Date: Tuesday February 18

Time: 6:30pm-9pm

Location: Mad Radish at 859 Bank St

Theme: Learning about USAID

The topic is a bit grim, but since the (hopefully temporary) shutdown of USAID, the United States Agency for International Development, I've been curious about what they actually did.

I'd be interested in what programs they had and what, if anything, is known about their cost effectiveness (eg whether certain programs have been compared to a "give cash" benchmark or been measured in resulting quality-adjusted-life-years).

I did a google search about the size of their budget and page-1 results have figures between 800 million and 40 billion... So I know this is a big topic and I don't expect to end up with a complete understanding.

I'll try to bring some info to the meetup. Feel free to bring any info about USAID or international development if you want to share. Maybe we could compare with what Canada is currently doing in international development - or Open Philanthropy or GiveWell, etc.

We'll be upstairs in Mad Radish - I'll wear a shirt that says 'GiveWell' to help identify us.

You're invited to join us even if we haven't met before or you aren't sure what this effective altruism thing is all about. We'd be happy to meet you!