Developing the EA policy agenda

The EA community has identified a number of important opportunities for improving well-being, and many solutions require policy change to leverage the large scale of governments. For example, we could probably all agree that improving preparedness for the next pandemic and allocating additional resources to effective global health interventions are meaningful goals. Of course, we have some differences too since we’re a diverse community located around the globe with varied worldviews. Yet there are many big EA goals that we have already achieved and can continue to fight for together.

So what is/are our EA policy agenda? Important policy changes have already been realized in the United States with support from the EA community for animal welfare and criminal justice. But if we want to throw our collective support behind priority policy goals, what should those be? We will need to be mindful of considering priorities based on the government body, e.g., California state policy vs. United Kingdom national policy. I think evaluating policy opportunities based on importance, tractability, and neglectedness also makes sense. The EA community is broad and loosely affiliated, so our process for selecting policy priorities will probably need to be pretty unique as well.

• What do you think about strategically advancing policy and regulatory goals to achieve effective altruism?
• How should we develop the policy agenda or triage policy opportunities?
• What should our policy priorities be?
• Should we even collectively identify EA priorities or maybe does it make more sense to independently pursue goals in our respective focus areas?

The EA community wields considerable power and influence. I look forward to exploring how our collective efforts can achieve large-scale impact through public policy.