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A decade of outsized impact

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Letter from Kanika Bahl, CEO & President


Friends,

This year marks the tenth anniversary of Evidence Action! We’re so excited to share this milestone with you, and to take this moment to look forward to the future together.

Our mandate at Evidence Action has always been clear: We identify the most effective ways to have a meaningful impact on as many lives as possible, and then we scale the heck out of them.

But it hasn’t always been easy. Doing something different — being a disruptor, not following the path of “development as usual” — never is. We had to chart our own path. We’ve taken calculated risks, made hard decisions, overcame growing pains, and kept programs running during a pandemic — all the while making sure we’re maximizing what's best for the people we serve.

And we’re so proud of where we stand today, a decade later. Our team has grown exponentially in the last few years, with more than 700 staff members now, almost all of them based in Africa and Asia. We’ve expanded our programs into nine countries. And we've built a reputation as one of the most transparent and impactful charities, providing donors with exceptional value for every dollar spent.

And most importantly, we’ve done groundbreaking, world-changing work. We've helped hundreds of millions of people live healthier, fuller lives by addressing deeply neglected health issues.

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515+ Million

People reached globally with our interventions

15k+

Lives saved of children under 5

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$23 Billion

Generated in productivity gains from deworming

Highlights from our first 10 years

1

Evidence Action launched

Spun out of Innovations for Poverty Action with two programs across two countries: Dispensers for Safe Water (Kenya) and Deworm the World (Kenya and India)

  • 13 staff across in Kenya and the US
  • Deworm the World named top charity by GiveWell
2

Entered Uganda and Malawi; surpassed 6.4 million children dewormed in Kenya

  • First Dispensers for Safe Water carbon credits approved in Uganda
  • Launched Beta to identify new interventions
  • 305 staff members
3

89 million children treated in India's first National Deworming Day; Dispensers for Safe Water reached over 4 million people

Indian government dewormed preschool and school-age children with our support

  • No Lean Season tested for scale in Bangladesh
4

Deworm the World expanded to Nigeria and Vietnam

  • Opened Evidence Action’s Nigeria office
  • Supported Kenya’s Ministry of Health in mass treatment for lymphatic filariasis
7

Entered Pakistan; announced Winning Start

  • Dispensers for Safe Water honored during USAID’s Global Innovation Week as a member of the Million Lives Club
  • 2 state-level partnerships added in India and 3 state-level partnerships in Nigeria
Timeline 6

Deworm the World supported governments to reach over 290 million children across 5 countries

Timeline 5

Unveiled new strategy on ready-to-scale health interventions, with goal of doubling our impact

  • Launched Accelerator to develop new programs like iron and folic acid supplementation
  • Exited Winning Start and No Lean Season
  • Exit and transfer of deworming program in Vietnam to government
  • Chlorine dispenser provided to the Nobel Museum in Sweden by Michael Kremer, 2019 Nobel Laureate for Economics
8

Adapted programming in response to the COVID pandemic: Dispensers network leveraged to fight COVID-19; supported Government of India’s COVID-19 response

  • Announced maternal syphilis testing and treatment in Liberia

  • Transitioned deworming program in Vietnam to government, successfully exiting that geography

  • New study released on long-term benefits of deworming

9

New evidence shows water treatment improves child survival

  • Evidence Action partners with EAII Advisors in India

  • Deworming numbers begin to decline (and that’s a good thing!)

  • New evidence shows water treatment is even more effective (and cost-effective) than previously thought

  • Piloted in-line chlorination in Kenya

Timeline 10 1

Announced plan to double safe water footprint in Africa

  • In-line chlorination launched in Malawi
  • Launched maternal syphilis screening and treatment in Cameroon and Zambia
Timeline 10

Evidence Action marks 10 years with more than half a billion people reached since 2013

Over 515 million people reached globally with our interventions

  • Succeeded in doubling safe water footprint with 10 million+ people reached with access

  • Launched in-line chlorination in Uganda, and piloted technology in India

  • Conducted analysis of productivity from deworming, estimating $23 billion in gains from a decade of deworming

  • 733 staff and counting

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1.8+ Billion

Deworming treatments delivered

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Perspectives on our progress

10 Million+

People reached with access to safe water

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Stories of data, discovery, and results

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3+ Million

Diarrhea cases averted

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In the next 10 years, we aim to further expand and deepen our impact, reaching over 600 million people globally.

Become an impact champion

2023 marks a decade of transformative impact for Evidence Action – but our work is far from over. Poverty doesn’t wait, so we’re working as fast as we can to scale the world’s most effective health interventions. As we continue to relentlessly pursue scalable solutions, we’re excited, and hopeful, for the impact we can create over the next 10 years. You can be a champion for the most urgent and promising opportunities to help hundreds of millions of people live healthier, fuller lives. Are you ready to join us on the frontier of groundbreaking impact?

In appreciation of our supporters who jumpstart our impact with a gift of $25,000 or more before January 1, 2024, we will provide the option to have your name listed on our website. For more information or assistance, contact [email protected].

Become an impact champion
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How did we calculate our impact stats?

Some of these impact figures are large – almost eye wateringly so. We know that big numbers often get bandied around, and are committed to an accurate and transparent representation of our impact. We’ve developed each impact figure using rigorous methodologies – including our cost-effectiveness analyses, which account for counterfactual impact – and incorporating the evidence that underpins each of our interventions alongside our real-world program results and costs. Each one is our most robust estimate, using the best available data. We’ve taken great pains to ensure that we have confidence in all of them, and are so proud to share them with the world.

  • We’ve reached over 515 million people – more than the entire population of the European Union*

  • We’ve saved the lives of 15,000 children under 5 – that’s the equivalent of four young lives saved every day across the last decade

  • We’ve helped generate $23 billion in productivity gains from deworming – a return of $169 for every $1 spent on deworming**

Now for the fine print!

* Estimate inclusive of 143 million children reached in Indian states not receiving Evidence Action state-level technical assistance but reached through Evidence Action national-level policy support from 2015-2019. Estimate is inclusive of our historical programming in Ethiopia and Vietnam.

** We wrote about our modeling: Deworm the World is likely generating billions of dollars in economic returns