Hello, my organisation is looking for case studies of ineffective interventions (similar to PlayPumps). I have found tracking down these case studies a little tricky so far but I am sure that there are many similar programs that I am yet to stumble across. This is for an intro to EA text that we are writing for a Christian audience.
Do you have any suggestions that are ideally
- Implemented by charities
- Working in global health/poverty alleviation
- Ended up being harmful (or at least negligible impact) Bonus points for
- Well known/easily googleable
- Clearly well-intentioned and programme implemented successfully (lack of impact was not due to corruption or similar)
Examples so far that we have thought about
- Microcredit (not harmful, just less impact than expected by the global health community, but still a pretty good example)
- Tom's shoes (this is the most similar to what we are looking for, thanks to Jack Lewars for suggesting this)
- Guide dogs vs cataract surgery (not really a failure of a programme just a difference in priorities)
- Scared straight (not in global health/poverty alleviation)
If there is already a post like that please do link it below, I did have a quick look and expect that a list like that has been written somewhere already.
Thanks for your help!
Hi Caleb -- this is probably not quite what you're looking for, but an example I sometimes use of the importance of looking into the effectiveness of a charity before you donate is this--
People donated millions to the "Black Lives Matter Foundation" but it turns out that is a charity that isn't associated with the Black Lives Matter movement, but rather is one random guy who plans to use the charity's funds to "bring police officers and members of certain neighborhoods together for an annual buffet dinner and other gatherings" and "a program that would distribute bulletins featuring positive news about police for display at local businesses." I doubt either of those have been demonstrated to be effective interventions!
See https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/black-lives-matter-foundation-unrelated-blm-donations