Air Quality

Air pollution is among the most important issues in global health. But in many of the regions where pollution is worst, the issue receives little attention from governments or donors.

Currently, most of our funding supports work in South Asia, which has some of the world’s worst air quality. Air pollution kills roughly 2 million people in the region each year (and accounts for 3% of all global DALYs). Adults in areas with higher levels of air pollution suffer from higher rates of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, while infants are more likely to be born underweight or preterm.

So far, our grantmaking has focused on a few areas:

• Supporting research and data collection to improve our understanding of the problem (e.g. by monitoring air quality in rural areas)
• Providing technical assistance, like project management support and scientific input, to help governments implement policies to improve air quality. 
• Addressing specific sources of pollution, like brick kilns in Bangladesh or crop residue burning in Punjab, either by regulating them or by changing incentives
• Growing the ecosystem of research, practitioner, and policy groups engaged in air quality work