Recent Changes

Since our last round of research, we have made significant progress in assessing the cost-effectiveness of different types of charity interventions. Most significantly, we have begun investigations into the cost-effectiveness of climate change interventions, as well as making progress on finding a political advocacy charity that we believe to be promising. We have also carried out a new body of research surrounding maternal mortality programs.  

1. Health Education:

We have updated our research on the cost-effectiveness of health education interventions. Our research shows that education appears to be the most effective way to reduce the number of people that will die from HIV/AIDS. Equally, hygiene promotion is a very strong candidate for top-tier interventions.  Micronutrient promotion also appears to be a very cost-effective intervention, but direct supplementation/fortification seems to be an order of magnitude more cost-effective. We will be continuing our research to seek out effective organisations that focus on health education.

2. Maternal Mortality:

We have carried out a new body of research about the cost-effectiveness of the interventions that prevent maternal deaths. Although such interventions are reasonably cost-effective and have numerous positive side effects, our best estimates still don’t put maternal mortality programs within the most cost-effective interventions.

3. Emergency Aid:

Since our last round of research, we have expanded our investigation into emergency aid programs. Emergency aid remains a very difficult type of intervention to assess because it is so wide-ranging, there is little quantitative data, and each emergency is unique. Our research continues to indicate that the effectiveness of past programs doesn’t match that of our current recommended charities. 

4. Economic Empowerment:

We have continued to look into the cost-effectiveness of economic empowerment. Our studies have found that at the present time, the information available is too limited to allow us to draw confident conclusions, but our preliminary conclusion is that it is not a promising area. Although we do intend to reconsider the area when more research is made available on economic empowerment.

5. Political Change: 

Our research into organisations that advocate political change has significantly expanded in the last few months. At this point, we have not identified an advocacy charity the cost-effectiveness of which approximates or exceeds that of our top-recommended charities. We would not be surprised, however, if in a few months or years, one of our "top-recommended" charities is a political advocacy charity: huge political gains remain to be made, and some charities have demonstrated an ability to win huge successes with relatively small budgets. Estimating the good that such successes actually bring has been our biggest challenge so far, and we are continuing to work to improve these estimates so that any highly cost-effective advocacy charities that do exists can be identified and recommended.

6. Climate Change: 

Aware of the significance of climate change, we have begun researching the cost-effectiveness of climate change interventions and intend to continue our research over the next few months. Although at present our research suggests that many climate change programs are not cost-effective, the field of work into preventing climate change is vast, and we would like to do a great deal more research into it. We have been looking at three key areas of intervention; mitigation, geoengineering and adaptation, but plan to expand our research soon. For more information, see our Climate Change page.