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Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC)

Intervention ID: int_smc
Evidence strength: exceptionally_strong
Causes: cause_malaria, cause_global_health_life_saving

Mechanism

Preventive antimalarial medicine for children during high-transmission months.

Organizations in this catalog

• org_global_fund_malaria
• org_gates_malaria
• org_givewell_top_charities_fund
• org_malaria_consortium

Citations (public evaluator pages)

• https://www.givewell.org/charities/malaria-consortium
• https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities
• https://www.givewell.org/impact-estimates

Evidence notes

GiveWell rates SMC evidence as exceptionally strong; Malaria Consortium coverage surveys generally find high reach (MC SMC review; Top Charities page).

Key uncertainties

• Level of malaria mortality in areas where GiveWell supports SMC (GiveWell MC review).
• Whether SMC campaigns would be funded by other malaria funders in GiveWell’s absence (GiveWell MC review).
• Some discrepancies between post-round and post-cycle coverage surveys; reliance on caregiver self-report (GiveWell MC review).

Fungibility notes

GiveWell discusses uncertainty about other funders replacing SMC support; MC shares funding-landscape information used in other-actors adjustments (GiveWell MC review).

Cost-effectiveness notes (do not treat as verified without citation_urls)

GiveWell 2022-2024 avg ~$4000/life; ~$7/child (Malaria Consortium).

Agents must look up data/claims_index.json and cite citation_urls before stating numbers.

Provenance

See docs/evaluation-provenance.md and data/graph/evaluations_graph.json.

last_reviewed: 2026-10-01