Mark Zuckerberg's billion-dollar chance to change the world

In Ghana, health care policy interventions and research budgets have traditionally been directed towards combatting communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. These are still a major public health concern, but as the country advances toward greater prosperity, the prevalence of non-communicable diseases is also rapidly increasing.

Cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and diabetes are particularly on the rise in Ghana, and one of the largest risk factors for complications such as stroke and coronary heart disease is high blood pressure.

Global free trade provides the greatest opportunity to improve human welfare over the next decade and a half. It has already helped lift more than a billion people out of poverty over the past quarter-century. Lowering trade barriers even more could double average incomes in the poorest parts of the world over the next 15 years.

Yes, there are costs to free trade that must be better addressed; but the costs are vastly outweighed by the benefits. Yet, in rich countries today, the mood has turned against free trade. That is a tragedy.

Bjorn Lomborg stopped by the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal to speak with Mary Kissel, WSJ Editorial Board Member.

Watch the entire interview in which Bjorn discusses how the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Agenda could have the biggest bang-for-the-buck by spending just little bit more of the development aid on the smartest targets.