In Profile: Zulfiqar Bhutta

It would be hard to find a more dedicated and prominent advocate for global child health than Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta. A champion of integrated maternal, newborn, and childhood health globally, he is also the co-director of the Centre for Global Child Health at The Hospital for Sick Children.

Bhutta hopes that closer ties between the Centre for Global Child Health and the Lawson Centre will spur practical solutions to overcome childhood nutrition problems in Canada and abroad.

“The Centre for Global Child Health does a fair amount of work on childhood and adolescent nutrition, and its interface with maternal nutrition,” says Bhutta. “By developing synergies between the two centres, we can take an important step to address pressing challenges in childhood health.”

The contexts associated with childhood malnutrition issues in high-income countries vs. low-income countries are different, says Bhutta. “However, we would like to see strategies to address these issues affecting the poorest of the poor in different contexts, for example in populations that are marginalized in high-income countries like Canada,” he says. “Some of the problems in terms of diet quality, access to health services, and food insecurity are universal.”

Bhutta says it’s impossible to address malnutrition and obesity issues adequately using a single lens. Insights from disciplines such as nutritional sciences, economics, international development, neuroscience and others, along with global child health, have to be part of the discussion.

Bhutta embodies the idea that answers for the complex issues in child nutrition, health, and development have to transcend disciplines and borders. Throughout his career, he has worked on global health in remote areas of Pakistan, as well as Asian and African countries. He has advised governments and international bodies on the issues of maternal and child health, and has taught at several leading universities around the world.

“I work in global health because I strongly believe in it,” says Bhutta. “Solutions for the poor in low-income countries should not just originate in these countries alone. International partnerships present opportunities for coming up with solutions in a much more concerted manner. There is also the unique opportunity for bi-directional learning.”