Funding has been a barrier to progress in Central and Western Africa
The health focus in Sub-Saharan Africa has largely centered on infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria—which received more than $1.8 billion annually from The Global Fund. But the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) shows that the region, home to three of the top 10 most polluted countries in 2023, impacts life expectancy in a comparable and sometimes more devastating way than these other causes. Yet, air pollution receives less than $300,000 annually—far less than the average price of a single-family home in the United States. That's equivalent to about $17,000 per life year lost, and far less than the hundreds of thousands per life year lost for HIV/AIDS and malaria.
That is certainly the case in Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the most polluted countries in the region and among the top 10 most polluted countries in the world. In both countries, particulate pollution in 2023 was more than 6 times the WHO guideline. Consequently, an average resident of these countries is losing 2.7 years of their life because of polluted air. That’s compared to 1.6 years and 3.6 months due to HIV/AIDS in Cameroon and the DRC, respectively. Across Central and West Africa—home to 649.7 million people living in 27 countries—the average person is set to lose 1.6 years off their lives, translating to 1.1 billion total life years lost, if the current levels of pollution persist.
Fortunately, the EPIC Air Quality Fund launched in 2024 to help governments and organizations on the ground build open data air quality monitoring networks. And, the Fund is already starting to make a difference. In Africa alone, the Fund has invested almost five times what the continent typically receives in annual philanthropic funding toward air pollution. Thanks to this support, the Democratic Republic of Congo has installed its only air quality monitoring network sharing open data, and a monitoring network in The Gambia spurred a landmark environmental bill making its way through the legislative process.