The GiveWell Blog

Back Monday

We’re on a pledge-raising trip in CA, and our schedule has been tighter than anticipated. We’ll be back on the blog Monday.

Research agenda

Below is our basic outline for identifying the best options for donors within developing-world health. (Economic empowerment and possibly other developing-world causes will come after we have completed our report on direct health interventions.) Focus on two priority regions and several priority interventions As this post explains, we are simultaneously taking two approaches: a region-based…

Read More

Cost-effective and straightforward

We know of two large-scale, systematic projects devoted to rating the cost-effectiveness of different health interventions. Both use an approach centered on disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), which is not the only measure of cost-effectiveness we intend to use, but they’re a start. One is the Disease Control Priorites report. We are currently in the process of…

Read More

“Straightforward” interventions

As discussed previously, we are looking for (program-based) interventions that are both proven and scalable. The Disease Control Priorities report lists many interventions that are “proven,” in the sense that one or more studies have been done indicating that the program has improved health outcomes in the region. However, showing that a program has worked…

Read More

List of interventions

The Disease Control Priorities report has a summary section (pg 60-85) listing interventions, along with cost-effectiveness estimates (in disability-adjusted life-years per US$) and some other basic info (target population, required infrastructure, etc.) We’ve created an Excel version of the list that we will be referring to in future posts: List of interventions from Disease Control…

Read More