GiveDirectly

“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.”

Last week, Nigerians started receiving ~$105 two days BEFORE flooding hit their villages, thanks our AI-backed program with support from Google.org ?? ??? In Nigeria, GiveDirectly is using AI to identify those most vulnerable to seasonal floods and send them cash before the floods arrive.?Over 15M+ Nigerians living in poverty are endangered by predictable, annual floods, especially those in Kogi State, which is situated where two major rivers meet. ??? GiveDirectly used satellite, flood mapping and government data to identify micro-areas most prone to flooding, with support from Google Research. Then, in collaboration with the local community, GiveDirectly identified 52 villages across six wards, as being severely vulnerable. ????Anyone in these villages could self-enroll through their mobile phone. And GiveDirectly conducted remote and in-person verification checks. ?? Last week, the first group of verified recipients received their bank transfers within 48 hours of flood warnings. So they had their cash before the flood arrived. ?? This early cash allows them to stockpile food, secure their homes, and avoid selling assets after a disaster, a common practice that often deepens poverty. Building on the success of a similar program in 2022, GiveDirectly adjusted its design based on community input to time the payments for better access to local markets during peak flooding: https://lnkd.in/eYUntJ-N ?? This project marks the first use of AI-driven flood forecasting models to trigger cash in Africa, and one of the earliest Anticipatory Action programs in Nigeria. This should be a model of how governments and nonprofits respond to future floods. ?? The program aims to pay up to 4500 families with one $105 transfer just before flooding and two $105 transfers afterwards.?Give cash to more families at GiveDirectly.org/relief Read more about this work from Fast Company, including International Rescue Committee's own work on anticipatory action: https://lnkd.in/eewRtpFF

Want to learn more about this #UBI study? RSVP this is free webinar: givedirect.ly/webinar It's a discussion of the evidence on lump sum payments for poverty reduction vs. regular social assistance "flow" payments. GiveDirectly will share the initial findings from the world’s longest?Universal Basic Income (#UBI) study, which includes 3 treatment arms - 2 groups receiving rmonthly payments (2 years & 12 years) and 1 receiving a lump sum payment as basis for the discussion: https://lnkd.in/eW4NDQ79 Panelists from UNICEF, the Malawi Government, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will discuss the policy implications of these findings and other related evidence - addressing key issues including the replicability of these findings in different contexts, complementarity of lump sums and social assistance payments, and the implications for fiscal space. ? Speakers: Miriam Laker-Oketta Research Director, GiveDirectly Ashu Handa, Professor of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Sarah Hague, Regional Adviser - Social Policy and Social Protection, UNICEF Dalitso Kalimba, Deputy Director in the Poverty Reduction and Social Protection Division, Malawi Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning Peter Atego Obedo, Senior Chief, South West Sakwa, Bondo Subcounty, Siaya County, Kenya Moderator:?Isabelle Pelly, Policy Director, GiveDirectly RSVP: givedirect.ly/webinar

GiveDirectly never registers people for our cash programs over social media posts, messages, or WhatsApp. Reshare this post to help stop scammers using our name to trick people out of money. https://lnkd.in/dik8JMFC GiveDirectly staff will: ?? Never registers people for our programs over social media posts, messages, or WhatsApp. ?? Never asks for airtime or money from any community members or potential recipients. ?? Never makes loans, or gives money on the condition that you will pay it back. ?? Never asks you to pay money to get funds or be registered with us. ?? Never offers investment opportunities. If you receive one, it is fake. If you see a scam, please report it to [email protected]

How could the UK’s ￡15 billion a year in international aid to do more good? Rory Stewart argues they should benchmark their programs against giving cash directly to find out how well they work. "When you are short of cash, using direct cash is a very good way of getting results." In his testimony to UK Parliament, Rory argues that aid agencies don't know if their programs work better than simply giving people in poverty cash directly. When it's been studied, direct cash often outperforms conventional programs. To make aid budgets do the most good possible, comparing to direct cash should be a more universal requirement. Better still, a cash transfer can improve not just one but all aspects of multi-dimensional poverty. More than a benchmark, direct cash should be our default, as Yolande Wright argues in Devex: GiveDirectly.org/default

