Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference

by William MacAskill

Development Media International What does it do? Produces and runs radio shows to educate people in Burkina Faso on basic health matters, with plans to cover DR Congo, Mozambique, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire. Estimated cost-effectiveness? Extremely cost-effective. According to Development Media Internationals’ interpretation of previous studies, and its own mathematical model, its cost-effectiveness is on the order of $10/QALY. Robustness of evidence? Fairly robust. It is collaborating with external investigators to conduct a randomised controlled trial on its own programme, but has not yet gathered final mortality data; current data is based on self-reporting. Implementation? Very well implemented. CEO Roy Head has extensive experience in running radio programmes in developing countries, and DMI works with leading epidemiologists to monitor their effectiveness. The charity has been open, transparent and self-sceptical. Room for more funding? Very large. In order to scale up to four more countries, it believes it could use about $10 million in 2015, and expects to receive $2–4 million.