# 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_