Global health & development

Hi everyone, I am Jia, co-founder of Shamiri Health, an affordable mental health start-up in Kenya. I am thinking of writing up something on the DALY cost-effectiveness of investing in our company. I am very new to the community, and I wonder if I can solicit some suggestions on what is a good framework to use to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of impact investment into Healthcare companies. I think there could be two ways to go about this: 1) take an investment amount, and using some cashflow modeling, we can figure out how many users we can reach with that investment and calculate based on the largest user base we can reach, with the investment amount; or 2) we can do a comparative analysis with another more mature company in a different country, and use its % of population reach as our "terminal impact reach". Then, use that terminal user base as the base of the calculation.  The first approach is no doubt more conservative, but the latter, in my opinion, is the true impact counterfactual. Without the investment, we will likely not be able to raise enough funding since our TAM is not particularly attractive for non-impact investors. The challenge to using the latter is the "likelihood of success" of us carrying out the plan to reach our terminal user base. How would you go about this "likelihood number"? I would think it varies case by case, and one should factor in the team, the business model, the user goal, and the market, which is closer to venture capital's model of evaluating companies. What is the average number for impact ventures to succeed?  TLDR:  1. What is the counterfactual of impact investing? The immediate DALY that could be averted or the terminal DALY that could be averted? 2. What is the average success rate of impact healthcare ventures to reach their impact goal?

Humans have the right to freedom of speech, of movement and association. Children are humans. Children in almost all countries on the Earth are required by law to go to school for several years. In some countries (i.e. the US, European countries, etc.) children must stay in class in specific periods of time, they must move in the ways that their teachers approve of, they must not talk with others for some periods of time, and if they don't answer the test with the correct answers they are downgraded, which can affect their future lifes. Sometimes if they refuse to go to school for long enough they could be sent to a juvenile detention center, a psychiatric institution or given medications. I think that compulsory schooling violates children's human rights to freedom of speech, movement and/or association. I think that children need to have the right to not go to schools and opportunities for play and exploration that are not compulsory. What do you think of this? Am I right, or wrong on some points? Even if you think that this isn't a pressing issue, what ideas do you have for ameliorating this issue?

PROJECT IDEA: 'COST TO SAVE A LIFE' INTERACTIVE CALCULATOR PROMOTION What about making and promoting a ‘how much does it cost to save a life’ quiz and calculator.  This could be adjustable/customizable (in my country, around the world, of an infant/child/adult, counting ‘value added life years’ etc.) … and trying to make it go viral (or at least bacterial) as in the ‘how rich am I’ [https://howrichami.givingwhatwecan.org/how-rich-am-i] calculator?  The case  1. People might really be interested in this… it’s super-compelling (a bit click-baity, maybe, but the payoff is not click bait)! 2. May make some news headlines too (it’s an “easy story” for media people, asks a question people can engage with, etc. … ’how much does it cost to save a life? find out after the break!) 3. if people do think it’s much cheaper than it is, as some studies suggest [https://www.givewell.org/cost-to-save-a-life], it would probably be good to change this conception… to help us build a reality-based impact-based evidence-based community and society of donors 4. similarly, it could get people thinking about ‘how to really measure impact’ --> consider EA-aligned evaluations more seriously While GiveWell has a page with a lot of tech details [https://www.givewell.org/cost-to-save-a-life], but it’s not compelling or interactive  in the way I suggest above, and I doubt  they market it heavily. GWWC probably doesn't have the design/engineering time for this (not to mention refining this for accuracy and communication).  But if someone else (UX design, research support, IT) could do the legwork I think they might be very happy to host it.  It could also mesh well with academic-linked research so I may have  some ‘Meta academic support ads’ funds that could work with this.   Tags/backlinks (~testing out this new feature)  @GiveWell [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/users/givewell?mention=user]  @Giving What We Can [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/u

Rutger Bregman has just written a very nice story [https://decorrespondent.nl/14237/hij-was-een-doorsnee-consultant-totdat-hij-de-grootste-beweging-tegen-de-grootste-doder-van-kinderen-begon/547341465-8489f0f9] on how Rob Mather came to found AMF! Apart from a GWWC interview, I think this is the first time anyone has told this tale in detail. There are a few good lessons in there if you're looking to start a high-impact org.  It's in Dutch, but google translate works very well!

VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA (VOA) FUTURES FUND COMMUNITY HEALTH INCUBATOR [https://seedspot.org/community-health-incubator/] ACCELERATE YOUR INNOVATIVE BUSINESS SOLUTION FOR COMMUNITY HEALTH DISPARITIES. Volunteers of America (VOA) [https://www.voa.org/futures-fund/], one of the nation's largest and most experienced nonprofit housing, health, and human service organizations, launched this first-of-its-kind Incubator to accelerate social enterprises that improve quality, equity, and access to care for Medicaid and at-risk populations. Sponsored by the Humana Foundation, the VOA Community Health Incubator powered by SEEP SPOT supports early-stage entrepreneurship that develops innovative products and services for equitable community health outcomes Leveraging VOA’s vast portfolio of assets – 16,000 employees, 400 communities, 22,000+ units of affordable housing, 15+ senior healthcare facilities, 1.5 million lives touched annually, hundreds of programs and service models – in this 12-week program founders will benefit from the expertise and collaboration with the VOA network, gain business training and tailored mentorship while tackling the most intractable community health disparities. This is a fully funded opportunity with non-diluted grants and the potential follow-on investment of up to $200,000. APPLY BY APRIL 28 [https://seedspot.org/futures-fund-application/]