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Podcast Episode 17: Bridging an Uncertain Time for a Lifesaving Program

(updated on: ) | by GiveWell Staff

Despite significant progress over the past several decades, malaria remains a leading cause of death globally for children under five. This year’s cuts to foreign aid funding disrupted highly effective programs to prevent malaria, such as seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC).

SMC provides antimalarial medication to children under the age of five during the rainy season when malaria transmission is highest, reducing their risk of dying from the disease. Malaria Consortium’s SMC program, which is one of the most cost-effective programs our researchers have identified, has been one of GiveWell’s Top Charities since 2016, and we’ve recommended more than $500 million in grants for the program since that time.

SMC is only delivered during a specific period each year when malaria transmission is highest. The campaigns require careful planning and preparation on a specified timeline to ensure that the drugs are ready to distribute during that window. The funding freeze that started in January jeopardized 2025 SMC campaigns in several countries because of the disruption to funding for these time-sensitive pre-campaign activities.

In this episode, GiveWell CEO and co-founder Elie Hassenfeld speaks with Program Officer Natalie Crispin about how GiveWell responded quickly and flexibly to ensure that SMC campaigns moved forward this year.

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Podcast Episode 11: A Frontline View of Foreign Aid Cuts with CHAI’s CEO

| by GiveWell Staff

Foreign aid funding cuts are reshaping the global health landscape, creating urgent funding gaps and forcing difficult prioritization decisions across health systems worldwide. To understand the real-world effects, it’s essential to hear from the organizations working on the front lines with government partners to navigate the funding crisis. The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) is a large global health nonprofit and an important GiveWell partner in this work.

In this episode, GiveWell CEO and co-founder Elie Hassenfeld speaks with CHAI CEO Buddy Shah about how the aid cuts are affecting health programs and what it takes to build a strategic response. They discuss the hidden complexities of the funding landscape, the difficult choices governments are being forced to make, and what this pivotal moment could mean for the future of global health.

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Podcast Episode 10: The Fragile Foundations of Global Health Data

(updated on: ) | by GiveWell Staff

GiveWell’s ability to find and fund highly cost-effective health programs relies on a foundation of credible data. A key source of that data, the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), recently had its primary funding from USAID discontinued. This creates the potential of a significant challenge for GiveWell’s research—and for evidence-based grantmaking across the global health sector.

In this episode, GiveWell CEO and co-founder Elie Hassenfeld speaks with Senior Researcher Adam Salisbury to explore the implications of this funding gap. They discuss how the DHS program works, why it’s essential for informed decision-making, and how GiveWell is responding to the growing limitations of public health data.

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Podcast Episode 9: Advancing GiveWell’s Work on Family Planning

(updated on: ) | by GiveWell Staff

As GiveWell’s research team grows, our goal is to compare as wide a range of programs as we can to find the most cost-effective opportunities to help people. Over the past year and a half, we’ve been investigating family planning services that help people decide whether and when to have children as a new area of research.

Family planning programs have particularly complex challenges around targeting, logistics, and ensuring informed and voluntary choice. However, GiveWell’s increasing research capacity positions us to now take on new and complex investigations like this. Over the past year, we’ve been  reviewing evidence, consulting with experts, modeling the benefits of contraception, and conducting initial grant investigations, focusing on programs that aim to increase access to and use of modern contraception. This work is especially timely as anticipated cuts to foreign assistance could reduce existing family planning support by around 50%, creating significant new funding gaps.

In this episode, GiveWell CEO and co-founder Elie Hassenfeld speaks with researcher Dilhan Perera about the complexity of evaluating family planning programs. They explore the types of programs GiveWell is considering, the unique challenges this area presents, and key questions we’re working to answer.

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Podcast Episode 8: Malaria Funding at a Crossroads

(updated on: ) | by GiveWell Staff

Malaria is the cause area where GiveWell has directed the most funding over our 18-year history. We’ve recommended over $1 billion to malaria programs, which we estimate will avert over 200,000 deaths, mostly in young children, through support for programs like Against Malaria Foundation’s insecticide-treated nets and Malaria Consortium’s seasonal malaria chemoprevention.

Despite significant progress against malaria in the past 25 years (reducing annual deaths from 900,000 to 600,000), malaria is still a leading cause of death globally for children under five. The current status of malaria prevention—and all the progress that’s been made—is now in a precarious position. Significant reductions in funding from key donors like the US President’s Malaria Initiative and the Global Fund are anticipated and threaten to create substantial new gaps in life-saving malaria programs.

In this episode, GiveWell CEO and co-founder Elie Hassenfeld speaks with Program Officer Alex Bowles and Senior Researcher Rosie Bettle about the impacts these funding cuts could have. They offer a timely look at the uncertainty of the funding landscape, the life-saving malaria programs that are most at risk, and how GiveWell is leveraging its expertise to respond to emerging needs.

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Podcast Episode 7: Deepening GiveWell’s Focus on Livelihoods Programs

(updated on: ) | by GiveWell Staff

GiveWell has long grappled with fundamental questions about how to value different positive impacts and make funding decisions across diverse programs. In particular, how much more valuable it is to save a life than to substantially improve it? And how can we prioritize between programs that achieve those outcomes in different measures when there’s no “right” answer to that question?

In this episode, GiveWell CEO and co-founder Elie Hassenfeld speaks with Senior Program Officer Julie Faller about why GiveWell is dedicating more capacity to researching livelihoods programs that aim to increase people’s incomes. They discuss how we’re building on existing work, searching for new cost-effective opportunities, and exploring more of the impactful programs we’ve long cared about.

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