Key Conversations for International Aid Report

A note on this page's publication date

The content on this page has not been recently updated. This content is likely to be no longer fully accurate, both with respect to the research it presents and with respect to what it implies about our views and positions.

[Note: These conversations are from 2008 and 2009. Since then, we've had many more conversations about international aid, and notes from many of them are on our main conversations page.]

In the process of creating our report on international aid, we consulted with many people who shared their experience and expertise.

Below is a partial list of these people, along with the dates we spoke with them and - when available - a link to an audio recording and/or approximate transcript of our conversations. Unless otherwise noted, conversations were about GiveWell's process for selecting charities and the conclusions we had reached at the time.

This list is ordered by date (starting with the most recent major conversation). It does not include anyone who spoke with us as a representative of a charity we were investigating.

David Roodman - Research Fellow, Center for Global Development (bio here). We spoke with him on August 27, 2009 about what to look for in an microfinance organization.
Molly McNairy - Medical Resident, Department of Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston (bio). Dr. McNairy has worked at the Partners in Health facility in Malawi for the last four years. We spoke with her most recently on June 25, 2009.
April Harding - Visiting Fellow, Center for Global Development (bio). We exchanged emails between May 27, 2009 and June 3, 2009, focusing on the question of whether (and to what extent) large health aid programs strain local health system capacity.
William Easterly - Professor of Economics at New York University, joint with Africa House, and Co-Director of NYU's Development Research Institute (bio). We spoke on May 12, 2009 and have exchanged emails since.
Jessica Gottlieb - former Center for Global Development Program Coordinator; staff member for the Millions Saved project. We spoke on May 6, 2009, focusing on Millions Saved.
Tobias Pfutze - Visiting Assistant Professor, Georgetown Public Policy Institute and former Research Assistant for Prof. William Easterly (homepage here). We spoke on April 30, 2009.
Peter Singer, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and author of The Life You Can Save. (Wikipedia page here.) We have spoken regularly.
Matthew Bonds, Research Associate at the Harvard School of Public Health. (bio.) We have spoken regularly.
Katherina M. Rosqueta, Carol A. McLaughlin, and Hilary J. Rhodes of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy. (bios.) We spoke at length on March 27, 2009 to exchange knowledge and compare our approaches to evaluating charities.
Diane Bennett and Laura Freschi, Executive Director and Associate Director (respectively) of the Development Research Institute. We spoke on March 13, 2009.
Alanna Shaikh, Global Health blogger for Change.org (bio). We have spoken on two occasions as well as exchanged emails.
Rachel Glennerster, Executive Director of the Poverty Action Lab (bio). We spoke on February 19, 2009.
Moses Bockarie, Director of the Lymphatic Filariasis Support Centre, exchanged emails with us and helped us find information on the burden of neglected tropical diseases on January 28, 2009.
Prabat Jha - Director of the Centre for Global Health Research and a lead author on the Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries report as well as the Copenhagen Consensus paper on disease control. We spoke on September 30, 2008.
Colin Mathers - senior scientist in the Evidence and Information for Policy Cluster at the World Health Organization and a lead author on the Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors report. We spoke on September 9, 2008 and have exchanged emails about what data is available on the global burden of disease.
Anne Mills - professor of health economics and policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a lead author on the Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries report. We spoke on September 8, 2008.
George Alleyne - Director Emeritus of the Pan American Health Organization and a lead author on the Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries report (bio). We spoke on September 5, 2008.
Angus Deaton - Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University (bio). We spoke on July 23, 2008 and exchanged emails.