ANDREA MITCHELL: Joining now USAID Administrator Samantha Power, she's the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
It's so good to see you, Administrator Power. The UN Secretary General is warning that hell is breaking loose in Lebanon. What are the ramifications of more people in this region being displaced?
ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: Well, the world doesn't need another conflict, that's for sure. There's more conflict happening right now around the world than at any point since World War II. More displacement and the humanitarian needs in most of the ongoing conflicts - like Sudan, like Ukraine heading into winter, and, of course, like Gaza, where infrastructure has been decimated – those needs are outpacing the resources that we're able to dedicate to them.
So, this is why the diplomacy is so important. This is why the call for a 21-day ceasefire, to work through the legitimate security concerns that people have, why that is so important. And we just, again, hope and will work tirelessly to try to ensure that that ceasefire appeal is embraced.
In Lebanon, as you said, 90,000 new people displaced. That's on top of 110,000 who have been displaced in the tit for tat and, of course, 70,000 civilians in northern Israel as well out of their homes. So, all that will happen with further escalation is more pain, more displacement. There has to be a diplomatic path to working through the security issues.
MS. MITCHELL: The UN's most senior official overseeing aid and reconstruction in Gaza said that the international community is collectively failing innocent civilians, not for lack of trying. The situation, according to that UN official, is just significant catastrophe. Can more be done to help the people in Gaza?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: I mean, more supplies have to flow into Gaza. There is also a lawlessness that is gang induced inside Gaza, but aid workers still don't feel sufficiently safe, even moving from point A to point B, to reach these desperate civilians. So again, we have to see an end to the incidents where clearly marked vehicles are fired at. There has to be better civilian protection. Civilians who come out to food distributions don't feel safe, even when it's a UN distribution or one of our trusted NGO partners, and that's about, again, the IDF being much more careful about the way they conduct military operations.
MS. MITCHELL: The one good thing is, the polio vaccination seems to have worked. I want to ask you about a dissension within the Administration. There were reports that in April, USAID submitted a report to the State Department that Israel was blocking medical aid and food. And of course, if that were deemed to be happening, that would mean the U.S. would cut off weapons.
In May, the secretary told Congress that Israel was not blocking aid – it was not a significant factor. So, the President clearly and the Secretary decided to discount the findings by their own agency.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, I think the Secretary [Antony Blinken], the President, everyone has been clear that more aid needed to flow, that there were too many blockages at different stages. There's been modest improvements over time, but like I said, just before, that these processes have to be streamlined.
We're heading into winter. We saw with polio – what can happen when there is political will, the security hours of tranquility that allowed that first shot of the polio vaccination, or first reaching of children to occur. We now need the second to occur in the coming weeks. But that is proof of concept. We need exactly that kind of political will, political leadership, and security-enabling environment in order to prepare Gazans for this brutal winter that lies ahead.
And remember, Andrea, I was on probably last year talking about how bad the conditions were. This year, you don't have Rafah, you don't have buildings into which people can flow, even if they are overcrowded. It's all tarps and extremely rudimentary conditions on the beach. And in a humanitarian zone – this so-called safe zone that is actually smaller than Dulles Airport – where 1.5 million people have now congregated. So I think, whatever about any you know, internal deliberations that we may have, and a report from months ago, our focus is on, how finally, do we get the equivalent of an E-ZPass for humanitarian assistance so that in advance of a brutal winter, people can be reached.
MS. MITCHELL: I know, and at times Kerem Shalom and the Rafah crossing are closed and aid can't get in. I do want to ask you about something that you and UNICEF are working in partnership on, which is trying to eliminate lead – lead that is poisoning children in low- and middle-income countries, and these numbers are staggering. Tell me about that joint effort.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, thank you for raising it. There's almost no awareness of this, not only in our country, about what's happening in developing countries, but in the countries themselves.
At the height of the Flint Michigan lead crisis, here in this country, one in 20 kids had lead poisoning. Right now in developing countries, it's one in two and the global investment in addressing this scourge is about $15 million, which is a tiny fraction of what we collectively have invested in dealing with diseases of much lower burdens or much lower prevalence.
So, we've launched this coalition with 10 times that amount. With $150 million, we have 60 partners, 25 countries. But the more that people are aware that there is still lead in paint, lead in spices, lead in cosmetics, lead that comes out of battery recycling, the more we will see, I think, a ground swell, similar to what has occurred in advanced economies over time, and we can prevent kids from being poisoned, and that's really important cause.
MS. MITCHELL: Samantha Power, thank you so much for what you're doing. It is enormous challenges.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you, Andrea.