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Ali Ladak

Why I am taking the pledge this New Year's

 to donate 10% of my income to the most effective charities. You can join me and many others in doing so through our 

I made this decision after coming across some of 

's ideas about our responsibility to people in extreme poverty and becoming involved with the Effective Altruism group in Brighton. These two things really convinced me that I should take the pledge and by doing so make a meaningful difference to the lives of many people living in extreme poverty.

Peter Singer and the Drowning Child Analogy

I have been interested in the problem of extreme poverty since studying economics at university. It seemed crazy to me that in a world full of so much wealth so many people die because they cannot meet their basic needs.

Until recently, though, I never understood what I could do that would actually make any difference to this. I thought that, although it would be good thing to try to help, I was not actually able to contribute to the problem in any meaningful way.

 was a really important part of changing my views on this.

Briefly, the Drowning Child Analogy goes like this: Imagine you are walking through a park and, on your way, you notice that there is a child drowning in a pond. You could jump into the pond and save the child. However, you are wearing a new pair of shoes and by jumping in you would ruin them. So, to avoid ruining your new shoes, you decide to keep walking and you let the child drown. Most people would say that a person who ignores the child in this situation has done something wrong.

there are many children (metaphorically) drowning, and, at a low cost to ourselves, we could save them. The only difference is that they are not drowning right in front of us. They are drowning further away. Does the distance make any difference?

And, if the distance does not make any difference, do we have some further responsibility to people living in extreme poverty, if we can prevent their suffering at a low cost to ourselves?

After coming across this idea I realised that my distance from the suffering does not matter. Rather than just being something good to do, I have a moral responsibility to help the children who are drowning far away from me. If I can help them at a low cost to myself, then I should.

This realisation might sound really burdensome. But it hasn't felt that way. 

It's made me realise that my life actually means something. My choices actually matter.

So if there's something that I can do, at a low cost to myself, then I should do it. But what can I do?

Until recently, I worried that a lot of work that was being done in this area was ineffective, and some of it even having a negative impact. I didn't want to get involved with something that was well-intentioned but ended up doing more harm than good.

there are a number of charities which focus on delivering only the most evidence-based and cost-effective interventions, such as providing insecticide treated bed nets to protect people against malaria, which still causes over half a million unnecessary deaths every year.

 carry out incredibly detailed research on the effectiveness of different charities. Based on its research, GiveWell recommends where to donate to have the most impact.

Reading through some of this research, I realised that there is something I can do, something that good evidence suggests will prevent children from drowning: donate to these effective charities.

And although donating to the charities recommended by GiveWell will not immediately fix the whole problem of extreme poverty, it will still prevent a huge amount of unnecessary suffering that would have otherwise occurred.

If there were five children drowning in a pond, and we only knew how to save one, we would not let them all drown. We would save the one child, and continue to try and figure out how to save the rest.

By shifting my focus to individuals rather than the bigger picture, I realised that despite not being able to fix the whole problem, there is a lot that I can do, right now. And 

donating a part of my income to these effective charities will prevent the needless suffering of many individuals.

There has been a significant overlap between developing these ideas and joining the Brighton Effective Altruism group.

Discussing all of these ideas with the group has been so valuable, and being around such passionate and motivated people definitely helped to convince me to take this pledge.

If you haven't already, I would definitely recommend 

I think that the general argument is difficult to argue with. 

I spend so much on luxuries, while at the same time people cannot meet their basic needs to survive. How can I justify that?

 to donate 10% of my income to the most effective charities. I hope that taking this pledge reinforces my commitment to do my part to tackle extreme poverty.

And I hope that by taking this pledge I will also convince others to do the same. The more people that do, the quicker we can put an end to extreme poverty. As far as I can tell, no one out there is going to do it for us. It's up to us to fix this problem.

Gleb Tsipursky

Why you should be public about your good deeds

When I first started donating, I did so anonymously. My default is to be humble and avoid showing off. I didn’t want others around me to think that I have a stuffed head and hold too high an opinion of myself. I also didn’t want them to judge my giving decisions, as some may have judged them negatively.

I wish I had known back then that I could have done 

much more good by publicizing my donations and other goods deeds, such as signing the 

 to donate 10% of my income to effective charities.

Why did I change my mind about being public? Let me share a bit of my background to give you the appropriate context.

As long as I can remember, I have been interested in analyzing how and why individuals and groups evaluated their environment and made their decisions to reach their goals – rational thinking. This topic became the focus of my research as a professor at Ohio State in the history of science, studying the intersection of psychology, cognitive neuroscience, behavioral economics, and other fields.

While most of my colleagues focused on research, I grew more passionate about sharing my knowledge with others, focusing my efforts on high-quality, 

. I perceived my work as cognitive altruism, sharing my knowledge about rational thinking, and students expressed much appreciation for my focus on helping them make better decisions in their lives. Separately, I engaged in anonymous donations to causes such as poverty alleviation.

