How do you find $2.5 B in savings when every decision has consequences for access to life-saving vaccines? With Center for Global Development colleagues, here are 2 core principles and 5 suggestions. Give it a read and let us know what you think. #gavi

Amid a broader global health financing crisis, @gavi.org faces a $2.5B budget shortfall Read our new @cgdev.org brief on how Gavi 6.0 can take a bigger leap w @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social @peterbaker17.bsky.social @tomldrake.bsky.social & @orinlevine.bsky.social www.cgdev.org/publication/...

WHO faces immediate fiscal crisis, w/ a 35% budget gap of $1.5bn. @peterbaker17.bsky.social, @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social, & @jmadankeller.bsky.social argue that WHO’s leadership must chart a path of retrenchment to global leadership, health security, & public goods: www.cgdev.org/publication/...

1st edition of our @cgdev.org series "Tough Times, Tough Choices" is hot off the press Facing budget cuts, we argue WHO's leadership must chart a path of retrenchment to a lean @who.int for the global good w/ @peterbaker17.bsky.social & @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social www.cgdev.org/publication/...

Cutting US funding for @gavi.org which leads on global vaccination efforts is incredibly shortsighted and misguided @charlesjkenny.bsky.social & I argued why in this @cgdev.org blog 👇 www.cgdev.org/blog/why-tru...

Fantastic news that Switzerland have now submitted the paperwork triggering the start of the process that could eventually lead to better regulation on lead paint exports ipen.org/news/lead-ch...

Starting now! Tune in on CGD YouTube

"In Cleveland, where 20% of children have elevated lead levels, Dave Margolius, director of the Cleveland Department of Public Health say they’ve also lost CDC assistance for lead prevention. “The percentage of children poisoned by lead in Cleveland is higher than Flint, Michigan was at its peak”"

The Market for Prescription Drugs Is Broken. Here’s Why Trump’s Executive Order Would Make It Worse www.cgdev.org/blog/market-...

📣New @cgdev.org blog on the latest Trump EO to curb high drug prices We breakdown why the proposed policy prescription of "reference pricing" is misguided... with a healthy dose of econ101 🤓 w/ @charlesjkenny.bsky.social & @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social www.cgdev.org/blog/market-...

US drug prices are way too high—but the Trump EO to “fix” them would make things worse for everyone. We break down the economics of reference pricing here — and explain why it’s a bad approach for the US 👇 With @charlesjkenny.bsky.social and @jmadankeller.bsky.social www.cgdev.org/blog/market-...

New Trump EO on drug pricing just dropped and there's...a lot going on there. A breakdown 👇 www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Feeling *inspired* to renew my Canadian passport 🍁

"I'm going to govern in econometrics" is a winning campaign slogan for the ages.

"We've been left no choice but to this week suspend treatment for 650,000 malnourished women and children — simply because we've run out of commodities and funding," Zlatan Milisic, WFP Country Director in Ethiopia told a Geneva press briefing by video from Addis Ababa.

Article here: www.nature.com/articles/d4... Full preprint here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers...

New preprint finding that eliminating US global health funding over the next fifteen years would cause: - 15.2m deaths from AIDS - 2.2m deaths from TB - 7.9 additional child deaths

CNN story on lead poisoning & HHS/CDC's inability to act: Wisconsin asked the CDC for help with lead poisoning cases in Milwaukee but CDC had to cancel because HHS Secretary laid off all the CDC lead poisoning experts! Screenshot below of Ex CDC Director Tom Frieden's '09-'17 comments today #medsky

Non-toxic options to lead chromate—a toxic paint pigment—have existed for years. But @rorytodd98.bsky.social, @leecrawfurd.bsky.social, & @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social find that rich countries like the US & UK still export it to poorer nations, despite banning/restricting it at home: bit.ly/4jusvlJ

I step away from my feed and try to do real work for 15 freaking minutes...

In DC for spring meetings? Join me & @clemencelanders.bsky.social on Wed Apr 23 for a @cgdev.org event on how multilateral funds can evolve in the face of shrinking resources and growing needs RSVP ➡️ www.cgdev.org/event/how-do...

Rich Countries Are Exporting Thousands of Tons of Toxic Paint Pigment to Poor Countries New data from @rorytodd98.bsky.social @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social @cgdev.org and me. Paper: www.cgdev.org/publication/... Blog: www.cgdev.org/blog/rich-co...

If you hate the news cycle but love high-impact research to help kids learn and thrive, we've got a great opportunity for you: Register now CGD's First Annual Research Conference on Global Lead Exposure(!), hosted as part of the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future. www.cgdev.org/event/first-...

Blog with Erin Collinson: The USAID Fait Accompli. The administration is trying to end-run Congress by sacking everyone at USAID and ramping up State Department capacity prior to asking for legislative authority to put USAID functions under State. It won't end well.

