I understand that the current EA framework include Importance, Tracetability and Neglectedness. Now, I do like to stress that it’s missing a key aspect, which is Sustainability. Sustainability refers to how long would the solution addresses or alleviates the problem.
You have 1 million dollar and you have the 2 choices.
1)Donating it to global food aid to alleviate global hunger.
2)Investing in better medication for Alzheimer disease.
Using the ITN framework, it would seems that the choice of donation to global food aid is more impactful. However, if you consider Sustainability, the choice would not be so clear now. Donation to food aid would cease after several years at most as the 1 million funding dried up, following which, assuming all else constant, the civil war, climate catastrophe or extreme poverty still exists. Thus, it is not sustainable as global hunger will only be alleviated temporarily. On the other hand, by investing in better medication for Alzheimer patients, the knowledge and research work done is forever here to stay, assuming that there are no privatization of the research. The improvement in medication is permanent and thus, highly sustainable.
Great question!
At least as I understand it, “Sustainability” would fit under “Importance” in the ordinary understanding of the ITN framework.
This is because “Importance” is trying to track how important it would be to solve a particular problem/how good a particular solution would be. This should therefore already incorporate whether the problem recurs, or whether the solution is only temporary.
But it’s an imperfect framework, generally made up of useful heuristics as opposed to a model with discrete parameters that neatly work together to form a valid, all-things-considered view of how much we should prioritise a particular cause or intervention. Quite plausibly, sustainability could be a useful heuristic to consider.
Here is a summary of critiques of the ITN framework that you might be interested in.
I would think of this as diminishing returns, which is captured by tractability and crowdedness.