Policy
Written by Adam Andrejewski for RealClearInvestigations
Top line: USAID plans to provide up to $1.5 million in grants to American universities to study the relationship between “gender and climate change” in Pakistan.
Key facts: USAID is asking universities to submit three-page research proposals that would establish guidelines for a new water, climate and gender-related fund in Pakistan.
The fund will likely be used to make climate and water management policies more “gender sensitive” and to address “the gender impacts of natural disasters,” among other goals.
This project is part of the US-Pakistan Green Alliance, a new partnership formed early last year. The agreement recently helped complete a $150 million dam renovation and a $4.5 million project to improve fertilizer efficiency.
background: USAID has already addressed similar issues by contributing more than $5 million to the Climate Gender Equality Fund, a partnership with private companies like Amazon that pushes for “gender equity in climate finance” in Africa. The fund aims to raise $60 million from the public and private sectors.
USAID also boasts a huge payroll. The agency had 4,364 employees in 2022, nearly all of whom earned at least $100,000, according to public records analyzed by OpenTheBooks.com. More than 1,500 employees received more than $150,000.
OpenTheBooks also previously reported that USAID is among the federal government's largest foreign aid spenders. Nearly half of the $47 billion the United States spent on foreign aid in 2018 came from USAID. The agency sent another $41.5 billion in aid in 2022, according to its website.
Supporting quote: ““The impacts of climate change are not gender neutral,” USAID Administrator Samantha Power said of the issue generally.
“Together, we can break down these silos between gender and climate, recognize the critical role women must play in climate change mitigation and adaptation, empower them to lead, and, in doing so, ensure that our fight against this crisis is more effective. Climate change is “It's sexist. Our response should not be.”
summary: At the individual level, gender inequality in developing countries and climate change may be among the world's most pressing issues. But perhaps there is a better use of grant money than examining the relationship between the two, especially in light of the money already spent on them.
#WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
Shared with permission from RealClearWire.
