The Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint is pleased to present its February newsletter. The Alliance is working to achieve the phase-out of the manufacture, sale and import of paints containing lead through the establishment of laws. As of 16 January 2024, 94 countries – comprising 48% of all countries - have legally binding controls to limit the production, import, sale and use of lead paints. For a map and database, you can visit WHO’s Global Health Observatory webpage on legally binding controls on lead paint. The Alliance continues to make significant progress toward helping countries develop and implement legally binding controls on lead paint. For example, the UNEP project "Global Best Practices on Emerging Chemical Policy Issues of Concern under SAICM", which was financed by GEF and executed by the SAICM Secretariat, recently helped eleven additional small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to complete pilots on lead paint reformulation, bringing the total number SMEs assisted by the project to thirty-six. In addition, the profile of the work on lead paint was recently raised in January 2024 when the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power was part of a discussion panel on “lead-free future” and made a call for a global drive to support low- and middle-income countries in rolling out and enforcing binding regulations to curtail lead in consumer goods like paint, spices, and cosmetics. As part of her remarks, she announced that USAID has joined the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint. The Alliance welcomes USAID as the first bilateral development agency to join the Alliance!