Yet over time, I realized that by teaching only in the classroom, I would have a very limited impact, since my students were only a small minority of the population I could potentially reach. I began to consult academic literature on how to spread my knowledge broadly. Through reading classics in the field of social influence such as 

, I learned a great many strategies to multiply the impact of my cognitive altruism work, as well as my charitable giving.

the value of being public about my activities.

 and subsequent research showed that our peers deeply impact our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. We tend to evaluate ourselves based on what our peers think of us, and try to model behaviors that will cause others to have positive opinions about us. This applies not only to in-person meetings, but also 

, illustrates how we evaluate appropriate behavior based on how we see others behaving. However, 

 that people who exhibit more beneficial behaviors tend to avoid expressing themselves to those with less beneficial behaviors, resulting in overall social harm.

Learning about the importance of being public, including in online communities that reach far more people than in-person communities, especially by people engaging in socially beneficial habits, led to a deep transformation in my civic engagement. While it was not easy to overcome my shyness, I realized I had to do it if I wanted to optimize my positive impact on the world – both in cognitive altruism and in effective giving.

I shared this journey of learning and transformation with my wife, Agnes Vishnevkin, an MBA and non-profit professional. Together, we decided to co-found a nonprofit dedicated to spreading rational thinking and effective giving to a broad audience using research-based strategies for maximizing social impact, 

. Uniting with others committed to this mission, we write articles, blogs, make videos, author books, program apps, and collaborate with other organizations to share these ideas widely.

I also rely on research to make other decisions, such as my decision to take the 

 is key here – we make a decision in a state where we have the time to consider their consequences in the long term, and specifically wish to constrain the options of our future selves. That way, we can plan within a narrowed range of options and make the best possible use of the resources available to us.

Thus, I can plan to live on 90% of my income over my lifetime, and plan to decrease some of my spending in the long term so that I can 

give to charities that I believe are most effective for making the kind of impact I want to see in the world.

Knowing about the importance of publicizing my good deeds and commitments, I recognize that 

I can do much more good by sharing my decision to take the pledge with others.

 All of us have friends, and the large majority of us have social media channels and we all have the power to be public about our good deeds. You can also consider joining or creating a new 

 for effective altruism in your community. 

, letting others hear about effective altruism and motivating them to give more and more effectively.

According to the scholarly literature, by being public about our good deeds we can bring about much good in the world. Even though it may not feel as tangible as direct donations, sharing with others about our good deeds and supporting others doing so may in the end allow us to do even more good.

Eleanor Stephens

Six ways to double your impact this New Year's

If you're reading this, you may have already taken the Giving What We Can pledge. Nevertheless, we want to let you know that 

 this New Year. We are looking to get as many new people to take the pledge as possible, and we need your help. If you can persuade somebody to commit 10% of their income to effective charities, you can potentially double your impact.

Most of our society doesn't even consider the idea of pledging to give 10% to effective charities yet. So if you're someone who has taken the pledge, you've made an rare and amazing commitment. You're probably giving away thousands of pounds each year. You wouldn't be doing that unless you had a good reason, and it's probably not just because you get your name on a cool list.

Do you think all of us living safe lives in rich countries have a duty to those less fortunate? Does it bring you joy to save lives? Do you have a deep sense of empathy for people suffering around the world? Does it sadden you that our world is as broken and contains as much suffering as it does?

This New Year, think about the people in your life who might understand and share those reasons. Maybe you know someone who also cares for others or feels that they have a duty to those less fortunate, but they're currently giving to charities that are less effective than they could be. Perhaps they have a deep sense of empathy and are saddened by the suffering in the world, but they haven't yet noticed that giving 10% is a way to help. Maybe they're even giving 10% or more already, but they haven't made the public commitment of taking the pledge.

If you know anyone like that, please reach out to them. 

We want as many people as possible to join us in taking the pledge this New Year. Whatever driving passions or deeply held moral beliefs or lofty ambitions made you take the pledge, we want you to share them with people, to show them to those who need inspiring, and be extraordinarily proud of the good you do in the world.

 Here is a list of things you can do to help us inspire more people:

 was a tool which broadcasted our message across social media only if enough people signed up to share the post at the same time.

https://www.facebook.com/events/556956541147412/

. As well as sharing - both on your facebook wall and in any groups you are a part of and pages you manage - and clicking 'interested', you can click 'invite' and select the names of all of your friends who might possibly be interested in the pledge.

 to anyone whom you think might take the pledge, explaining the reasons you took it and suggesting that they join you.

