This is excellent. I'm wondering, how has your thinking on this evolved since you wrote it?
I've been tinkering with a similar idea: tradable Impact Credits. The idea is that a big corporation might have an oil spill and want to buy lots of impact today and they are willing to pay top dollar for it and they need it fast. They don't want to fund something that may or may not save 10,000 acres of Amazon forest in 5-10 years. They need verified impact and they need it now. Meanwhile, an angel donor might be rather patient and willing to donate to a cause that ...
Great question. Often we say DALY averted, but saved works too and maybe is more intuitive.
Yes, to determine the DALYs saved we would need to have an RCT. This would be to establish the methodology. Once the methodology is established then other organizations can apply to have their credits verified under the same methodology. For example, if we show that bednets prevent malaria and thus save DALYs in an RCT then there is no need to have every organization do an RCT, only that they prove how many people are using bednets and the base rate of malaria in the area.
Does that help?