Quick comment—I broadly agree. I think if you want to maximise impact within global poverty, then you should first look for potential large-scale solutions, such as policy change, even if they have weak evidence behind them. We might not find any, but we should try hard first. It’s basically hits based giving.
https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/hits-based-giving
In practice, however, the community members who agree with this reasoning, have moved on to other problem areas. This leaves an odd gap for “high risk global poverty” interventions. Though GiveWell has looked into some options here, and I hope they’ll do more.
“the community members who agree with this reasoning, have moved on to other problem areas”
I’ve seen this problem come up with other areas as well. For instance, funding research to combat aging (eg the SENS foundation) gets little support, because basically anyone who will “shut up and multiply”—coming to the conclusion that SENS is higher EV than GiveWell charities, will use the same logic to conclude that AI safety is higher EV than GiveWell charities or SENS.
It seems there has been a build-up of a handful of people who would be willing to support organizations like SENS, and can donate to anti-ageing when they think on the margin it’s a more impactful intervention. Another factor is with the Open Philanthropy Project and others granting to EA organizations more than ever, this results in fewer organizations having room for more funding, meaning the money can be donated to a charity like SENS. I know they received a lot of funding in 2017, so I’m wondering why that might be the case.
Quick comment—I broadly agree. I think if you want to maximise impact within global poverty, then you should first look for potential large-scale solutions, such as policy change, even if they have weak evidence behind them. We might not find any, but we should try hard first. It’s basically hits based giving. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/hits-based-giving
In practice, however, the community members who agree with this reasoning, have moved on to other problem areas. This leaves an odd gap for “high risk global poverty” interventions. Though GiveWell has looked into some options here, and I hope they’ll do more.
“the community members who agree with this reasoning, have moved on to other problem areas”
I’ve seen this problem come up with other areas as well. For instance, funding research to combat aging (eg the SENS foundation) gets little support, because basically anyone who will “shut up and multiply”—coming to the conclusion that SENS is higher EV than GiveWell charities, will use the same logic to conclude that AI safety is higher EV than GiveWell charities or SENS.
It seems there has been a build-up of a handful of people who would be willing to support organizations like SENS, and can donate to anti-ageing when they think on the margin it’s a more impactful intervention. Another factor is with the Open Philanthropy Project and others granting to EA organizations more than ever, this results in fewer organizations having room for more funding, meaning the money can be donated to a charity like SENS. I know they received a lot of funding in 2017, so I’m wondering why that might be the case.