<
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/375139/lead-partnership-usaid-unicef-samantha-power>
"Lead poisoning has, historically, been a major blind spot in the global health
world. The extent of the problem is enormous: A landmark study found that about
half of children in poor countries are exposed to very high levels of lead. At
least 1.5 million people die annually from cardiovascular diseases (like heart
disease) caused by lead poisoning, imposing a global cost of about $6 trillion
a year.
But the resources devoted to preventing poisoning were minimal. One estimate in
2021 found that charities and nongovernmental organizations were spending $6-10
million a year on the problem. That’s less than two cents per child poisoned by
lead.
Thankfully, that number has just increased dramatically. Amid the UN General
Assembly meeting in New York last week, the US Agency for International
Development (USAID) and UNICEF launched an initiative they’re calling the
Partnership for a Lead-Free Future. The endeavor is backed with $150 million in
initial funding from USAID, the Gates Foundation, Open Philanthropy, and other
sources.
$104 million of the funds, all from philanthropic sources, will be channeled
through a Lead Exposure Action Fund (LEAF) led by Open Philanthropy, which
states that it intends to disperse the money by the end of 2027. James Snowden,
who leads the grantmaker’s lead work, explains that the money is meant to be
allocated over four years, for about $26 million a year in spending. That by
itself almost doubles current global philanthropic spending on lead poisoning.
“This is one of the easier fundraising efforts I’ve been associated with,”
Samantha Power, administrator of USAID and one of the principal organizers of
the partnership, told me. The gap, it seems, was mostly knowledge: Once funders
realized just how bad the lead problem is and how cheaply it could be mitigated
by tackling causes of poisoning like lead paint, contaminated spices, and
industrial recycling, they got on board.
Power was persuaded the same way. When her USAID adviser Garrett Lam brought
her the data on the extent of the global lead problem, “My first reaction was
‘this can’t be true,’ that something that’s generating this much harm is not
being addressed.”
It was true; it’s less true now. Funding in the global lead world is now close
to the levels needed to tackle the problem. The question now is how best to
spend it."
Via
Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/273-cathedral-thinking/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
