Topline: The United States Agency for International Development plans to give up to $1.5 million in grants to U.S. 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 will set guidelines for a new Water, Climate and Gender Activity fund for Pakistan.
The fund will potentially be used to make climate and water management policies more “gender-sensitive” and to address the “gendered impacts of natural disasters,” among other objectives.
The project is part of the U.S.-Pakistan Green Alliance, a new partnership formed early last year. The agreement recently helped complete a $150 million dam refurbishment and a $4.5 million project to improve fertilizer efficiency.
Background: USAID has already tackled similar issues by contributing more than $5 million to the Climate Gender Equity Fund, a partnership with private companies such as Amazon that pushes for “gender equity in climate finance” in Africa. The fund’s goal is to raise $60 million combined from the public and private sectors.
USAID also boasts a massive payroll. The agency had 4,364 employees in 2022 and nearly all of them made at least $100,000, according to public records that OpenTheBooks.com analyzed. Over 1,500 employees made more than $150,000.
OpenTheBooks also previously reported that USAID is among the top foreign aid spenders in the federal government. Almost half of the $47 billion the U.S. spent in foreign aid in 2018 came from USAID. The agency sent out 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 in general.
“Together, we can break apart these silos between gender and climate, recognize the crucial role women have to play in mitigating and adapting to climate change, empower them to lead, and by doing so, ensure our fight against this crisis is more effective. Climate change is sexist; our response shouldn’t be.”
Summary: Individually, gender inequality in developing countries and climate change could be among the world’s most pressing issues. But perhaps there’s a better use of grant money than studying the relationship between the two, especially given the funds that have already been spent on it.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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