Global Development & Effective Altruism - A Brief Intro

DavidNash

This post provides a starting point for newcomers to the intersection of global development and effective altruism. It contains resources and organisations that may be useful for further research. If you think there is a useful resource missing feel free to add a comment.

Introduction to Global Development and EA

The global development and effective altruism community is a subgroup of effective altruism, and shares the EA movement’s emphasis on doing the most good we can.

There is no set of beliefs you must subscribe to but we are committed to productive dialogue which includes constructive criticism, making good-faith arguments and visible attempts to understand others' points of view. The Centre for Effective Altruism has a set of guiding principles that are a useful framework to follow.

Introductory Resources

Famine, Affluence and Morality by Peter Singer is an essay on the topic of why we should help those living in poverty
The Moral Imperative Towards Cost Effectiveness by Toby Ord on why it’s important to make sure health resources are spent in a cost-effective manner
Jess Whittlestone on the case for and against global health as a priority cause area
Our World in Data with an overview of global health over the last 200 years
80,000 Hours’ problem profile on health in poor countries

Getting Involved

There are multiple ways that we can take action to reduce suffering around the world. This will generally be some combination of the following:- donations, career, volunteering and consumption choice.

Donating

Donating is usually the simplest way to take action but it can be useful to understand the context of individual giving within global development. The vast majority of money that is spent on the poorest in the world is usually national government spending in their own countries (~$2 trillion/year). This is followed by remittances to low and middle income countries (~$500 billion/year), then international aid from other countries (~$200 billion/year), then donations from foundations and individual giving. EA related donations in global development are around $100 million a year. Effective altruism has mainly been seen as a way to help individuals give more effectively, as governments and foundations already have resources to evaluate impact.

Key Principles

GiveWell have an overview of their key principles when deciding where to give;

Charity Evaluators

If you don’t have time to research possible charities to donate to, the easiest way to donate to EA vetted organisations is via GiveWell, The Life You Can Save (TLYCS) or the EA Fund for Global Development. GiveWell has a high standard for evidence and selects a small number of charities, TLYCS has a slightly lower bar for evidence and recommends more organisations. The EA Fund has a more experimental approach and can fund interventions that could be impactful even if there isn’t strong evidence. This is closer to a hits-based giving approach.

GiveWell
The Life You Can Save recommended charities
EA Fund: Global Health and Development
Founders Pledge: Global Development Fund - a portfolio containing high and low risk opportunities

Recommended Charities

The below charities are sometimes recommended by the organisations above, but is not an exhaustive list of charities that could have impact. Most of these are health related as there is a higher evidence base but there are potentially many more organisations in other areas that have a larger impact.

Malaria Consortium
Against Malaria Foundation
Helen Keller International (vitamin a supplementation program only)
Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Foundation
Sightsavers (deworming program only)
END Fund (deworming program only)
GiveDirectly
Development Media International
Evidence Action's Dispensers for Safe Water
Food Fortification Initiative
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition - Universal Salt Iodization program
Zusha! Road Safety Campaign
Iodine Global Network
Living Goods
Project Healthy Children
D-Rev
Fistula Foundation
Fred Hollows Foundation
Innovations for Poverty Action
One Acre Fund
Population Services International
Possible
Seva
Village Enterprise
Innovation in Government Initiative

Donating Efficiently

GiveWell also has links to other organisations if you want to give a tax deductible donation and you’re based in the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany or Australia.

Further reading on choosing interventions

There is a lot of conversation in global development spheres on how to decide what the most impactful interventions could be, below are a few resources that might help if you’re interested in diving into those topics.

Reading list of critiques on only using randomised control trials (RCT) to determine giving
Post on why it may be more impactful to focus on economic growth than RCT backed interventions
GiveWell on why they focus on health, nutrition and cash transfers over other areas
The Happier Lives Institute on why they are looking at subjective wellbeing as their main way to measure impact
GiveWell’s criteria for how they recommend nonprofits in the international development space
Founders Pledge report on how supporting increased use of evidence in the governments of low- and middle-income countries could be impactful
White Saviour Complex Reading List
Eva Vivalt on the generalisability of RCTs
How GiveWell tries to estimating the unknowable according to researcher James Snowden
Holden Karnofsky, founder of GiveWell, on how philanthropy can have maximum impact by taking big risks

Career Choice

Another way to have a large impact is with your career, the most obvious way might be to directly work in global development at a non profit. But it’s also possible to have an impact working in government, business and academia.

Getting a job in international development
Tom Wein’s list of social purpose job boards
We can use science to end poverty faster. Podcast with Claire Walsh who leads J-PAL’s Government Partnership Initiative
A year’s worth of education for under a dollar and other ‘best buys’ in development. Podcast with the UK aid agency’s Chief Economist
Ofir Reich on using data science to end poverty
Charity Entrepreneurship - Organisation set up to help people start impactful charities
Why and how to start a for-profit company serving emerging markets - written by Ben Kuhn from Sendwave
Why private sector engagement should be part of the solution in global development

Learning More & Staying Up To Date

Books

Factfulness
Poor Economics
The Life You Can Save
Mini Textbook on Development Studies
Development Bookshelf - a specialist peer-reviewed and evidence-based online book and journal collection for international development policy, practice and research professionals

Websites & Newsletters

Online Courses

Essentials of Global Health - Yale
The Challenges of Global Health - Duke
Global Master of Public Health - Imperial
Data, Economics, and Development Policy MicroMasters - MIT and JPAL

Volunteering

Where to volunteer will depend on your goals for volunteering, if you’re looking for career capital different organisations will be more useful than if you want to connect with your local community. If you want to have an impact on global development 80,000 Hours have a short article looking at some heuristics to use.

In summary they are;

Volunteer for cost effective, labour constrained organisations
Use your skills
Don’t do replaceable tasks
Volunteer your enthusiasm

Other resources

The costs of volunteering
A write up of a voluntourism experience
If you’re based in the UK then RESULTS may be a useful organisation to volunteer for as they advocate for ending extreme poverty

Organisations

Below is a non exhaustive list of EA related organisations in the global development space

Other Causes

A lot of the links above focus on health interventions but there are many areas to have impact in global development, potentially in ways that are harder to measure and thus have less attention. Below are some areas that could be worth further investigation.

Effective Altruism Forum
EA Forum