MSI secures new $6.3M GiveWell grant 

GiveWell’s grant for reproductive healthcare services will deliver choice to women in Nigeria and Sierra Leone 

MSI Reproductive Choices has received a $6.3 million grant from GiveWell, an independent, nonprofit research organization dedicated to finding and funding outstanding opportunities in global health and development. This new grant will support MSI’s cost-effective mobile outreach teams to deliver contraception in Nigeria and Sierra Leone, reaching women with no other access to this life-changing healthcare.

Announcing the grant, GiveWell said that they believe the value of contraceptive access in low- and middle-income countries could be substantial, noting a range of potential benefits including improved health, autonomy and earnings for women, and better health and educational outcomes for their existing children.

GiveWell noted that a key reason for providing this grant to MSI’s mobile outreach programs in Nigeria and Sierra Leone was their cost-effective approach. GiveWell estimates that MSI’s outreach activities supported by this grant are 10 to 14 times as cost-effective as GiveWell’s benchmark for cost-effectivenessⁱ, due to the low cost of providing modern contraception and MSI’s focus on reaching communities where a high percentage of women have no other access.

This new investment in contraception comes at a pivotal time for the sector, with funding for family planning on the decline globally. Roughly 80 million women in low- and middle-income countries had an unmet demand for contraception in 2024 and a further 136 million women report wanting to avoid a pregnancy but are not using a modern contraceptive methodⁱⁱ. MSI estimates that this new grant will allow their teams to reach 416,000 women and girls with modern contraception in Nigeria and Sierra Leone, focusing on states with particularly high rates of unmet need.  

Dilhan Perera, New Areas Senior Program Officer at GiveWell, said: 

“Increasing access to modern contraception can have a range of health, economic and wellbeing benefits for women and families, particularly in low-resource settings.

“MSI’s outreach teams provide counseling alongside a range of methods, so people can choose what works for them. We think their program has the potential to be highly cost-effective, and we’re funding independent monitoring alongside the grant to learn more about how it works in practice, and about family planning more generally.”

MSI Reproductive Choices’ CEO, Simon Cooke, said:  

“GiveWell is known for its rigorous, evidence-based approach to philanthropy and we’re proud that MSI Reproductive Choices has been selected for this $6.3 million investment.

“Our mobile outreach teams bring life-changing reproductive healthcare to women and girls living in some of the most underserved communities. By taking skilled providers directly to women with no other access, this funding will help remove the barriers of distance and cost, enabling more women to make informed choices about their bodies, their families and their futures.”