. Several people have done so already. Check out these links for inspiration:    

Sinesalvatorem Tumblr: Making a Difference

Slate Star Codex: Nobody is Perfect, Everything is Commensurable

Aceso Under Glass: the Giving What We Can Pledge

80,000 Hours: what's the easiets way anyone can have a big social impact?

Giving What We Can: do something incredible this New Year

Consider writing an article for your local newspaper or student publication

 about Giving What We Can and taking the pledge as a New Year’s Resolution. And, if you have other media connections, please contact Linchuan Zhang (

), one of the organisers of this event, about spreading the word further.

And if you haven't pledged yet, you can take the pledge at 

https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/become-member

. Or if you don't feel ready to commit to giving 10%, but you want to learn more about what giving feels like, you can Try Giving at 

https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/try-giving/

show people that taking the pledge doesn't make your life any less fun by having a very Merry Christmas!

Hauke Hillebrandt

Malaria may be the worst killer in history. But this map — using the latest data — shows a surprising, and encouraging result.

Bednets Have Prevented 450 Million Cases of Malaria

Malaria may be the worst killer in history. It still kills thousands of people — mostly children — every year.

 that in 2015 alone, 438,000 people died of malaria - 292,000 of whom were children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa.

But this map shows a surprising, and encouraging result.

The animation shows the percentage of children in Africa who had malarial fevers over the last 15 years. Dark red means 100% -- that is, all children in the area -- had at least one episode of clinical malaria within a given year. Green means 50%, and blue means that no children had a malaria fever within a given year.

Here’s another map using data for people of all ages

 — you can see the same pattern. A massive decrease in malaria cases over the last 15 years.

These maps show a clear trend — in fact, rates of malaria have halved over the past 15 years

. But why has there been such a dramatic decrease in malaria?

The reduction in malaria has been caused — in large part — by people sleeping under bednets. Green means everyone is sleeping under bednets and is protected, yellow means half of all people are protected, and red means nobody is protected from malaria.

Long lasting insecticide-treated bednets are a powerful weapon against malaria

, not only because they’re a physical barrier between mosquitoes and sleeping children — the insecticide coating kills mosquitoes, so they don’t infect other members of the family (and the village) who don’t have mosquito nets.

The data used for these animations comes from a new paper published in 

 (widely regarded as the top science journal). We already had very strong evidence that bednets prevent children from dying of malaria (and related complications like anemia) based on a meta-analysis of 22 experimental trials

But this new paper uses a “spatiotemporal Bayesian geostatistical model of bednet coverage with 27,573 georeferenced population clusters and an optimised suite of temporally dynamic environmental and sociodemographic covariates”.

In other words, this paper tells us about the bigger picture, showing that bednets are incredibly effective, not just at the level of individual villages, but at the level of whole populations. Essentially, the case that we should be distributing bednets just got even stronger.

Women and children carrying insecticide-treaded mosquito nets distributed by the Against Malaria Foundation in Ntcheu, Malawi

The research suggests that anti-malarial interventions have prevented about 

Long-lasting insecticide treated bed nets

 stand out as being particularly effective — being responsible for around 68% of the malaria reduction. This means that 

bednets have prevented around 450 million cases of malaria

 over the last 15 years because of malaria interventions 

We’ve made great progress. But we’re only halfway there.

Notice that, even in 2015, there are red and yellow spots on the map. 45% of all people in Africa are still at risk of disease and death from malaria 

, because they are too poor to buy nets, 

and an additional 245 million nets are needed in the next 2 years.

Blood smear showing Plasmodium Falciparum, the parasite which causes malaria (commons.wikimedia.org)

Malaria is also an immense economic burden on health systems and people: since 2000, malaria treatment in sub-Saharan Africa has cost almost $300 million

. We can see the flip side of this in places in the United States, Brazil and Uganda — children born after malaria was eradicated or heavily controlled and so were not exposed to malaria during pregnancy, had substantially higher income later in life 

We urgently need to keep funding the distribution of bednets, because 

bednet distributions are one of the most cost-effective ways of preventing disease and death.

 Since 2000, one billion bednets have been distributed (costing around 5 dollars each), and have averted 450 million cases of malaria — this suggests that, on average, one episode of clinical malaria can be prevented for about $11 (malarial fevers can be very painful. One recent study suggests that in Kenya, bednet distributions between 2003 and 2008 have prevented a death of a child for about $1,011 on average

Blog

Why I am taking the pledge this New Year's

Why you should be public about your good deeds

Six ways to double your impact this New Year's

Bednets Have Prevented 450 Million Cases of Malaria

Giving What We Can’s Recommendations for Giving Season 2015

Do something incredible this New Year

What can the Reach Act do for Global Health?

Mental Health interventions may be more cost-effective than we think

Giving What We Can needs your support this Christmas

Quadruple your donation to SCI!