Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, with the help of the Australian government, is launching a $100 million, four-year data effort in 20 African, Southeast Asian and Latin American countries to help them better understand causes of death.
The project is being run through Bloomberg's philanthropic foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and will offer the countries tools to improve registration systems to record births and deaths as well as gather data on risk factors for premature deaths, according to an article at the Wall Street Journal.
Australia will donate $15 million over two years to the initiative, the article says.
"Without knowing what is driving premature death in a country, policy makers, leaders and service providers cannot respond effectively," Julie Bishop, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, told the newspaper via an email from a spokesperson. Article