I agree, and I would even go farther, I would claim that the AMF should not simply be ranked below the top spot, but that it in fact does more harm than good. I live and work in international development in West Africa. Consistently bednet distributions provide short term benefits that organizations diligently document and cause long term economic and social harm that they conveniently ignore, because if they did not, they would be out of a job. They save lives at the expense of economic growth, freedom to choose, and community independence. Here’s the full argument Stop Giving Well.
carneades
Karma: 19
I read through your article, but let me see if I can strengthen the claim that charities promoted by effective altruism do not actually make systematic change. Remember, effective altruists should care about the outcomes of their work, not the intentions. It does not matter if effective altruists love systematic change, if that change fails to occur, the actions they did are not in the spirit of effective altruism. Simply put, charities such as the Against Malaria Foundation harm economic growth, limit freedom, and instill dependency, all while attempting to stop a disease which kills about as many people every year as the flu. Here’s the full video
The link to your argument regarding international aid is broken, so I’ll post this here. While I am all for effective altruism in principle, the claim that the particular aid organizations that Give Well, and other promote do the most good is patently false. I live and work in West Africa and I see every day the devastating economic harm that organizations like the Against Malaria Foundation wreak on communities. Effective Altruism as a movement has failed to actually be effective because it promote charities that do more harm than good. Here’s a video as to why: Stop Giving Well
You can always try closed captioning, or simply muting the video and reading the screens, but here’s a summary:
By donating goods instead of building capacity, AMF destroys jobs in developing countries since a mosquito net maker cannot stay in business when an international organization is donating thousands each year for free.
Each person that would be working in that factory often supports upwards of 20 people (as is frequently the case in developing countries). By putting them out of business you are destroying the support structure of hundreds of people.
AMF only monitors villages malaria risks for the lifetime of the mosquito net. They stop monitoring after the net is expected to break down. However since there are no commercial manufacturers (as they have all been put out of business by AMF) no one can buy a net themselves.
When AMF leaves an area, since the infrastructure to make the nets has been destroyed, people are unable to get quality nets, even if they wanted them, so the problem returns.
The economic harm that AMF does outweighs the benefits.
AMF also does not give communities choice in what they need. Here in West Africa, Malaria is seen very much like the flu, and worldwide the number of people that die from malaria is comparable to the die from the flu. Imagine that you need jobs in your small town, but a foreign NGO comes in and claims you need more flu shots to eradicate the flu. In fact they put your local doctors out of business by bringing in their own trying to eradicate it. Your community did not want flu shots, you wanted jobs, but this foreign NGO came in and ignored your right to choose your own intervention and did more harm than good. That is exactly what AMF does in villages here every day.
Hopefully that can give you some points to chew on. I personally live this every day and I have for years. I have always been concerned that the EA movement does not listen to the needs of the people, but instead decides what it thinks they need, and then forces it down their throats no matter the cost.