I recently ran across a charity called Project AK-47 that declares: Over 100,000 kids are carrying machine guns in the armies of Southeast Asia. Instead of walking to school, they march to war. Instead of playing, they train to kill. If we don’t intervene, most of these children will be soldiers for at least 7…
The GiveWell Blog
Year: 2009
Volunteer tutoring program
Via Joanne Jacobs: a large randomized controlled trial found statistically effects of a volunteer tutoring program on reading skills. The effect size (.1-.16 standard deviations on 3 measures; insignificant on one other – see pg 13 of the full study) is in the same ballpark as the effect observed in a recent study of vouchers…
Positive but underwhelming voucher study
The third-year evaluation of a federally funded school voucher program in D.C. has recently been released (H/T Joanne Jacobs). We’ve written before that past voucher studies have shown extremely underwhelming (if any) effects, and at first glance this report would seem to be a change in the pattern: “The evaluation found that the OSP improved…
Clarifying the role of different partners
One major question we’ve struggled to answer is: how do the different NGOs, local governments, and international global health partnerships work together to implement a given program? For example, take mass drug administration of ivermectin to reduce onchocerciasis, one of our favorite programs. In Uganda, the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) works out of…
New, promising charity: The Stop TB Partnership
As part of our current work on developing-world aid, we’ve completed a preliminary report on The Stop TB Partnership. We still have more work to do, but want to share what we’ve learned thus far. Here’s what’s available: Our full report on Stop TB Our review of the evidence for DOTS, the program Stop TB’s…
KIPP and self-selection
The Knowledge is Power Program is one of our current recommended charities, but I think that Sarah Mosle’s critique in Slate is very much worth keeping in mind. Mosle writes: While KIPP does have outreach efforts to broaden its applicant pool, only the most determined parents are likely to respond to … sign KIPP’s demanding…