A first-time visitor to Africa and I spent last week in a remote village among people living in extreme poverty somewhere on the continent. The locals kindly allowed us to participate in their community meetings and we had very engaging conversations with them. The visitor from outside Africa asked, "What would you like for yourself and your family?" The answers came thick and fast; 100% of the households wanted electricity, as none of them had it. Other responses included: "I plan to buy cattle," "I need to send my children back to school," "We want to start an irrigation system for our gardens," "We want high-yield beans and sesame (sim sim) seeds," "A mattress," "Cooking utensils," "My house needs repair," "I want to start a community grain mill," "We have business ideas," "We need good food," and "I need to go to the hospital for a check-up." The visitor later said to me, "If I had not heard for myself, I would not believe it. Unconditional cash transfers solve so many problems for so many people at the same time, and it is so cheap to send cash to people's phones too!" This is exactly the reason I joined GiveDirectly. As a research nerd, it was also the evidence from randomized controlled trials that had me hooked. Rory Stewart puts it best in this article. https://lnkd.in/eB7cZvf4

A new Vox piece covers "the best plan to help refugees" – large cash transfers. Here are the most important takeaways ? ?? "GiveDirectly is designing a new, larger study to see how cash can help refugees integrate into urban environments... The charity will closely monitor people for 2 years to see if recipients actually escape poverty for good." ?? "4,500 recipients will receive the equivalent of $725 each... 'Sometimes we’re asked, why don’t you just give smaller amounts of cash [to more people]?' Miriam Laker-Oketta?said. But 'should they keep receiving aid as if they’re in crisis mode? What can lift them out of dependency?' The results from a large lump sum study conducted in the Kiryandongo settlement in Uganda indicate that it’s better to help people invest in sustainable wealth creation." ? https://lnkd.in/e7tr6tXf ?? In our Nairobi pilot last year, "recipients nearly doubled their average monthly income to 18,600 shillings — about $143 US — per month. Six months later, 88% of recipients reported earning more money than before. And a similar study in a semi-urban settlement in Uganda found that the number of refugee cash recipients there who were able to pay rent and feed their families had tripled, and more people could afford the health care they needed. Many spent their newfound income on children’s school fees." ? https://lnkd.in/eJQ2cjuf ?? You can help reach more refugees at GiveDirectly.org/refugees and read Jacob Kushner's full piece at https://lnkd.in/ez77qr4Z for more, including intimate portraits of Nairobi recipients of GiveDirectly's cash transfers.

"We sat through conferences on international development, listening to expert after expert saying that the answer to all this is to focus on 'best practices,' 'capacity building,' and 'political will.' This sounded good but was actually profoundly offensive. It translated to saying 'people in this poor country were ignorant, unskilled, and lazy. We’re going to come in with our knowledge, training, and willpower to fix it.'... There are four factors that determine if a development project succeeds or fails: 1?? Is it appropriate for the unique context? Not cookie-cutter or universalist. 2?? Is it adjusted flexibly to meet individual needs and priorities? Not one-size-fits-all. 3?? Is it giving the recipients freedom, control, and dignity? Not deciding for them. 4?? Is it efficient and cost-effective? No excessive overheads. The only aid model I’ve seen do all four is unconditional cash transfers. It is a lesson in radical humility. Instead of seeing ourselves as heroic CEOs, we are trusting other people. The decisions are totally decentralized, disaggregated, and devolved to the level of the individual in the poorest household. Each family uses the money creatively to respond to opportunities and investments made by all the other families in their village... With cash in hand, the recipient and their community become the expert and the leader, finally given the dignity to choose for themselves. I came to direct giving as an effective tool for lifting people out of poverty, but found it holds a profound lesson in leadership. It turns radically against the single heroics of the individual, inverting our entire mental model of what leadership means to encompass a whole network and community. And it leaves with me two larger questions that apply to all our lives. When are we — in companies or in government — behaving as though some superhero in the centre has the knowledge and power to fix everyone else’s life? And what would a radical inversion look like? Instead of tinkering with program designs and feedback mechanisms, what if you gave power and decision-making to the most local level — your industry’s form of 'direct giving'? Here the moral lesson of humility is also the route to a more effective program and — in international development — a more just world." Rory Stewart writing for Big Think: https://lnkd.in/efNK2Sjh