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Leaders in Nutrition Celebrate the progress

Goalkeepers Awards & Champions

Every year, Goalkeepers recognizes remarkable individuals taking action to help achieve the Global Goals by 2030.

The annual Global Goalkeeper Award celebrates a global leader who has shown their commitment to the Global Goals in their country and globally.

New in 2024, Goalkeepers will honor 10 exceptional Champions—experts, innovators, advocates, and leaders from around the world—making remarkable progress on the annual Goalkeepers theme. The 2024 Goalkeepers Champions are leading the charge towards a more nourished world. Their collective work demonstrates that meaningful progress for nutrition is not only possible but is happening right now.

Take a moment to read their inspiring stories.

Global Goalkeepers Winner

The 2024 Global Goalkeeper Award was presented to Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, recognizing Bolsa Familia, a robust anti-poverty and social inclusion program that helped lift millions out of poverty and reduce the nation’s stunting rate from 37% to 7% over three decades. President Lula is building on this domestic legacy to champion the Global Alliance on Hunger and Poverty as the signature initiative of Brazil’s G20 presidency. The initiative embraces proven, evidence-based strategies to improve food security, enhance health, reduce poverty, and promote equity at scale.

View the awards ceremony - Photo: Pregnant woman smiling with Ashu Martha Agbornyenty, Changemaker Award winner

Meet the Champions

These 10 individuals from across the globe demonstrate exemplary efforts in research, advocacy, and policy to tackle nutrition challenges. Their stories of impact and innovation illustrate the transformative power that nutrition can have on global health.

2024 Nutrition Champions

Ladidi Kuluwa Bako-Aiyegbusi,mni

Director and Head, Nutrition Department, Nigeria Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare

Fortifying the global pantry against micronutrient deficiencies

As the Director/Head, Nutrition Department of the Nigerian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Ladidi Kuluwa Bako-Aiyegbusi,mni is helping to facilitate a large-scale effort to fortify bouillon cubes—a staple of local cuisine.

Bako-Aiyegbusi,mni oversees the ministry’s partnership with government organizations, like the Nigerian Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, and private-sector organizations to fortify bouillon cubes with the nutrients that children and expectant mothers need most. With the addition of iron, folic acid, zinc, and vitamin B12, these cubes could prevent more than 7,000 deaths from neural tube defects and avert 16.8 million cases of anemia each year in Nigeria.

For just a few cents, bouillon cubes make dishes like jollof rice highly nutritious. Bako-Aiyegbusi,mni believes fortified bouillon will contribute to solving the malnutrition crisis in Nigeria, especially in lower-income households where economic realities have driven up the cost of produce and animal proteins.

Beza Beshah Haile

Founder and Executive Director, HOPE-Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus

Creating a better future for the lives of children and their families at risk for neural tube defects caused by malnutrition

Turning lived experience into advocacy, Beza Beshah Haile is the Founder and Director of HOPE-Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus (HOPE-SBH), an organization in Ethiopia dedicated to making prenatal care, including maternal nutrition, more accessible.

In Ethiopia, it is common for women to be found to be folate deficient which increases their risk of having a pregnancy affected by neural tube defects like spina bifida and hydrocephalus. HOPE-SBH through initiatives like the House of Hope, provides these mothers and families with parent support, health education and access to healthcare by experienced parents and professionals.

Working with policymakers, Beza strongly advocates for the mandatory fortification of wheat flour with essential nutrients, particularly folic acid, pushing to end delays in enforcement and improve maternal health outcomes.

Through her efforts, Beza raises awareness about the dangers of folate deficiency, empowering communities and ensuring that more families receive the care and support they need.

Dr. Nancy Krebs

Professor of Pediatrics, Nutrition, University of Colorado School of Medicine

Boosting nutrition for expectant mothers in a rapidly warming world

Focused on the intersection of diet, health, and environment, Dr. Nancy Krebs and her team are using groundbreaking research to focus on the complex challenges posed by climate change on maternal and infant health.

As a pediatrician and researcher, Dr. Krebs’s findings inspired her to focus on both mothers and their infants. After conducting the largest preconception nutrition trial ever, her team observed the negative impact of exposure to extreme heat on pregnant women and their infants’ health. It was the first trial that demonstrated that better nutrition could mitigate the effects of extreme heat.

With the threat of a warming planet, Dr. Krebs believes in a holistic approach to maternal health. One that emphasizes micronutrients and improved nutrition, heat adaptation strategies, social emotional support, and education for women and expectant mothers.

Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana

Minister of Health, Rwanda

Ratan N. Tata

Chairman, Tata Trusts

Accelerating impact for nutrition initiatives across India

Through his leadership as Chairman of the Tata Trusts, Ratan N. Tata has helmed many innovative and successful initiatives that have significantly improved public health in India. He has provided leadership to wide-ranging and holistic efforts to combat malnutrition in vulnerable groups like women and children.

Under his guidance, Tata Trusts have imparted comprehensive training to the Integrated Child Development Services program, to successfully provide nutritious meals and take-home rations to children under six years of age and their mothers, along with preschool education and healthcare.

