Regarding the other organizations that implement the graduation approach in Africa, I did indeed look into them (see the report on cash transfers for details). BRAC might have been a good choice, but they run a very wide range of programs, and it was alot harder to figure out what would be the net impact of even a targeted donation to their graduation approach program (see e.g. this GiveWell post on BRAC). I was also influenced by discussions with Founders Pledge who also looked into these different charities and ended up recommending Village Enterprise.
As for J-PAL’s Innovation in Government Initiative, I personally find it very interesting. I don’t know if it would be a good fit with the donors’ preferences. They will be going over the comments here, though, so they’ll get a chance to see some of the other options that have been proposed.
Responses to the questions you posted:
1)Yes, I did try to assess organizations’ strength and track record, though admittedly that was harder to do than going over RCTs and literature. It was part of the motivation for recommending TaRL Africa and Village Enterprise. I’ll look over the text again and see if I can make that clearer. Mind you, all the other organizations that made it to Table 1 also seem to have a strong track record. I partly relied on the fact that many of these had been vetted by GiveWell and Founders Pledge.
2) and 3) I’ll do that, thanks for the suggestion :)
Hi samcart,
I’m glad you liked the report :) Thanks for the detailed and constructive feedback! Note: One reason that it isn’t too long is that other reports preceded it (on education, early childhood development, small and medium enterprise support, rural electrification and long-term effects of cash transfers). This final report tries to summarize things.
Regarding the other organizations that implement the graduation approach in Africa, I did indeed look into them (see the report on cash transfers for details). BRAC might have been a good choice, but they run a very wide range of programs, and it was alot harder to figure out what would be the net impact of even a targeted donation to their graduation approach program (see e.g. this GiveWell post on BRAC). I was also influenced by discussions with Founders Pledge who also looked into these different charities and ended up recommending Village Enterprise.
As for J-PAL’s Innovation in Government Initiative, I personally find it very interesting. I don’t know if it would be a good fit with the donors’ preferences. They will be going over the comments here, though, so they’ll get a chance to see some of the other options that have been proposed.
Responses to the questions you posted:
1)Yes, I did try to assess organizations’ strength and track record, though admittedly that was harder to do than going over RCTs and literature. It was part of the motivation for recommending TaRL Africa and Village Enterprise. I’ll look over the text again and see if I can make that clearer. Mind you, all the other organizations that made it to Table 1 also seem to have a strong track record. I partly relied on the fact that many of these had been vetted by GiveWell and Founders Pledge.
2) and 3) I’ll do that, thanks for the suggestion :)