Will GiveWell fund Community salt substitution by 1st January 2027?
8
41
190
2026
31%
chance

This question resolves positively if GiveWell gives a grant or publishes a recommendation that grants be given to fund community health promoters as run by Living Goods on or before December 31, 2026. Or if a charity undertaking the same work is designated a "Top Charity" or a recipient of "All Funds" before the deadline. This resolves according to a statement from GiveWell or a credible news organisation.

It resolves "No" otherwise.

The most likely resolution mechanism is that GiveWell writes "yes" in the column "Have we recommended one or more grants to support this program?" in the “Community health promoters as run by Living Goods” row of the GiveWell program reviews spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TG7WRU85p1SEjir-5qvIEg4kVG9a4Lnzdgwcub8aKSs/edit#gid=0) or a spreadsheet that supersedes it.

N.B. The funds must go towards community health providers, not a charity that largely does other work.

-- Note --

Can you find issues with this question. It's kind of flawed but I don't know how to fix it.

-- Background --

GiveWell has recommended grants to over 10 charities over the years. They are currently investigating 12 charity areas with other areas of research in the pipeline including Community salt substitution

The following information is a summary of GiveWell’s explanation of the topic:

“Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death worldwide, and high blood pressure is one of its primary causes. Sodium intake, primarily from table salt, tends to increase blood pressure, while potassium intake tends to decrease it. Community salt substitution is the replacement of normal table salt with a salt substitute, in which potassium chloride replaces a portion of the sodium chloride, for all members of a community. The intention of salt substitution is to reduce the risk of diseases related to high blood pressure…

Overall, [GiveWell] believe[s] there is fairly strong evidence that community salt substitution reduces cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This evidence comes from two sources: direct evidence [https://www.givewell.org/international/technical/programs/community-salt-substitution#direct**\] ** that salt substitution reduces cardiovascular mortality in people at high cardiovascular risk, and indirect evidence [https://www.givewell.org/international/technical/programs/community-salt-substitution#indirect\] that salt substitution reduces blood pressure in whole communities, which other evidence suggests should reduce cardiovascular mortality and morbidity…

Potassium-enriched salt substitute may harm people with severe kidney disease. Estimates suggest that this effect is greatly outweighed by the benefit of potassium-enriched salt substitute, but we remain uncertain about these estimates…

A preliminary cost-effectiveness analysis suggests that community salt substitution is below the range of cost-effectiveness of the opportunities that we expect to direct marginal donations to…This cost-effectiveness analysis is in an early stage and therefore is not directly comparable to the cost-effectiveness analyses of our top charities.“

Get Ṁ200 play money
Sort by:

There’s a problem with the description for this; the first part of it talks about Living Goods community health promoters, while the second part, as well as the title, talks about community salt substitution. These are not the same thing. I think that’s what the “note” section was referring to. Thanks for making markets about GiveWell!

bought Ṁ15 of NO

@NathanpmYoung looks like this one is missing a subsidy. Beautiful question series though!

Estimated a 24% base rate among programs GiveWell listed in 2017 but had not given a grant too yet (https://www.givewell.org/research/intervention-reports/august-2017-version)