GiveDirectly

From Project Management Institute: "The GiveDirectly team wanted to observe the outcome of giving money to the world’s poor without assessing a recipient’s 'worthiness' or placing conditions on how it was used... It didn’t take long for studies about its work to substantiate what they suspected — unconditional cash transfers work. People used the money wisely. Many invested the funds in entrepreneurial projects that could boost their income. But even a robust body of research didn’t fully help GiveDirectly address resistance to the model. 'There have been a lot of studies of cash transfers that prove their viability, but when you take these studies to government, they will say, ‘Yes, great, but that’s in Kenya. The local context is different,’' says Nkurunziza Richard, MBA, GiveDirectly’s senior manager of Rwanda programs. The nonprofit decided to launch an even more audacious project in 2023, taking the unconditional cash transfer idea from the village-level to a larger scale. The purpose of the project, says Nkurunziza, is to swiftly and effectively lift Rwandan families out of extreme poverty. The unconditional cash transfer project in Rwanda centered recipients, extending them the trust and dignity to best choose how to improve their lives with the cash. GiveDirectly’s Rwanda team worked closely with local and national governments and village leaders to roll out the program in line with their development goals. 'The only condition [to receiving the cash] is that you fall below the poverty line,' Nkurunziza explains. 'We opt for saturation, covering an entire village, so we aren’t making decisions about the [relative worth] of one family or household or another.' His colleague, Nathalie Bintu, GiveDirectly’s external relations lead, adds that one year into the project, GiveDirectly is seeing a big pay-off. 'We’ve already started observing outcomes: improved health, massive drops in food insecurity, and a general ability for recipients to meet basic needs,' she says. Nkurunziza agrees, 'Cash transfers impact so many other areas: child mortality, gender equity. Cash transfers are respectful. They provide agency. They are unconditional. And they’ve been proven to work.' Bintu concludes that 'if we can do this at the national level successfully, we can do this in other countries.'" More from our recognition by Project Management Institute at https://lnkd.in/eJrFD5NM More on our work in Rwanda at GiveDirectly.org/rwanda

CALP Network and cash world! USAID is launching 2 position papers super relevant to you, one on Cost-Effectiveness, and another on Direct Monetary Transfers (often referred to as cash transfers) this Thursday at Center for Global Development In a world with tremendous need, Cost-Effectiveness helps us understand tradeoffs in program choice, design and implementation, enabling development actors to achieve the greatest impact possible with available resources. The paper on Direct Monetary Transfers paper builds on the great work by humanitarian actors that have been using it at scale (USAID's BHA allocated >$1.5B in emergency cash and voucher assistance in FY 2023), and expands on this work to discuss how transfers can be used to impact development outcomes (spoiler-- it's often very cost-effective and can impact outcomes from household resilience to microenterprise growth). Come (in person or virtually!) to learn about USAID's increased attention on these topics Register here: https://lnkd.in/efAh66rq Rory Crew Gabriele Erba Zehra Rizvi Lynn Y. Holly Welcome Radice Paula Gil Baizan Cheryl Harrison Ugo Gentilini Jean-Martin Bauer Clément Rouquette Elizabeth Tromans Kenn Crossley

We think the way to save lives is more medicine and doctors, but more money also helps. Dozens of research studies across Africa show giving cash directly can… ??Improve nutrition ??Reduce illness? ????Increase access to prenatal care? ????Reduce child mortality To see how it works, watch how a village in Malawi used their $550 from GiveDirectly to invest in better nutrition, clean water, and better access to healthcare. Learn more about this life-changing impact at GiveDirectly.org.

Worried people in poverty blow cash aid on booze? Spoiler: They're too busy blowing it on food, medicine, & education. GiveDirectly.org ?? ?? Dozens of research studies show giving people in poverty cash instance does not increase spending on 'temptation goods' like alcohol and tobacco. Source: https://lnkd.in/eRMwBgsU David Evans & Anna Popova for The World Bank ??After receiving GiveDirectly cash, Kenyan families spent more on food, medicine, and education. Source: https://lnkd.in/eWye4mbF Johannes Haushofer & Jeremy Shapiro for Princeton University ??Another study found communities that received cash saw fewer people drinking daily and were less likely to say drinking as a problem in their village. Source: https://lnkd.in/eM6DVvGN Tavneet Suri et al for Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) ?? Worried cash recipients tell researchers they aren't drinking to keep them happy? Here's how studies are designed to avoid that: https://lnkd.in/eRMwBgsU Cartoon by David Ostow, licensed from CartoonStock.com

What works better: giving someone in poverty a monthly basic income or a single large lump sum? Evidence shows #UBI isn't always the best way to deliver cash aid. For more, RSVP for Thursday's webinar with socialprotection.org: https://lnkd.in/e99tfWVc Edit: watch the full presentation here: https://lnkd.in/eBCeN2KJ ???? 'Trusting People with a Large Cash Payment - Exploring evidence on cash lump sums vs flow payments' on Thursday September 26th is a discussion on the evidence base around lumpsum payments for poverty reduction versus regular social assistance payments and the initial findings from the world’s longest Universal Basic Income (UBI) study #SPorgWebinar ?? ? Meet the participants and learn more about the webinar:?https://lnkd.in/e4tZEKWt Miriam Laker-Oketta Sarah Hague Dalitso Kalimba Isabelle Pelly #SocialProtection #SocialJustice #EconomicEmpowerment

