Every month we send an email newsletter to our supporters sharing recent updates from our work. We publish selected portions of the newsletter on our blog to make this news more accessible to people who visit our website. For key updates from the latest installment, please see below!
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Spotlight: Malengo’s Educational Migration Program
The income someone can expect to earn varies widely based on where they live. Around the world, millions of people move from lower-wage to higher-wage areas, either within their home countries or outside them, in hopes of making a better living for themselves and their families.
Many students from lower-income countries would like to go to universities in high-income countries, but can’t afford to do so. They may also lack the non-financial support and mentorship they would need to successfully complete a degree in a foreign country.
GiveWell recently recommended a grant of up to $750,000 to Malengo, an educational migration program that supports students from low-income countries in moving to high-income countries for university. The goal is to enable them to earn a higher income over time, benefiting both the students and their families.
GiveWell is co-funding the grant with Open Philanthropy, which is contributing an equal amount, for a total of up to $1.5 million over three years. Our latest blog post shares why we think Malengo’s program could be cost-effective, how filling this specific funding gap might enable Malengo’s program to become more financially sustainable, and what we hope to learn next.
GiveWell in the Media
GiveWell co-founder and CEO Elie Hassenfeld was recently interviewed by WIRED. Check out the profile here.
“[Donors] turn to us for confidence. They need confidence that there is some difference being made with their money. Many of our donors report this feeling: There are so many things I could do out there. How can I ever determine who is trustworthy in making an impact?”
– Elie Hassenfeld, GiveWell CEO
Research Updates
We’ve recently published a number of new research pages—below are a few highlights. If you’d like to sign up for email updates whenever we publish new research materials, you can do so here.
- Dimagi—CommCare Connect Scoping
- In November 2023, GiveWell recommended a $49,722 planning grant to Dimagi to scope and develop a proposal for piloting its new healthcare platform, CommCare Connect. This platform aims to increase the take-up of key healthcare commodities, such as vitamin A supplementation and oral rehydration solution. We think CommCare Connect could be significantly above our cost-effectiveness bar; if the proposal looks promising, we could choose to fund the proposed pilot.
- International Rescue Committee (IRC)—Acute Malnutrition Treatment
- In January 2024, GiveWell recommended a grant of approximately $7.5 million to the IRC to support one year of malnutrition treatment in Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Niger, and Somalia. We expect the IRC’s data from additional program monitoring and surveys to inform our estimate of the program’s cost-effectiveness and, in turn, our decision on whether to renew support for an additional year.
- Top Charities—Legibility Updates
- Last year, our research team revised our top charity reviews and cost-effectiveness analyses to improve their legibility, making it easier for readers to engage with our work. We recently published updates on the following pages: