We need to ensure food access to prevent malnutrition crisis: Elizabeth Yee

The Rockefeller Foundation, which has been part of the founding journey of the National Institute of Virology, Indian Council of Medical Research and All India Institute of Medical Sciences since the 1950s and is still working in health, gender and energy, is now turning its focus to newer areas such as food, agriculture and data architecture. In the last 25 years, the foundation has invested nearly $150 million in India in grants, fellowships and programmes, and is also looking to continue its work on testing and vaccine accessibility in the pandemic. In an interview with Vinay Umarji, Elizabeth Yee, executive vice-president, program strategy and chief of staff at The Rockefeller Foundation, talks about its endeavours on her maiden visit to India

How does India compare with the rest of the world in terms of the role of women?

I am seeing not only the (foundation’s) work on energy in terms of infrastructure but also talking to customers and noticing how 95 per cent of them are women. The most striking was a jewellery store run by a woman who’d graduated with a masters in social work, with her brother and father behind her. These women are leading their own opportunity, earning money for their families. Their incomes have improved 20-30 per cent as a result of having one light bulb and a charging station (through the foundation’s programmes). We also met women working in food and traditional textiles who were using technology to create fashions that were accepted more broadly than just India. It was exciting to see how women in India have really been leading the charge here.

What challenges for gender parity still remain unique to India?

India has women entrepreneurs and leaders and there are certainly improving educational outcomes for girls. But I still think there is some implicit bias that exists in conversations and in opportunities to respond to questions. The work that I am excited about is the focus on women in leadership positions and helping women lawyers and politicians elevate their voices, agendas and opportunities to lead the country. It is something we need to do more in the US as well.

The foundation worked on bringing testing costs down during the pandemic. How has its work in India changed from pre-pandemic to post pandemic?

Previously, our work was not around Covid. But it was very much focused on building the data architecture and ensuring that what we call “precision public healthcare” was available and accessible to all. With Covid, the pandemic really necessitated that pivot and we focused very much on improving testing and its outcomes as well as physical and economic accessibility. We also focused on genomic surveillance and building that capacity, something that existed but not at the scale at which one can learn where the different variants are.

The other area where we will be focusing on is food by ensuring nutritional outcomes, agricultural yields and enabling smallholder farmers while making more nutritious food accessible to all. That work is just on the horizon but it is something we feel very passionate about for a variety of reasons. It links a bit to health and the increase in noncommunicable diseases, but it also is an important area that we feel we need to focus on, especially given the events in Ukraine, besides the need to ensure food accessibility. Otherwise, we will face an even starker malnutrition crisis.

The last piece is around energy. We have been working at least for the last decade on energy access in India. We have seen how energy can transform economic opportunity. So, ensuring that we drive a strong economic recovery that is just and equitable means we also address the climate concerns by enabling energy access through renewables, specifically solar, for the current generation. This is something which we are working with the Indian government at all levels to ensure that we achieve those outcomes.

How has the foundation been boosting innovation in health and the social sector post-pandemic?

We recently talked with academics, government officials and the private sector to understand where the opportunities are. And we are thinking about technology transfer and what that could look like and figuring out how to share data. One of the grantees was talking about the ability to share data, for example, from waste water surveillance sites. So, there are a number of places around innovation that would be adjacent to our existing areas that we’d want to continue to invest in such as energy technology, energy transfer, data transfer and data usage both in health and energy.

One of the things that I was struck by (on the India trip) was our work on the Periodic Table of Food Initiative (PTFI). And that seeks to understand the chemical composition and the value ascribed to different kinds of food because we don’t really have a good handle on all the molecular composition and how they work together. We don’t have data on the nutritional difference between an organically grown tomato and one that isn’t, and if we can have that data we could really improve some of the childhood stunting and nutrition outcomes. And with India’s deep investment, history and technology, we think we can find good partners to be able to do more such work through the PTFI.

How is the foundation working with the Indian government and corporate entities in achieving carbon neutrality goals?

I do think the foundation has an important role to play in carbon neutrality goals, both as a convening party and also through groundwork. We have the ability to bring thought leaders together to understand what can be done in carbon taxes and carbon market development, but we also have the benefit of actually having some experience on the ground through the energy work that we are doing. While the work at least at the moment is very focused on energy access, it ultimately is driving an energy transition because those communities are not being electrified by fossil fuel but by clean renewable energy sources that they can use. We have a convening role to play and we can also learn from the work that we do on ground to help craft policy that enables access and economic opportunity and shape what the carbon agenda and climate agenda could look like. And if we do it right, we can ensure that countries that haven’t had the chance at developing economic opportunities get a balanced market. We can’t say both the rich and the poor have to pay. There has to be a way to figure it out.

What are some of the unexplored areas where the foundation looks to enhance its footprint in India?

Alongside our work in gender, we would more intentionally and deeply invest in innovative finance where our catalytic capital can be used to drive more project implementation on the energy side through mini-grids. Transition to regenerative agriculture happens and makes it economically viable especially for smallholder farmers. And we have used our capital before and we would use it again to ensure if there are needs around vaccination access they are addressed. We placed a $30-million bridge facility to enable rapid antigen testing to be used by states in the US because of the procurement process there. So, we would use our innovative finance capacity here in India as well.

The pandemic is here to stay for a while. What kind of long-term work in health would you be working at in India?

Acknowledging that we are in the pandemic for a while longer, we are recognising that we need to build the infrastructure and architecture because as the climate continues to change in a less favourable way, we are going to experience more diseases over time. Our focus will be on building data architecture and infrastructure in partnership with Indian institutions and government and to be able to detect through our pandemic prevention institutes and partners’ threats. It is good that India would have that knowledge but it is also important in our globalised society that others do that. So, creating that strength of partnership is a critical part of our health work. A $55-million global vaccination initiative is much focused on improving and ensuring that we reach 90 per cent of vaccination rate among healthcare workers and high-risk individuals. We are using this moment to build healthcare infrastructure and create greater trust in public health as well. Just like in the US, I have heard that there has been some vaccine hesitancy in India, too. An important part of our work is supporting institutions like CSIR that can actually do that work for India.