Value for money in foreign aid
The first thing we look at when buying is the Value: What’s the best thing money can buy. This question is relevant for international wellbeing. While some waste time debating the moral value of philanthropy we must keep in mind that setting priorities for global welfare is more important than the moral aspect of the methods. In his 2013 essay, Toby Ord discussed the importance of efficient spending as an instrument for implementing the best outcomes with the least resources. He showed the lost value of “Throwing cash on a problem” and hoping it will go away. With the classic example of aid for HIV/AIDS where from 5 investigated methods, the most effective one was 1000% more efficient than the least effective. Just because there was no clear path and priorities. I am talking about the principles of effective altruism where we create a continuous process of analyzing global aid and interventions, selecting the most effective ones. We must consider some aspects:
Analyzing the cost and value of an intervention
Analyzing the cost-effectiveness
Global welfare and efficient spending
Analyzing the cost and value of an intervention
Costs differ from region to region and country to country, a dollar here can’t buy much, however, the same dollar in Ethiopia could…
