Thanks for this comment. We are interested in potentially funding family planning programs, including Family Empowerment Media. Our research and grant decisions are independent of our outreach and fundraising plans. To clarify and add detail on some of the points above:
GiveWell recommended a $500,000 grant to Family Empowerment Media in March 2023. This funding would support a planned randomized controlled trial (RCT) of its program. We haven’t yet published about this grant, but we plan to soon. (Our grant page publication often lags our funding decisions considerably, though this is something we’re working to improve!)
We believe that FEM or other types of family planning–related programs may be very cost-effective—our current rough estimate for FEM’s program (not the RCT of the program) puts it at 18-28 times as cost-effective as unconditional cash transfers—but we have a high degree of uncertainty about some of our inputs and expect that the results of FEM’s RCT would help us address some of our uncertainties. We are also continuing to assess how to prioritize family planning programs among the many other promising programs we’re investigating.
I hope that’s helpful!
Best, Miranda Kaplan GiveWell Communications Associate
Hi Miranda, and apologies for writing semi-anonymously.
That was very helpful and wonderful to hear!
I am also very glad to hear that you keep your grant decisions independent of your outreach and fundraising plans, despite potential strong misaligned incentives, and I am relieved and immensely grateful that I was wrong to suspect otherwise.
I’m confused as to why GiveWell is not filling the current funding gap of FEM’s program, given that you estimate it to be more cost-effective than the programs you are currently funding, which are 13x cash. I imagine that’s because you’re less uncertain about the estimates for those programs?
[I’m also curious as to why someone disagree-voted the above, if the voter is reading this I would find an explanation helpful.]
We expect to wait until the results of FEM’s RCT are available before deciding whether to recommend funding for the program itself; we do have some remaining uncertainties, and it’s possible that additional work could lead to significant changes in our cost-effectiveness estimate. We also plan to continue our own research on family planning programs in general, which may affect our funding decisions in this area.
As our investigations progress, we’ll share updates on our website. Please feel free to reach out directly if you have questions in the meantime!
Hi!
Thanks for this comment. We are interested in potentially funding family planning programs, including Family Empowerment Media. Our research and grant decisions are independent of our outreach and fundraising plans. To clarify and add detail on some of the points above:
GiveWell recommended a $500,000 grant to Family Empowerment Media in March 2023. This funding would support a planned randomized controlled trial (RCT) of its program. We haven’t yet published about this grant, but we plan to soon. (Our grant page publication often lags our funding decisions considerably, though this is something we’re working to improve!)
We believe that FEM or other types of family planning–related programs may be very cost-effective—our current rough estimate for FEM’s program (not the RCT of the program) puts it at 18-28 times as cost-effective as unconditional cash transfers—but we have a high degree of uncertainty about some of our inputs and expect that the results of FEM’s RCT would help us address some of our uncertainties. We are also continuing to assess how to prioritize family planning programs among the many other promising programs we’re investigating.
I hope that’s helpful!
Best,
Miranda Kaplan
GiveWell Communications Associate
Hi Miranda, and apologies for writing semi-anonymously.
That was very helpful and wonderful to hear!
I am also very glad to hear that you keep your grant decisions independent of your outreach and fundraising plans, despite potential strong misaligned incentives, and I am relieved and immensely grateful that I was wrong to suspect otherwise.
I’m confused as to why GiveWell is not filling the current funding gap of FEM’s program, given that you estimate it to be more cost-effective than the programs you are currently funding, which are 13x cash. I imagine that’s because you’re less uncertain about the estimates for those programs?
[I’m also curious as to why someone disagree-voted the above, if the voter is reading this I would find an explanation helpful.]
I’m glad you found this response helpful!
We expect to wait until the results of FEM’s RCT are available before deciding whether to recommend funding for the program itself; we do have some remaining uncertainties, and it’s possible that additional work could lead to significant changes in our cost-effectiveness estimate. We also plan to continue our own research on family planning programs in general, which may affect our funding decisions in this area.
As our investigations progress, we’ll share updates on our website. Please feel free to reach out directly if you have questions in the meantime!
Best,
Roman Guglielmo
Donor Relations Associate
GiveWell