The Nonlinear Library EA - AMF - Reflecting on 2023 and looking ahead to 2024 by RobM
Nov 24, 2023
09:52
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: AMF - Reflecting on 2023 and looking ahead to 2024, published by RobM on November 24, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
Rob Mather, CEO, AMF, 25 November 2023
2023 has been a very busy year for AMF, more on 2024 later.
Impact
AMF's team of 13 is in the middle of a nine-month period during which we are distributing, with partners, 90 million nets to protect 160 million people in six countries: Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia.
The impact of these nets is expected to be, 20%, 40,000 deaths prevented, 20 million cases of malaria averted and a US$2.2 billion improvement in local economy (12x the funds applied). When people are ill they cannot farm, drive, teach - function, so the improvement in health leads to economic as well as humanitarian benefits.
This is a terrific contribution from the tens of thousands of donors who have contributed US$180 million over the last two years, and the many partners with whom we work that make possible the distribution of these life-saving nets.
We received our millionth donation recently, a nice milestone. Our total funds raised is now US$543 million.
But these numbers are not as important as the impact numbers once all the nets we have funded in our 19 years and can currently fund, have been distributed and have had their impact: 250 million nets funded and distributed, 450 million people protected, 185,000 deaths prevented, 100 to 185 million cases of malaria averted and US$6.5 billion of improvement in local economies - when people are ill they cannot farm, drive, teach - function, so the improvement in health leads to economic as well as humanitarian benefits.
Many recognise the impact of AMF's work, yet we still have significant immediate funding gaps that are over US$300m. While this number seems daunting, every US$2 matters as that funds another net and allows two more people to be protected when they sleep at night, so no support is too small or inconsequential.
Partnerships are crucial to what we do
We work with partners at every stage of our work: funding nets; ensuring operations proceed effectively and nets are distributed as intended; and monitoring net use, performance and impact. Over the last few years we have strengthened relationships with key organisations that have allowed AMF to contribute more and work faster and more effectively.
AMF has strong partnerships with the Global Fund and the US's President's Malaria Initiative, and we work together closely to ensure net distributions are fully funded. None of us can work alone. Typically AMF funds nets for a distribution and the Global Fund or PMI funds the non-net costs. Non-net costs are shipping and transport costs, household registration activities to ensure each household receives the right number of nets and the distribution of the nets themselves.
Nets are always distributed in partnership with national health systems. This is because all households in a regional or nationwide distribution are visited in the pre-distribution registration phase to establish how many nets are needed per individual household and this work involves visiting hundreds of thousands or millions of households and needs a work force that only a national system can provide.
A final set of partnerships in-country that are very important for AMF's work are those with independent monitoring partners with whom AMF contracts to carry out data-driven monitoring of all phases of a distribution.
AMF's focus has been, and still is, on nets
This focus on nets is not accidental. Long-lasting insecticidal nets are the most effective way of preventing malaria. Malaria-carrying mosquitoes typically bite between 10 o/c at night and two in the morning so if people in malarious areas are protected when they sleep at night, the impact on malaria tra...
Rob Mather, CEO, AMF, 25 November 2023
2023 has been a very busy year for AMF, more on 2024 later.
Impact
AMF's team of 13 is in the middle of a nine-month period during which we are distributing, with partners, 90 million nets to protect 160 million people in six countries: Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia.
The impact of these nets is expected to be, 20%, 40,000 deaths prevented, 20 million cases of malaria averted and a US$2.2 billion improvement in local economy (12x the funds applied). When people are ill they cannot farm, drive, teach - function, so the improvement in health leads to economic as well as humanitarian benefits.
This is a terrific contribution from the tens of thousands of donors who have contributed US$180 million over the last two years, and the many partners with whom we work that make possible the distribution of these life-saving nets.
We received our millionth donation recently, a nice milestone. Our total funds raised is now US$543 million.
But these numbers are not as important as the impact numbers once all the nets we have funded in our 19 years and can currently fund, have been distributed and have had their impact: 250 million nets funded and distributed, 450 million people protected, 185,000 deaths prevented, 100 to 185 million cases of malaria averted and US$6.5 billion of improvement in local economies - when people are ill they cannot farm, drive, teach - function, so the improvement in health leads to economic as well as humanitarian benefits.
Many recognise the impact of AMF's work, yet we still have significant immediate funding gaps that are over US$300m. While this number seems daunting, every US$2 matters as that funds another net and allows two more people to be protected when they sleep at night, so no support is too small or inconsequential.
Partnerships are crucial to what we do
We work with partners at every stage of our work: funding nets; ensuring operations proceed effectively and nets are distributed as intended; and monitoring net use, performance and impact. Over the last few years we have strengthened relationships with key organisations that have allowed AMF to contribute more and work faster and more effectively.
AMF has strong partnerships with the Global Fund and the US's President's Malaria Initiative, and we work together closely to ensure net distributions are fully funded. None of us can work alone. Typically AMF funds nets for a distribution and the Global Fund or PMI funds the non-net costs. Non-net costs are shipping and transport costs, household registration activities to ensure each household receives the right number of nets and the distribution of the nets themselves.
Nets are always distributed in partnership with national health systems. This is because all households in a regional or nationwide distribution are visited in the pre-distribution registration phase to establish how many nets are needed per individual household and this work involves visiting hundreds of thousands or millions of households and needs a work force that only a national system can provide.
A final set of partnerships in-country that are very important for AMF's work are those with independent monitoring partners with whom AMF contracts to carry out data-driven monitoring of all phases of a distribution.
AMF's focus has been, and still is, on nets
This focus on nets is not accidental. Long-lasting insecticidal nets are the most effective way of preventing malaria. Malaria-carrying mosquitoes typically bite between 10 o/c at night and two in the morning so if people in malarious areas are protected when they sleep at night, the impact on malaria tra...