Data and evidence

for more impactful altruism

  • New systematic review published in WHO Bulletin

    The study argues that vision correction is a potential ‘best buy’ in global health.

  • Identifying Ways to Improve Human Health Outside the Health Sector

    Dr. Brad Wong invited to the editorial team of Disease Control Priorities 4

    Mettalytics Director Brad Wong will co-lead the effort to identify the most effective ways to improve human health outside the health sector.

  • Five pieces of research published in the Journal of Benefit Cost Analysis

    The special issue covers best buys in global health and development.

  • Our research featured on Jordan Peterson's podcast

    Peterson and Bjorn Lomborg discuss 12 of the smartest things to do for the world, including Mettalytics research commissioned by the Copenhagen Consensus on trade, tuberculosis, education and more.

  • Largest eye health costing study published in the Lancet Regional Health

    The study covers 2.4 million people screened across India.

  • Investigating the importance of clear vision in agriculture

    This ground-breaking study will assess the impacts of better vision on coffee production in Guatemala.

  • Mettalytics research featured in the South China Morning Post

    The article discusses benefit-cost research on rebuilding schools using recycled plastic technology.

Our Philosophy

Bringing together head & heart

 

Mettalytics is a boutique consultancy that specializes in using data and quantitative analysis to help our clients maximize their positive impact. Our team has experience advising governments, philanthropists, NGOs and international development organizations.

We believe that applying rigorous quantitative analysis should be an essential part of the altruistic process. There is more information than ever before on what strategies work and don’t work, how much policies cost and what beneficiaries value. Using both head and heart, we work to ensure philanthropy and government policy have the greatest impact possible.

Our Services

  • Impact Maximization

    Determine the most impactful use of resources for doing good.

  • Social return-on-investment analysis

    Calculate the impact per dollar invested in philanthropy through cost-benefit analysis.

  • Cost-effectiveness analysis

    Determine the most cost effective approach to solving a social challenge.

  • Problem sizing

    Rigorously estimate the social, economic and environmental costs of a given problem.

  • Discrete choice experiments

    Include the preferences of beneficiaries in decision making.

  • Evidence review

    Systematically search academic reports for the most-up-to-date evidence on a given challenge.

 

Clients & Collaborators

What is the most important decision for maximizing impact?

 

Our experience working in the development sector and academia for more than a decade shows that one decision is vastly more important than others:

Prioritizing the right interventions.

Intervention selection is the process of figuring out the types of activities you will focus on. If you care about education, for example, will you build schools or provide laptops or train teachers? There are typically hundreds, if not thousands of possible interventions to choose from. Devoting some time and effort to figuring out which interventions to focus on can substantially increase your expected impact.

Academic evidence shows that moving from a typical to a top intervention often improves impact per dollar 10-fold and sometimes by as much as 100-fold.

 

Testimonials

 

"The report by Mettalytics demonstrated to our stakeholders that we had carefully considered the value-for-money proposition of the recycled plastic schools. It reached senior Ministers in the government of Indonesia, the World Bank, IFC and donor agencies in Australia and Finland who were all impressed by the rigour of the analysis and the relevance of the policy insights."

— Duncan Ward, CEO Classroom of Hope

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Are you part of an NGO, foundation or government department interested in increasing the impact of your investments?