![[Video] Cashout day in the Kiryandongo refugee settlement](https://www.givedirectly.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Cashout-in-Kiryandongo-Resized.png)
GiveDirectly recently launched a $19M project saturating an entire refugee settlement with cash transfers. 10,000 refugee households and 5,000 host community households will receive transfers. Our team has been testing facilitated cashout events in the settlement, offering a central, easy-to-reach withdrawal location for recipients. We collected video footage on our second-ever cashout day in the settlement.
Blog - Operations
Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
Operations
A Bizarre Baraza: Why One Village Refused Funds — Then Changed Its Mind
Recently, a village of about 70 households in Malawi was selected to receive GiveDirectly transfers. The village first refused funds — then changed its mind. Here’s what happened.
Operations
Behind the scenes at a GiveDirectly call center
Meet Sithembile Nyondo, who works in the GiveDirectly call center in Malawi fielding hotline calls from recipients. Every successful customer-facing company has mechanisms for ensuring quality service. We think recipients of aid deserve the same and have designed our call center processes accordingly.
Operations
How facial identification technology could help our field ops
We’re not interested in tech for the sake of tech. So, there were plenty of skeptics on the team when the possibility of integrating facial identification into our operations came up. Good for iPhones? Yes. Necessary for enrolling recipients in our program? Not obvious. The jury is still out on whether we’ll pursue it at […]
Operations
Solving the last mile payment challenge in Liberia
Think of the longest ATM line you’ve seen in the US…and multiply it by 80. On the World Bank index of ATMs per 100,000 people, Liberia comes in at fewer than 2 (by comparison, the US has 174). Not surprisingly, it’s the kind of place where delivering cash as an aid intervention is often deemed […]
Operations
Getting our bearings in Malawi
How big are villages in Malawi? The answer, our team has been learning, is not entirely straightforward. But it matters, for two key reasons: First, the randomized control trial we are running in partnership with USAID requires us to achieve a certain sample size (i.e. number of villages), within a budget constraint. If villages are […]
Operations
Large, unconditional cash to refugees: phase 1, complete!
If you’re interested in supporting our work with refugees, you can do so here. If you’re a long-term refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo now living in Uganda, what is your biggest priority? It’s possible you have a skill-set that you could use to start a business but lack the capital. You might need […]
Operations
GiveDirectly launches in the Democratic Republic of Congo
You may have read our recent announcement that operations are afoot in Liberia. We’re excited to announce that we’ll be expanding our program to a fifth country: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As with Liberia, we’re learning that for each new launch, some of our standard playbook carries over (e.g. Day 1: figure out […]
Operations
GiveDirectly launching in Liberia
In 2009, our co-founder & President Michael landed in Nairobi, connected with a local M-Pesa staffer, and transferred money to a handful of families in an internal displacement camp (he might still have the handwritten ledger he used to keep records). It goes without saying that our maiden voyage setting up a country office involved […]
Operations
Announcing cash for refugees
Images of refugees in boats make headlines and grip hearts, but we rarely think about what happens to them 1, 2, or even 10 years later. It turns out that refugees spend, on average, 10+ years in settlements or camps. The aid they receive helps them survive, but rarely do they get the chance to […]
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