GiveDirectly will be advocating for cash for climate justice and cash for women’s empowerment at the United Nations General Assembly (#UNGA) next week ?? ??Interested in a 1:1 meeting? Reach out to Caroline Teti, Isabelle Pelly, & Yolande Wright who will be there representing us. ?? On Thursday Sept. 26th, they're part of?Devex’s The Future Can’t Wait summit (also streaming online): https://lnkd.in/eFtpvkah ??????????????????They’ll also be forwarding the case for cash for climate loss & damage at a closed-door event with The Scottish Government and the Government of Malawi (https://lnkd.in/efaWrXux), then joining the Goal House's Women in Philanthropy session (goalshouse.com/houses/unga)

This year, GiveDirectly and The Scottish Government Climate Justice Fund sent $750 to over 2,600 families in Malawi’s Nsanje District displaced by 2023’s Cyclone Freddy, helping them rebuild their lives and demonstrating how direct cash can address climate loss & damage globally. ?? ??Developing countries face $400 billion annually in climate-related loss & damage, expected to hit $1 trillion by 2050. ??GiveDirectly and Scotland's work in Malawi shows how direct cash transfers can empower climate survivors to rebuild from loss & damage. ??96% of recipients used cash for long-term assets like livestock and homes, with income rising 31% and hunger decreasing. The cash transfers support local economic growth, creating jobs and boosting community resilience. ????We're advocating at the United Nations and #COP29 for more climate loss & damage funds to be delivered as direct cash. Read more at https://lnkd.in/dGCtP9KX

“We have the potential to transform the way that aid is delivered and empower people to make their own choices.” Elisa Gabellieri is the Humanitarian Partnerships Director with GiveDirectly, a nonprofit that allows donors to send money directly to people living in poverty. During the United Nations Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks, we spoke with Elisa about: – How greater choice for beneficiaries can support better outcomes – Inefficiencies associated with traditional ways of delivering aid – The need for structures and processes to facilitate cash-based support And much more. Read the full interview. ? #DigitalAidDialogues #DigitalAid #HumanitarianAid #DigitalPayments #HNPW?#Visa #GiveDirectly

“And it turned out that it wasn't a fluke… hundreds of studies in many countries in the world consistently find unconditional cash was leading to a real reduction in things like child mortality and depression, and fantastic increases in education, in health, in businesses, in savings and incomes, in investment. More than that, it was actually leading to a multiplier effect. For every $1 delivered into a community, there was $2.50 of benefits to the surrounding villages. It was a fiscal stimulus. It was not, as you might imagine, leading to people just lying around in bed drinking alcohol. In fact, people were investing the money productively.” Rory Stewart was blown away by the impact of GiveDirectly's no-strings-attached direct cash transfers, and the research backs him up. Watch his full TED Talk at GiveDirectly.org/rory? Here’s a quick summary of the talk: ?? After 30 years in global aid, Rory Stewart was depressed by what he saw. While directing the UK’s $20B annual global aid budget, he found the ways they tried to address poverty were shockingly ineffective and expensive because they’re based on the principle that we should “teach a man to fish.” But “people don’t want to learn how to fish — they might want to open a bakery.” ?? Visiting GiveDirectly recipients in Rwanda converted him to direct cash. “I'd never seen anything like it, honestly, in my entire life in international development.” Cash works because everyone’s needs are different, and “when people make their own choices, they are then able to sustain and take pride in the investments in a way that isn't possible if somebody else does it for them.” ?? He argues direct cash offers a path to ending extreme poverty. By demonstrating this can work at scale, GiveDirectly can “convince the government ministers and the big agencies that they should be putting the money behind cash. And this is where everyone in this room comes in. Everybody here can contribute.” Watch at GiveDirectly.org/rory

“Direct cash respects people's choice in an age that's worried about patronizing and colonial aid.” - Rory Stewart in his newly released TED Talk on paternalistic waste he’s witnessed in global aid and how he became convinced direct giving will accelerate the end of extreme poverty in our lifetime: https://lnkd.in/egj_8mMj ??Watch + share the talk to help raise more for people in poverty! Many still think that giving cash to people in poverty is a bad idea, but talks like this can help change minds: the last TED Conferences Talk featuring GiveDirectly convinced over 800 donors to give over $1.2M. Here’s how to help: ??Watch the video (14 min) Like and comment to help boost it for YouTube’s algorithm. ?? ??Share with your network — Post it in your work Slack and send it to friends or family with a GiveDirectly.org link. 15% of new donors hear about us from someone they know. ??Post on social media — reshare this one and post your own on X, Facebook, Instagram, etc! Here’s a quick summary of the talk: ?? After 30 years in global aid, Rory Stewart was depressed by what he saw. While directing the UK’s $20B annual global aid budget, he found the ways they tried to address poverty were shockingly ineffective and expensive because they’re based on the principle that we should “teach a man to fish.” But “people don’t want to learn how to fish — they might want to open a bakery.” ?? Visiting GiveDirectly recipients in Rwanda converted him to direct cash. “I'd never seen anything like it, honestly, in my entire life in international development.” Cash works because everyone’s needs are different, and “when people make their own choices, they are then able to sustain and take pride in the investments in a way that isn't possible if somebody else does it for them.” ?? He argues direct cash offers a path to ending extreme poverty. By demonstrating this can work at scale, GiveDirectly can “convince the government ministers and the big agencies that they should be putting the money behind cash. And this is where everyone in this room comes in. Everybody here can contribute.”