Africare
Impact Rating

# Africare

Top Health Nonprofit

Impact: $320 prevents one child from being stunted due to chronic undernutrition Mwanzo Bora Nutrition Program meets the benchmark for high cost-effectiveness. The nonprofit averts a disability-adjusted life year for less than the country's G.D.P. per capita. Note: The impact of this program may not be representative of the entire operation of Africare. Governance: Passes checks Mission Africare works to improve the quality of life of the people in Africa. Cause Health Rated Program Mwanzo Bora Nutrition Program Program Geography Tanzania Headquarters Washington, DC Website Donations processed by the nonprofit. Cause Health Rated Program Mwanzo Bora Nutrition Program Program Geography Tanzania Headquarters Washington, DC Website Impact Calculator: I'd like to give$ 0

Impact Calculator:

#### Rated Program

###### Program

Mwanzo Bora Nutrition Program

###### Activities

The Mwanzo Bora Nutrition Program promoted healthy behaviors like exclusive breastfeeding for infants and eating a diversified diet via multimedia channels, community events, community health workers and peer support groups.

Community Health

###### Beneficiaries Served

People living in poverty
Children and youth
Parents

###### Geography

Tanzania

Outcomes: Changes in people's lives. They can be caused by a nonprofit.

Costs: The money spent by nonprofits and their partners and beneficiaries.

Impact: The cost to achieve an outcome.

Cost-effectiveness: A judgment as to whether the cost was "worth" the outcome.

#### Outcomes

###### Outcome Metric

A case of stunting prevented.

To calculate impact, we estimate how many outcomes the nonprofit caused.

###### Data Source

Outcome data collected through the nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys, which showed the prevalence of stunting (height-for-age) among children under age 5 in Africare's three main zones of influence before and five years into the program.

###### Time Period of Data

Sept. 1, 2011, to Aug. 31, 2018

Ratings are based on data the nonprofit itself collects on its work. We use the most recent year with sufficient data. Typically, this data allows us to calculate direct changes in participants' lives, such as increased income.

###### Method for Attributing Outcomes

To estimate the counterfactual, Africare drew on rates of stunting in comparable non-participating zones of Tanzania. Participating and non-participating zones were similar in baseline stunting prevalence and mothers' practice of breastfeeding.

To determine causation, we take the outcomes we observe and subtract an estimate of the outcomes that would have happened even without the program.

#### Cost

###### Data Source

Cost data reported by Africare and data and assumptions about partner and beneficiary costs.

All monetary costs are counted, whether they are borne by a nonprofit service deliverer or by the nonprofit’s public and private partners.

#### Impact

###### Impact Statement

\$320 prevents one child from being stunted due to chronic undernutrition

We calculate impact, defined as the change in outcomes attributable to a program divided by the cost to achieve those outcomes.

#### Rating

###### Benchmark for Rating

Impact ratings of community health programs are based on the cost of a disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted relative to the G.D.P. per capita of the country in which the program operates. Programs receive 5 stars if they avert a DALY for less than than the G.D.P. per capita, and 4 stars if they avert a DALY for less than three times G.D.P. per capita. If a nonprofit reports impact but doesn't meet the benchmark for cost-effectiveness, it earns 3 stars.

###### Determination

The nonprofit averts a disability-adjusted life year for less than the country's G.D.P. per capita.

#### Why We Could Be Wrong

We welcome your suggestions for improving our methodology. Our methodology section includes explanations of how we mitigate these issues.

• The outcome could oversimplify total impact. Using "cases of stunting prevented" does not fully capture all the effects of the program, such as the extent of the health benefits.
• There could be multiple important outcomes not captured in our analysis.
• Africare may be spending additional money in order to serve harder-to-reach and/or particularly valuable populations.
• In the absence of better data, we assume uniform counterfactual rates for programs, at the risk of masking variation across nonprofits.
• Our estimates rely on data made public by Africare on its website, annual reports, financial statements and Form 990s.
• We only analyze programs that meet our criteria. As a result, this report may not fully reflect the impact of Africare.
• We do not assess what explains the nonprofit's cost-effectiveness.

We assign a rating to the nonprofit using the rubric:

• There are indications of governance or financial health issues at the nonprofit.

• After being given an opportunity, the nonprofit chose not to publish impact information.

We are not yet issuing this level of star rating.

• The rated program does not meet our benchmark for cost-effectiveness.

• The rated program is cost-effective.

• The rated program is highly cost-effective.

#### Nonprofit Comment

Not provided. This may be because we lacked contact information for Africare or it chose not to comment. If you are a representative of this nonprofit, contact us to review and comment on your rating.

Before publishing, we ask every nonprofit we can to review our work, offer corrections and provide a comment.

###### Analysis Details

Analysis conducted by ImpactMatters and published on November 22, 2019.

This rating is based on data reported by Africare using ImpactMatters' impact reporting platform. Using data from the platform, ImpactMatters analysts calculated impact and assigned a rating.

We welcome corrections. If you are interested in exploring applications of ImpactMatters data, contact us at partnerships@impactmatters.org.

#### Governance Check

Africare passes our governance check.

Conducted a financial audit

Overhead spending is reasonable (<35% of total spending)

Charity Navigator has not issued a fraud or mismanagement advisory

Africare itself has not reported any material diversions of assets

Africare itself has not reported any excess benefit transactions

Source: Africare Form 990 and Charity Navigator

#### How We Calculate Impact

This rating is based on ImpactMatters analysis of the impact of Mwanzo Bora Nutrition Program relative to costs. Impact is the change in the social outcomes of people served by the program, net of the change that would have happened even without the program (the “counterfactual”); divided by cost. Learn more.

A guide to our process for analyzing nonprofits and assigning ratings.

Learn about best practices for reporting impact for different program types.

Our collected guidelines on how we analyze impact of nonprofit programs.

Rating is a complex exercise and we urge you to read our frequently asked questions for details of how and why we issue these ratings.