnutrition would also make vaccines more effective and diseases like malaria less fatal.

The world is facing a malnutrition crisis worsened by climate change, Bill Gates has said, warning that hard-won advances in child health are under threat unless wealthy countries increase aid where it is needed most.