So far our only source for major/macro "success stories" has been the Levine book published by Center for Global Development (discussed earlier: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/givewell/message/25). Sachs has points of overlap but also adds some.
Cases where Sachs's characterization matches Levine's:
- Eradication of smallpox (Levine case study #1)
- Control of river blindness in sub-Saharan Africa (#7)
Campaigns that Sachs sees as broader than how Levine presents them:
- Polio control: Levine case study #5 points to elimination of polio in Latin America & the Caribbean by the Pan American Health Organization; Sachs credits the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and says "Today, thanks to massive efforts by official institutions such as WHO, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as actions within poor countries and a remarkable and tireless effort by Rotary International, polio remains in only six countries ... Only 784 cases were reported worldwide in 2003, compared with 350,000 in 1988."
- Family planning: Levine case study #13 discusses a fertility reduction program in Bangladesh, but Sachs says "Modern contraception ha contributed to a dramatic reduction in total fertility rates, from a world average of 5.0 children per woman in the period 1950 to 1955 to 2.8 children per woman in the period 1995 to 2000 ... The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) ... has helped to spur a massive increase in the use of modern contraception among couples in developnig countries, rising from an estimated 10 to 15 percent of couples in 1970 to an estimated 60 percent in 2000"
More success stories from Sachs:
- Global Alliances for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI): "As of 2004, the alliance reported 41.6 million children vaccinated against hepatitis B; 5.6 million children vaccinated against ... Hib; 3.2 million children vaccinated against yellow fever; and 9.6 million children vaccinated with other basic vaccines." As we've noted before, we are suspicious of these #'s until we get a better sense of GAVI's data quality audit process. The #'s are reported by governments that receive direct funding from GAVI.
- Campaign for Child Survival, launched in 1982 by UNICEF: "The campaign promoted a package of interventions known as GOBI: growth monitoring of children; oral rehydration therapy to treat bouts of diarrhea; breastfeeding for nutrition and immunity to diseases in infancy; and immunization against six childhood killers ... Child mortality rates fell sharply in all parts of the low-income world, including Africa ... The Campaign was estimated to have saved around twelve million lives by the end of the decade."
- WHO campaign against malaria in 1950s and 1960s: "Sometimes judged to have been a failure, since malaria was certainly not eradicated, these efforts can be seen as a stunning success for certain parts of the world ... Well over half o the world's population living in endemic regions in teh 1940s were largely freed of malaria transmission and mortality as a result of WHO's concentrated efforts, mainly in the areas where disease ecology favored the control measures. Africa, alas, was neither part of the program at the time, nor a beneficiary of its results until today." This program depended on DDT and other pesticides, and chloroquine and other antimalarials (both of which the disease has more recently developed some resistance to).
Less relevant success stories:
- Green Revolution - discussed previously
- Export Processing Zones in East Asia - purely a policy matter (setting up zones where "special tax, administrative, and infrastructure conditions are applied in order to encourage foreign companies to set up export-oriented manufacturing facilities"
- Cellphones in Bangladesh - "Grameen Telecom went into the business of mobile phones in 1997, reaching half a million subscribers by 2003, roughly equal to the total number of landlines. It used that mainly urban base of operations to launch a village phones program ... With 9400 villages covered by early 2004, the estimated access would be on the order of 23 million villagers." No discussion of impact on life outcome / standard of living (and we've previously looked for and failed to find such discussion for the same program).
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