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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.”

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 scams@givedirectly.org