"If US lawmakers have their own opinions about the scale, scope, & institutional design of US assistance or want to avoid the chaos..., they’ll have to act fast before the choice is made for them." @ecollinson.bsky.social @charlesjkenny.bsky.social www.cgdev.org/blog/usaid-f...

In our CGD piece, Charles and I estimate that U.S. foreign aid likely saves somewhere on the order of 2.3 to 5.6 million annually. Our preferred number is 3.3 million. www.cgdev.org/blog/how-man...

@charlesjkenny.bsky.social & I were pleased to work with @nickkristof.bsky.social and the NYT data viz team to show the stakes of what’s happening at USAID. Gift link to their full investigation here: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Each dot represents 10 people whose lives depend on US foreign aid, just for HIV prevention & treatment. Without it, 1.6m people could die *per year*.

Huge public service from @charlesjkenny.bsky.social and @justsand.bsky.social here 👇

we estimate the cancelled awards represent somewhere over 34 percent of USAID programming. And notably, “life-saving” program areas like maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis are not spared from major cuts

Thank you @charlesjkenny.bsky.social. I hope this is persuasive. At absolute minimum its good for my personal sanity.

A short set of thoughts about the collapse of US lifesaving foreign assistance, the role of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and his current position.

Important: A *Republican* Congressman, Austin Scott, just wrote to Marco Rubio urging him to address the problems I reported on below that are putting lifesaving treatment for severely malnourished children abroad at risk. He joins Dem Rep Seth Magaziner. Horrific stuff:

From the latest Marocco declaration -- the review, such as it is, is over: 5,800 USAID awards to be terminated (within next 48 hours) 500 awards to be retained, with ceiling value of $57 billion 4,100 State awards to be terminated 2,700 to be retained With legal proceedings still pending.

Renaissance Philanthropy is hiring a fellow to work on "next-generation lead detection technology". I'm so excited about this role - even in wealthy countries like the US, many children do not get needed blood lead level testing because of the expense and inconvenience.

Agree. And worry it's trending in an equally dark and dangerous direction.

Curious how many mothers and children worldwide will die from slashing USAID programs? We'll never know, because we're gonna stop counting.

This Christianity Today article about Musk's illegal decimation of USAID, and its catastrophic impacts, is very, very good. Republicans need to hear from evangelicals and Catholics who aren't NAR or theobros www.christianitytoday.com/2025/02/usai...

USAID’s website has been deleted, all that is left is a note saying all personnel are now on administrative leave and personnel outside the US are to be brought home. Completely illegal, no act of congress or even executive order was signed to dismantle the agency

I am credibly told that all the officials working on #HIV at #USAID has been put on administrative leave. Meanwhile the waivers Sec Rubio is claiming have not actually been communicated to implementers and they are withdrawing in-country staff, so nobody is actually available to stop the stop-work.

Timely and authoritative brief from the Congressional Research Service on USAID's status. The Trump Administration "does not have the authority to abolish, move, or consolidate" the agency. Clear and unambiguous. crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/...

Musk's claim that just 10% of US aid reaches recipients is absurd. @cgdev lays out the facts: - US gov costs are just 10% - Rest reaches recipients mostly thru US corps/nonprofits + multilateral agencies - ~10% goes thru foreign organizations www.cgdev.org/blog/no-90-p...

Secretary Rubio: waivers are meaningless if there is no one to implement them. This will cost unnecessary deaths, more children born with HIV, more getting malaria. Please act.

NEW: Trump says he's letting "lifesaving" foreign aid continue, but sources tell WIRED that DOGE is still blocking HIV/AIDS relief. Musk brags he's "feeding USAID into the wood chipper." A USAID worker tell us: “At a minimum, 300 babies that wouldn’t have had HIV now do." By @knibbs.bsky.social

"Biased" estimates. "Excluded" outliers. Controlled for "race and ethnicity" and "socioeconomic" "status". "Inclusion" criteria for systematic reviews. This is all basic, apolitical, technical science language. It would be standard in basically any empirical paper, on any topic.

Elon says 90% of US aid never reaches communities. He confuses USAID's 90% reliance on intermediaries -- US companies delivering HIV drugs, WFP delivering food aid -- with waste. Comical if not so dangerous. @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social & I break down where aid goes: www.cgdev.org/blog/no-90-p...

To respond to viral claims from Elon Musk and others: No, 90 Percent of Aid Is Not Skimmed Off Before Reaching Target Communities Explainer with @justsand.bsky.social here: www.cgdev.org/blog/no-90-p...

To respond to viral claims from Elon Musk and others: No, 90 Percent of Aid Is Not Skimmed Off Before Reaching Target Communities Explainer with @justsand.bsky.social here: www.cgdev.org/blog/no-90-p...

Today I am grateful for the Wayback Machine, which I anticipate will be an increasingly prominent part of my life.

In case it’s not immediately obvious, this figure quoted by Musk is wildly inaccurate. 10% is the portion *given directly to local orgs* — not the portion actually delivered to countries. More soon on the actual facts — the exact portion is probably unknowable but much, much, much higher.