Delegates and speakers at the inaugural Effective Altruism (EA) NZ summit at the University of Otago Faculty of Medicine - Christchurch.
A desire to make the world a better place inspired more than 70 delegates and speakers to gather for a one-day altruism summit at Otago’s Faculty of Medicine – Christchurch recently.
The summit was hosted by Effective Altruism (EA) New Zealand, the national branch of the international movement originating from Oxford University in the UK. Members seek to make progress on the word’s pressing problems by sharing new thinking and research and initiating high impact projects.
Spearheading the summit were two Christchurch students: Gavin Bishop trainee intern at Otago, and Ruben Castaing, recent masters of AI graduate at the University of Canterbury.
“People often say ‘I want to help out with global health or do impactful work’, but the logistics of getting from that passion to concrete action can be a huge bottleneck,” Gavin says.
“You just might not know where to start, so that’s where EA comes in. We can help each other out and make things happen. It’s a pretty cool community of people asking important questions and trying to find constructive solutions, marrying the heart and the spreadsheet in order to make the most difference we can.”
Keynote speakers at the summit, held in the Beaven Theatre, covered a broad range of areas, including global health; disaster-resilient food systems; AI safety; the economics of charitable behaviour; regulatory reform; and even the welfare of chickens.
Among them was co-founder of the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED), Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Canterbury, Dr David Denkenberger, who has authored or co-authored 155 publications on existential/global catastrophic risk.
He is the author of Feeding Everyone No Matter What, a book outlining practical solutions for feeding humanity through extreme scenarios. He’s also presented more than 80 talks on resilience at the likes of Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Cambridge and Oxford universities.
Another speaker was Australia’s Greg Sadler, CEO of Good Ancestors Policy, which has led work on Australia’s National Immunisation Strategy, Covid-19 policy, disaster preparedness and AI safety.
Professor Stephen Knowles, from Otago’s Department of Economics also spoke. Stephen has a research interest in global development and the economics of altruism and charitable giving. Using lab, online and field experiments, he analyses the key drivers of donor behaviour to understand why people do (or do not) donate to local and international development charities.
UOC trainee intern Gavin Bishop, right, and fellow EA summit organiser Reuben Castain (UC).
Gavin, alongside a group of other Otago students, established a Dunedin-based EA group in 2021. He ramped up his commitment whilst taking a year away from medical studies to complete his Bachelor of Medical Science.
Upon shifting to Christchurch for his clinical years, Gavin, along with Otis Williams, joined forces with two Canterbury students, Otis’ brother Baxter Williams and Ruben to establish an EA Universities collective in Christchurch.
They have successfully run a series of talks and workshops, with 35 students now having completed an eight-week EA Introductory Fellowship –– a course involving group research readings, values discussions, cost-effectiveness programmes and the potential use of limited resources for doing good in the world.
For Gavin, scalable altruism and medical studies go hand in hand. He has recently returned from his 6th year international elective in Gulu, Uganda, where he worked alongside Dr Nick Laing, an active member of the EA community and fellow Otago medicine graduate.
“It was an amazing and eye-opening experience,” Gavin enthuses.
“Nick’s One Day Health initiative just passed the milestone of treating 10,000 Ugandan patients per month in healthcare black holes this July.
“I’ve been pretty privileged and lucky enough to be born in a place where we have more resources than others. I certainly hope a proportion of my efforts in terms of my career and income can be put towards doing good effectively.
”I’m so excited to be involved in EA and we really encourage others to join as well,” Gavin says.
- Kōrero by Lorelei Mason