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Deworm the World Initiative

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Deworm the World Initiativeis an initiative led by the NGO Evidence Action, that works to support governments to develop school-based deworming programs around the world. According to its website, it has reach 140 million children and works in Kenya, India, Ethiopia, and Vietnam. around the world.

The initiative was originally an independent nonprofit organization called Deworm the World, co-founded by development economist Michael Kremer. Initially jointly supported by the Partnership for Child Development and Innovations for Poverty Action, Deworm the World was taken over by the NGO Evidence Action in late 2013.

Charity evaluator GiveWell lists the Deworm the World Iniative as one of three top charities (without any relative ranking) for 2013 end-of-year giving. In December 2014, GiveWell listed Deworm the World as one of its top four recommended charities, alongside Against Malaria Foundation, GiveDirectly, and Schistosomiasis Control Initiative.

Work

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 870 million school-age children are at risk of parasitic worm infection. Over 400 million of these children remain untreated, according to the WHO fact sheet on soil-transmitted helminths. Worm infections interfere with nutrient uptake; can lead to anemia, malnourishment and impaired mental and physical development; and pose a serious threat to children’s health, education, and productivity. Infected children are often too sick or tired to concentrate at school, or to attend at all. Deworm the World supports the governments of India and Kenya in their respective national school-based deworming programs, and works with the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative in supporting Ethiopia's national school-based deworming program.

External reviews

GiveWell review

December 2014 review and inclusion in top charities

In December 2014, charity evaluator GiveWell published an updated review of DtWI. The key strengths and unresolved issues remained the same as those in their earlier review from November 2013, with one change: the earlier unresolved issue of concern that Deworm the World was operating its programs in places where deworming programs already existed was now resolved.

Based on the review, GiveWell included Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative in its list of four top charities for the year announced on December 1, 2014. The other top charities were Against Malaria Foundation, GiveDirectly, and Schistosomiasis Control Initiative.

November 2013 review

In November 2013, charity evaluator GiveWell reviewed the Deworm the World Initiative. Based on the review, GiveWell listed Deworm the World among its three top charities (with no relative ranking) alongside GiveDirectly and the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative. GiveWell set a "minimum target" of funds to raise for each charity, and its minimum target for Deworm the World was USD 2 million.

Scientific evidence

Mass deworming campaigns of school children have been used both as a preventive as well as a treatment method for helminthiasis which includes soil transmitted helminthiasis in children. Children are treated by administering medication such as mebendazole and albendazole. A 2004 study in Kenya by Harvard economist Michael Kremer and University of California economist Edward Miguel found that deworming reduces worm infections in both treated children, and untreated children living nearby (through reduced disease transmission. Additionally, deworming improves school attendance for treated and nearby untreated children.

Additional studies documenting the educational and economic impact of deworming include a World Bank Economic Review paper that reviews the literature. A separate study by World Bank economist Owen Ozier's shows that preschool-age Kenyan children who lived in communities where a deworming program was conducted, and thus were exposed to epidemiological spillovers, showed cognitive improvements ten years later. A randomized controlled trial by Harvard researcher Kevin Coke] finds that Ugandan children randomly exposed to more years of deworming have higher test scores in literacy and numeracy 7 to 8 years later.

Miguel, Kremer, Hicks, and Baird find that 10 years after deworming, Kenyan women who were dewormed for more years as girls were 25% more likely to have attended secondary school, and men who were dewormed for more years as boys worked 17% more hours and had better labor market outcomes, including higher earnings. Hoyt Bleakley finds that deworming in the U.S. in the early 1900’s lead to increased school enrollment and attendance for children, and improved literacy and income for adults who were treated as children. This study is a difference-in-difference design, rather than an RCT. An update of the Cochrane Review, a systematic review of the literature, finds that here is little sign of short-term impacts of deworming on health indicators (e.g., weight and anemia) or test scores, however it does not include above cited studies nor takes into consideration the long-term impacts of mass deworming programs. In an independent analysis, Give Well states on the available evidence of the efficacy of deworming: "At the same time, because mass deworming is so cheap, there is a good case for donating to support deworming even when in substantial doubt about the evidence."

References

  1. "Deworm the World Initiative". Evidence Action. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  2. "Deworm the World". Evidence Action. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  3. "Board of Directors". Deworm the World. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  4. ^ Karnofsky, Holden (December 1, 2013). "GiveWell's Top Charities for Giving Season 2013". GiveWell. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
  5. ^ Hassenfeld, Elie (December 1, 2014). "Our updated top charities". GiveWell. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
  6. ^ "Top charities". GiveWell. December 1, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
  7. "Soil Transmitted Helminths". WHO. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  8. Miguel, Edward; et al. (May 2015). "Worms at work: Long-run impacts of a child health investment" (PDF). Working Paper. Retrieved 28 July 2015. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |last1= (help)
  9. "Deworm the World Initiative, led by Evidence Action". GiveWell. December 1, 2014. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
  10. "Deworm the World Initiative, led by Evidence Action". GiveWell. November 2013. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
  11. Kremer, Michael (December 10, 2003). "Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities". Econometrica. 72 (1). Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  12. Amrita, Ajuha (June 3, 2015). "When Should Governments Subsidize Health?" (PDF). The World Bank Economic Review Advance Access. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  13. Ozier, Owen (October 2014). "Exploiting Externalities to Estimate the Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Deworming" (PDF). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  14. Coke, Kevin (July 17, 2015). "The long run effects of early childhood deworming on literacy and numeracy: Evidence from Uganda" (PDF). Working Paper, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health. Retrieved 28 July 2015. {{cite journal}}: horizontal tab character in |journal= at position 26 (help); horizontal tab character in |title= at position 4 (help)
  15. Sarah, Baird (July 2015). "Worms at work: Long-run impacts of a child health investment". Working Paper. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  16. Hoyt, Bleakley (2007). "Disease and Development: Evidence from Hookworm Eradication in the American South*". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 122 (1). Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  17. Taylor Robinson. "Deworming drugs for soil-transmitted intestinal worms in children: effects on nutritional indicators, haemoglobin, and school performance". Cochrane. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  18. "New deworming reanalyses and Cochrane review". Give Well. Give Well. Retrieved 28 July 2015.

External links

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