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Morgan Zeiss, a rising senior at Georgetown University and summer intern for Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Health team, took a few minutes to interview staff and partners on the latest updates in tobacco control globally. 1. What role has Bloomberg Philanthropies played in tobacco control? Bloomberg Philanthropies has funded a global initiative to reduce tobacco use […]

Life expectancy has been increasing for decades, and the world’s elderly population is expected to more than double – from 617 million to 1.6 billion – by 2050. Helping seniors thrive well into their golden years is one of the biggest challenges that cities face. That includes ensuring that older residents can remain connected to their communities.

Dr. Ameer Abdulla, Senior Marine Advisor, World Commission of Protected Areas, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

What are some of the challenges you’ve encountered as you work to protect reefs in the Maldives?

I believe there is a general lack of recognition of the critical role coral reefs play in the persistence of the islands and the economy of the country. Of course this issue is not unique to Maldives but is especially emphasized given the geography and geomorphology of the country. The wellbeing of not just the coral reefs but also the people is at stake when reefs are not managed as well as they could be.

Dr. Sangeeta Mangubhai, Fiji Country Director, Wildlife Conservation Society

Can you tell us about the problems that are affecting coral reefs globally?

Coral reefs are facing an onslaught of stresses and pressures from land-based pollution, destructive fishing, overfishing, and climate change. Any one of these human caused stresses have the potential to impact coral reefs. Together they are causing wide scale losses and declines in coral reefs all over the world at alarming rates. Even some of the more remote parts of the world, away from human habitation, coral reefs are impacted by climate change-induced thermal events that can cause coral bleaching.

Last February, San José, California, was hit with its worst flood in centuries. After five years of drought, record-breaking rain led the nearby Anderson Dam to overflow, causing severe flooding in areas along Coyote Creek and 14,000 residents to be evacuated from their homes. Mayor Sam Liccardo asked the entire city to come to their neighbors’ aid. “Today, we’re calling on the whole community to help us,” he said at the time. San José’s residents were more than willing to lend a hand. Over the course of two weeks, 4,000 volunteers hauled more than 2,000 tons of debris from flood-ravaged homes. “To paraphrase [basketball coach] John Wooden, crises do not build character, they reveal it,” said Liccardo, whose city partners with Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities and Cities of Service programs.

As the World Health Organization and people around the globe celebrate World No Tobacco Day, we invite you to join us for part two of our series on tobacco control. Over the last ten years the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use has successfully supported 59 countries in passing laws or policies, reaching nearly 3.5 billion people and saving an estimated 30 million lives.

With Rili Djohani, the Executive Director of Coral Triangle Center

Can you tell us about the problems that are affecting coral reefs globally?
More than 60 percent of the world’s reefs are under immediate and direct threat from local sources such as overfishing, destructive fishing, uncontrolled coastal development, watershed-based pollution, or marine-based pollution and direct physical damage from coral mining and tourism activities such as trampling on the reef. An estimated 75 percent of the world’s coral reefs are rated as threatened when local threats are combined with global threats such as thermal stress caused by climate change and ocean acidification. If local and global threats are not addressed, the percentage of threatened reefs is projected to increase to 90 percent by 2050.

By James Anderson, Bloomberg Philanthropies Government Innovation

Amidst numerous global crises and fractured national politics, many are looking with increased urgency to cities for hope and to drive human progress. That’s why, now more than ever, we need bold creativity from local leaders. Here are nine ideas – some funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, many that aren’t –that show that our cities, and their leaders, are more than up to the task.

By Dr. Camila Corvalán, University of Chile’s Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology

Countries around the world are facing a health crisis as rates of obesity and being overweight are increasing – and Chile is no exception. Chile has among the highest rates of obesity in Latin America: 66 percent of Chilean adults and 34 percent of Chilean children are obese or overweight. Since the 1980s, the typical Chilean diet changed from predominantly natural foods to being dominated by ultra-processed foods, which are higher in calories and sugar. In 2014, Chileans had the highest per-person daily calories from sugary beverages in the world.

By HAS Haiti and Family Planning 2020

Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) is a global partnership that supports the rights of women and girls to decide, freely and for themselves, whether, when, and how many children they want to have. An outcome of the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, FP2020 works with governments, civil society, multilateral organizations, donors, the private sector, and the research and development community to enable 120 million more women and girls to use contraceptives by 2020.