Millions Saved

Millions Saved: Proven Successes in Global Health is an initiative of the Center for Global Development, a think tank based in Washington D.C. in the United States of America, whose goal is to collect success stories in global health, i.e., large-scale efforts to improve health in developing countries that have succeeded. The initiative began in 2004.

The initiative involves a periodically revised book (two editions have been published as of 2013 and work is currently under way for a third edition) as well as supplementary materials available on the website.

People involved

Team

The Millions Saved project is handled by the "What Works Working Group" at the Center for Global Development. Prominent team members are Amanda Glassman, Ruth Levine, and William Savedoff.

Collaborators

The project was undertaken in collaboration with the Disease Control Priorities Project and the National Institutes of Health.

Case studies

The following is the list of case studies discussed in the Millions Saved book:

No.	Case type	Geographic area	Time period (approximate)
1	Smallpox eradication	Worldwide	1967-1979
2	Preventing HIV and sexually transmitted diseases	Thailand	1998-2001
3	Control of tuberculosis	China	1991 onward (progress measured 1990-2000)
4	Reducing child mortality through Vitamin A	Nepal	1993 onward (progress measured 1995-2000)
5	Regional elimination of polio	Latin America and the Caribbean	1977-1991
6	Saving mothers' lives	Sri Lanka	1950s onward
7	Controlling onchocerciasis	sub-Saharan Africa	1974 (progress measured 1974-1992)
8	Preventing diarrheal deaths	Egypt	Started about 1977, progress measured 1982-1987
9	Improving the health of the poor	Mexico
10	Controlling trachoma	Morocco	1991 onward, progress measured since 1997
11	Reducing guinea worm disease	Asia and sub-Saharan Africa	1986 onward (progress measured 1986-1998 and then again in 2005)
12	Controlling Chagas disease	The southern cone of South America	1991 onward
13	Reducing fertility	Bangladesh	1970s onward (progress measured continuously)
14	Curbing tobacco use	Poland	1995 onward
15	Preventing iodine deficiency disease	China	1993 onward (progress measured in 1999)
16	Preventing neural tube defects	Chile	2000 onward
17	Regional elimination of measles	southern Africa	1996-2000
18	Preventing dental caries	Jamaica	1987 onward (progress measured in 1995)
19	Treating cataracts	India	1994 onward, progress measured 1999-2002
20	Preventing Hib disease	Chile and the Gambia	1996 onward (Chile), 1997 onward (Gambia)

Elements of success

The project lists the following common elements of success:

• Predictable, adequate funding from both international and local sources
• Political leadership and champions
• Technical innovation within an effective delivery system, at a sustainable price
• Technical consensus about the appropriate biomedical or public health approach
• Good management on the ground
• Effective use of information

Conclusions

The conclusions page on the website lists seven major conclusions:

1. Major health interventions have worked even in the poorest countries.
2. Donor funding has saved lives.
3. Saving lives saves money.
4. Partnership is powerful.
5. National governments can get the job done.
6. Health behaviors can be changed.
7. Successful programs take many forms.

Reception

GiveWell

In November 2010, charity evaluator GiveWell published a document about its charity evaluation criteria. The document listed Millions Saved as its primary source of information on successes in public health interventions.

In April 2013, GiveWell, as part of its "History of Philanthropy" project, participated in a discussion with Amanda Glassman (part of the Millions Saved team) and Kate McQueston, and the conversation included some discussion of the next edition of Millions Saved. Notes of the conversation were published on GiveWell's website.

In June 2013, GiveWell announced that partner organization Good Ventures would, on GiveWell's recommendation, donate $50,000 USD to Millions Saved to facilitate work on the third edition of the book.

Others

The release of Millions Saved was noted on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation website.

Writing for the New York Review of Books, Nicholas Kristof reviewed Millions Saved along with books by William Easterly, Jeff Sachs, Robert Calderisi, and others. Kristof viewed Millions Saved as a source of optimism about the possibility of aid working, in contrast with the relatively pessimistic message of the books by Easterly and Calderisi.

Alanna Shaikh included Millions Saved in her international development bibliography. Brett Keller praised Millions Saved as a way of overcoming the problem that "when public health works, it is invisible." Responding to William Easterly in a Cato Unbound exchange on the effectiveness of aid, Steve Radelet cited Millions Saved to argue that aid could have a huge positive effect.

See also

• Disease Control Priorities Project
• Moving Out of Poverty
• Voices of the Poor

External links

• Official webpage

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