Niel talks about why we should prioritise and how we should do it.
Dr. Niel Bowerman is Director of Operations at the Future of Humanity Institute. Niel co-founded the Centre for Effective Altruism, the Global Priorities Project, climate policy think tank Climatio, and was part of the 80,000 Hours founding team. Niel has a PhD in physics from Oxford University, he was a member of President Obama’s Energy and Environment Policy Team, and was Climate Science Advisor to the President of the Maldives. Niel has delivered speeches at G8 Summits, the European Parliament, World Bank, UK Treasury and at the World Economic Forum.
Video of talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXhMuO6e6qE&list=PL-7qI6NZpO3vIfu0uHiK8SjCPm2bz4maW&index=11
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Niel Bowerman - Why & How We Should Prioritise - EA Global Melbourne 2015
1. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
Why and how to
prioritise
Niel Bowerman
Future of Humanity Institute
Co-founder, Centre for Effective Altruism
2 October, 2015
4. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
Source: Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries Report (2nd Edition)
Treatment of HIV/AIDS
Cost-effectiveness (DALYs/£1,000)
Antiretroviral therapy
Treatment of Kaposi’s
Sarcoma
5. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
Treatment of HIV/AIDS
Cost-effectiveness (DALYs/£1,000)
Source: Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries Report (2nd Edition)
Antiretroviral therapy
Treatment of Kaposi’s
Sarcoma
6. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
Treatment of HIV/AIDS
Cost-effectiveness (DALYs/£1,000)
Source: Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries Report (2nd Edition)
Antiretroviral therapy
Prevention of transmission
during pregnancy
Treatment of Kaposi’s
Sarcoma
7. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
Source: Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries Report (2nd Edition)
Cost-effectiveness (QALYs/£1,000)
Treatment of HIV/AIDS
Cost-effectiveness (DALYs/£1,000)
Treatment of Kaposi’s
Sarcoma
Antiretroviral therapy
Prevention of transmission
during pregnancy
8. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
Source: Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries Report (2nd Edition)
Treatment of Kaposi’s
Sarcoma
Antiretroviral therapy
Distribution of condoms
Prevention of transmission
during pregnancy
Treatment of HIV/AIDS
Cost-effectiveness (DALYs/£1,000)
9. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
Source: Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries Report (2nd Edition)
Treatment of Kaposi’s
Sarcoma
Antiretroviral therapy
Distribution of condoms
Prevention of transmission
during pregnancy
Treatment of HIV/AIDS
Cost-effectiveness (DALYs/£1,000)
10. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
Source: Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries Report (2nd Edition)
Treatment of Kaposi’s
Sarcoma
Antiretroviral therapy
Distribution of condoms
Prevention of transmission
during pregnancy
Education for
high-risk groups
Treatment of HIV/AIDS
Cost-effectiveness (DALYs/£1,000)
11. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
Source: Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries Report (2nd Edition)
Global health interventions
Cost-effectiveness (DALYs/$1,000)
13. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
0
0
0.17
0.18
0.44
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
Menstrual cups for teengage girls
(Nepal)
Remedial tutoring by volunteers (India)
Merit scholarships for girls (Kenya)
Sponsoring a child (Kenya)
Free school uniforms (Kenya)
Additional years in school per £100
14. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
0
0
0.17
0.18
0.44
8.7
13
0 5 10 15
Menstrual cups for teengage girls
(Nepal)
Remedial tutoring by volunteers (India)
Merit scholarships for girls (Kenya)
Sponsoring a child (Kenya)
Free school uniforms (Kenya)
Deworming in primary schools (Kenya)
Information on returns to education for
parents (Madagascar)
Additional years in school per £100
15. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
0
0
0.17
0.18
0.44
8.7
13
0 5 10 15
Menstrual cups for teengage girls
(Nepal)
Remedial tutoring by volunteers (India)
Merit scholarships for girls (Kenya)
Sponsoring a child (Kenya)
Free school uniforms (Kenya)
Deworming in primary schools (Kenya)
Information on returns to education for
parents (Madagascar)
Additional years in school per £100
21. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
Choosing an
organisation
working on a
specific
intervention
Choosing an
intervention
from within a
cause area
Choosing a
cause area
24. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
Choosing an
organisation
working on a
specific
intervention
• Track record
• Transparency
• Quality of team
Choosing an
intervention
from within a
cause area
• Randomised
control trials
• Cost-effectiveness
estimates
Choosing a
cause area
• Scale
• Neglectedness
• Tractability
• Crucial
considerations
25. Future!
of Humanity
Institute"
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD!
Take-home points
1. Some things we can work on are far more effective than
others
2. Prioritisation is challenging
• However there is a growing body of experts
working on this problem
3. Take prioritisation seriously
• Change your mind
• Change your actions
Don’t just stop at the first thing you think of…
Huge differences in cost-effectiveness between the best and worst things
Here’s two things. On this axis, you have years of healthy life per £1000 of resources. Here you have treating karposi’s sarcoma, which is an illness you develop if you have HIV/AIDS. It’s well worth treating, roughly on the cutoff line. But you can see ARV is a way better deal – a general rather than a specific treatment - is almost 10x better.
DCP2 – 1400 page report
What else is there?
Becoming preventative is 4x better again.
What else?
Stopping people from getting HIV in the first place, over twice as good again.
Anything else?
Telling high risk groups about the risks. 45 years of healthy life per £1000, which is roughly like saving someone’s life.
Here’s a bunch of ways that have been tested. Explain axis. These ones didn’t work at all. But these ones worked pretty well. Almost six months of school for £100.
And we can do a bunch better. These two are over 10x better than these three, and really effective. By promoting them, we can do a huge amount.
And we can do a bunch better. These two are over 10x better than these three, and really effective. By promoting them, we can do a huge amount.
Maldives
Climate science advisor to the President of the Maldives
Train to Naples rather than flying
2:00
Note that there are no organisations working on all three areas, though we may see the Open Philanthropy Project attempt to do this in the future
Note that there are no organisations working on all three areas, though we may see the Open Philanthropy Project attempt to do this in the future