(commenting in a personal capacity, but note that I do work at Malaria Consortium)
Thanks for sharing Michelle! Itâs great to see more about what MC do outside SMC being discussed in an EA space.
SMC is a fantastic, highly cost effective and well evidenced intervention. Itâs fab that it gets so much GiveWell and EA support.
But I do think itâs plausible that unrestricted funding is higher expected impact than SMC funding. Iâm really uncertain about this. However, for donors looking for higher risk, âhits basedâ opportunities within global health and malaria, I think itâs a great optionâand also a relatively neglected and funding constrained option.
Some potential high impact work I would highlight, that unrestricted funding could support:
Working towards malaria elimination, rather than just controlâthereby removing the need for future work (e.g., accelerating /â supporting gene drive rollout)
Runway to continue vital, high impact programs in the event of funding disruptionâlike that caused by US funding disruption this year
Catalytic funding to explore new opportunities, like the potential cost-effectiveness of expanding SMC delivery to other geographies (e.g where PMI /â USAID have historically supported SMC)
Happy to discuss with anyone interested - Iâll also be at EA Connect next month if anyone wants to chat malaria or about MC in an informal capacity!
(commenting in a personal capacity, but note that I do work at Malaria Consortium)
Thanks for sharing Michelle! Itâs great to see more about what MC do outside SMC being discussed in an EA space.
SMC is a fantastic, highly cost effective and well evidenced intervention. Itâs fab that it gets so much GiveWell and EA support.
But I do think itâs plausible that unrestricted funding is higher expected impact than SMC funding. Iâm really uncertain about this. However, for donors looking for higher risk, âhits basedâ opportunities within global health and malaria, I think itâs a great optionâand also a relatively neglected and funding constrained option.
Some potential high impact work I would highlight, that unrestricted funding could support:
Trying to find and scale the ânext SMCâ
Piloting and analysing opportunities to layer additional interventions with existing SMC delivery infrastructure, such as oral rehydration for diarrhea (in partnership with AIM incubated Clear Solutions), therefore âmultiplyingâ the cost-effectiveness of SMC
Working towards malaria elimination, rather than just controlâthereby removing the need for future work (e.g., accelerating /â supporting gene drive rollout)
Runway to continue vital, high impact programs in the event of funding disruptionâlike that caused by US funding disruption this year
Catalytic funding to explore new opportunities, like the potential cost-effectiveness of expanding SMC delivery to other geographies (e.g where PMI /â USAID have historically supported SMC)
Happy to discuss with anyone interested - Iâll also be at EA Connect next month if anyone wants to chat malaria or about MC in an informal capacity!