The Trusts have supported the recovery of malnourished children through appropriate resuscitative feeding and health care across India. They have also pioneered efforts towards ensuring food and nutrient security through the development of sustainably diverse food systems. Towards this, the Trusts have provided technical expertise and promoted policies and programs towards the micronutrient fortification of salt, milk and edible oils.

Dr. Tahmeed Ahmed

Executive Director, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b)

Developing life-saving microbiome-directed food treatments for the world's most vulnerable

Struck by how frequent children in his community died from complications of hunger, Dr. Tahmeed Ahmed has dedicated his career to combatting childhood malnutrition in Bangladesh and beyond.

As a driving force behind a new microbiome-directed formulation of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), Dr. Ahmed identified the “good” bacteria present in the intestine of healthy children that promote health and nutrition, as well as food ingredients that help these bacteria to multiply. Using this knowledge, he helped to create a supplement that could meet the nutritional needs of undernourished children and women in the most fragile settings.

Together with Dr. Jeffrey Gordon from the University of Washington, Dr. Ahmed developed a gut microbiome-directed food that is essential for a child’s growth, brain development and immune system stimulation. His team is now producing this MD-RUTF that is being tested in as many as six countries including Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Tanzania, Mali and Niger. Working with community health workers and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Bangladesh, Dr. Ahmed is witnessing drastic improvements in children's nutritional outcomes.

Secretary Lilian dos Santos Rahal

National Secretary for Food and Nutrition Security, Ministry of Social Development and Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger, Brazil

Combating hunger with food security programs and family farming production.

As National Secretary of Food and Nutrition Security, Lilian dos Santos Rahal leads efforts to combat hunger by focusing on the most vulnerable populations.

Rahal’s office is responsible for the planning and implementation of food and nutrition security programs that encourage healthy and sustainable production and ensure that food reaches people in vulnerable situations.

With over two decades of experience in food security and rural development, Rahal emphasizes the need for robust public policy and strategic partnerships to address food insecurity. These efforts strengthen local food systems by promoting family farming and facing the disproportionate impact of hunger on women, particularly Black women and mothers in urban areas.

By fostering sustainable food systems, the initiatives coordinated by Rahal are contributing to create a more equitable and resilient food security framework in Brazil.

Dr. Zahra Hoodbhoy

Associate Professor, Pediatrics and Child Health, Aga Khan University, Pakistan

Placing mothers first in public health and nutrition

Public health researcher Dr. Zahra Hoodbhoy is driving innovative solutions for maternal and child health in low-resource settings with next generational prenatal vitamins and AI tools.

Dr. Hoodbhoy’s research interventions combine public health interventions with AI tools that help to empower community workers so that they can adequately triage expectant mothers before and after delivery. She is also one of the investigators for the planned clinical trial of the next generation multiple micronutrient supplement (MMS+) at her institution. Through this, her team at the Aga Khan University anticipates improved pregnancy outcomes for mothers dealing with food insecurity, malnutrition, and anemia.

Too often throughout her professional journey, Dr. Hoodbhoy observed pregnancy-related research that regarded mothers as mere vehicles for the baby. Her approach challenges this by prioritizing mothers' well-being and ensuring they receive the care they need throughout their pregnancy journey and beyond.

Dr. Jemimah Njuki

Chief, Economic Empowerment at UN Women

Facilitating women to exercise their own agency in nutrition and agriculture

Witnessing the imbalance of power in agriculture firsthand inspired Dr. Jemimah Njuki to become a champion of gender equality and women’s empowerment in agriculture decision-making.

As the daughter of an agriculture extension officer who tended his own farm, Dr. Njuki was born to work in the sector. But as a child, she was keenly aware that women bear a disproportionate burden of physical labor on farms. So, she resisted this path initially before finding her place by chance. Today, Dr. Njuki works to improve nutrition for women and their families by facilitating women to exercise their own agency. She does this while engaging men and boys to understand the value of women making decisions.

In 2021 at the UN Food Systems Summit, Dr. Njuki helped to bring conversations around agriculture and gender equality together for the first time. By addressing key priorities around women’s land rights and closing the gender gaps in food insecurity, she is helping to ensure that the women producing the food do not go hungry.

Dr. Bhavani Shankar

Professorial Research Fellow in Food Systems, Nutrition and Sustainability, University of Sheffield

Increasing access and affordability of nutrient dense foods to rural markets

As a key voice in the space of nutrition and equitable food systems, researcher Dr. Bhavani Shankar collaborates closely with the Indian government to improve the availability and affordability of nutritious foods in low-income and rural communities.

After years of studying agricultural development, Shankar shifted focus to food consumption and the role of inequitable food systems in malnutrition. His work is driven by the commitment of the Sustainable Development Goals to “leave no one behind" and poignantly to “reach the furthest behind first”. In 2023, he led the drafting of the High Level Panel of Experts report on ‘Reducing inequalities for food security and nutrition’.

Shankar co-leads INFUSION, a project aimed at improving the functioning of haats (rural Indian markets) from a nutrition perspective. Through on-the-ground visits, his team identified problems that arise when climate change, malnutrition, and inequity collide. With immediate interventions like training and better infrastructure, Shankar’s team is helping improve the conditions of haats to increase availability of nutrient-dense foods to children and adults.