Letter in response to the article featured in The Economist: The Century’s big idea Effective Altruism and the Battle over AI
By Dr Wendy Harrison, CEO, Unlimit Health
Much of the discussion surrounding effective altruism (EA) focuses on its more controversial or speculative ideas. Yet, as Will MacAskill argues, the movement's most significant contribution may be far more practical: its insistence on using evidence and rigorous analysis to determine how limited resources can do the greatest good.
At Unlimit Health, we have experienced this approach first hand. I first met Will MacAskill and Toby Ord in 2009 as they were developing Giving What We Can. As researchers at Imperial College London, working to translate evidence into large-scale programmes against neglected tropical diseases, we recognised a shared commitment to rigorous analysis, measurable outcomes and accountability for impact. Over the past decade, EA organisations and donors have consistently identified our work as among the most cost-effective opportunities in global health.
At its best, EA asks not simply whether an intervention helps, but how much it helps relative to the resources invested. For organisations such as ours, this means demonstrating effectiveness through measures such as Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) averted, capturing the long-term burden of disease prevented through treatment. Recent assessments by The Life You Can Save rates Unlimit Health’s schistosomiasis deworming work as “highly cost-effective”, showing that in Madagascar for example, it costs just $36 to prevent a year of poor health, providing a tangible measure of suffering reduced and opportunity restored.
This focus on impact matters particularly at a time when reductions in official development assistance are placing increasing pressure on health programmes serving some of the world's poorest communities. In such circumstances, the principle of directing resources where they achieve the greatest benefit becomes not merely desirable but essential. For children affected by neglected tropical diseases, that commitment translates into better health, improved educational attainment, higher future earnings and, ultimately, stronger communities.
Like many innovations, the more unconventional aspects of effective altruism attract disproportionate attention. Yet, its quieter legacy may prove more enduring: encouraging charities, funders and policymakers to ask harder questions about effectiveness and to follow the evidence wherever it leads. For the communities we serve, the significance of that approach is measured not in philosophical debate, but in healthier lives today and opportunities preserved for future generations.
Dr Wendy Harrison,
CEO Unlimit Health
