Open Philanthropy tackles the low-hanging fruit in public health

In Inside Philanthropy, Laurie Udesky covers Open Philanthropy’s work on public health issues, including lead exposure.

Excerpts:

“Open Philanthropy’s interest in launching a broader effort to eliminate lead exposure and include other funders also stemmed from learning about the success of an earlier project, which checked off all the boxes of an issue that was important, tractable, neglected and would likely save a huge number of lives. 

“It involved an enterprising Stanford Ph.D. student, Jenna Forsyth and a team of researchers. Forsyth was determined to figure out why pregnant women in Bangladesh had soaring levels of lead in their blood.”

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“Lead elimination is part of the foundation’s Global Public Health Policy portfolio, which was launched in 2023 and also includes funding projects around public health campaigns to reduce alcohol consumption and preventing suicides by pesticides, a major problem in lower-income countries.”