Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: "Cool Things Our GHW Grantees Have Done in 2023" - Open Philanthropy, published by Lizka on May 13, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
Open Philanthropy[1] recently shared a blog post with a list of some cool things accomplished in 2023 by grantees of their Global Health and Wellbeing (GHW) programs (including farm animal welfare). The post "aims to highlight just a few updates on what our grantees accomplished in 2023, to showcase their impact and make [OP's] work a little more tangible."
I'm link-posting because I found it valuable to read about these projects, several of which I hadn't heard of. And I like that despite its brevity, the post manages to include a lot of relevant information (and links), along with explanations of the key relevant theories of change and opportunity.
For people who don't want to click through to the post itself, I'm including an overview of what's included and a selection of excerpts below.
Overview
The post introduces each program with a little blurb, and then provides 1-2 examples of projects and one of their updates from 2023.
Here's the table of contents:
1. Global Public Health Policy
1. Dr. Sachchida Tripathi (air quality sensors)
2. Lead Exposure Elimination Project (LEEP)
2. Global Health R&D
1. Cures Within Reach
2. SAVAC
3. Scientific Research
1. Dr. Caitlin Howell (catheters)
2. Dr. Allan Basbaum (pain research)
4. Land Use Reform
1. Sightline Institute
5. Innovation Policy
1. Institute for Progress
2. Institute for Replication
6. Farm Animal Welfare
1. Open Wing Alliance
2. Aquaculture Stewardship Council
7. Global Aid Policy
1. PoliPoli
8. Effective Altruism (Global Health and Wellbeing)
1. Charity Entrepreneurship
9. How you can support our grantees
Examples/excerpts from the post
I've chosen some examples (pretty arbitrarily - I'm really excited about many of the other examples, but wanted to limit myself here), and am including quotes from the original post.
1.1 Dr. Sachchida Tripathi (air quality sensors)
Sachchida Tripathi is a professor at IIT Kanpur, one of India's leading universities, where he focuses on civil engineering and sustainable energy.
Dr. Tripathi used an Open Philanthropy grant to purchase 1,400 low-cost air quality sensors and place them in every block[2] in rural Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Using low-cost sensors involved procuring and calibrating them (see photo).
These sensors now provide much more accurate and reliable data for these rural areas than was previously available to the air quality community.
This work has two main routes to impact. First, these sensors make the problem of rural air pollution legible. Because air quality in India is assumed to be a largely urban issue, most ground-based sensors are in urban areas. Second, proving the value of these low-cost sensors and getting operational experience can encourage buy-in from stakeholders (e.g., local governments) who may fund additional sensors or other air quality interventions.
Air quality monitoring is a major theme of our South Asian Air Quality grantmaking. We are actively exploring opportunities in new geographic areas, both within and beyond India, without high-quality, ground-based monitoring. Santosh Harish, who leads our grantmaking on environmental health, recently spoke to the 80,000 Hours podcast about this grant as well as air quality in India more generally.
2.2. SAVAC (accelerating the development and implementation of strep A vaccines)
The Strep A Vaccine Global Consortium (SAVAC) is working to accelerate the development and implementation of safe and effective strep A vaccines.
Open Philanthropy is one of very few funders supporting the development of a group A strep (GAS) vaccine (we've funded two projects to test new vaccines). GAS kills over 500,000 people per year, mostly by causing rheumatic heart disease.[3]
Wh...

The Private Equity Veterinary Scam Making You Poorer and Killing Your Pets

The Tucker Carlson Show

State Restrictions and Ongoing Legal Battles

The AI-powered Podcast Player