Sending cash to remote places

This year, we are running a small pilot in Uganda’s Acholi sub-region, on the border with South Sudan. Until just over ten years ago, this area was the heartland of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army, and the region was embroiled in a protracted civil war. Today, Acholi is at peace, but its people remain amongst […]

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Research Director Field Studies – Day 2: Gimoro amora

In the second part of this three-part series, GiveDirectly’s Research Director Michael Cooke discusses key takeaways from his trip to visit field teams and recipients in Kenya. Today I went out with GiveDirectly field staff to shadow the process of enrolling new program recipients. Luo was the primary spoken language of the recipients in the […]

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The largest basic income experiment in history

The second milestone for cash in 2016 (see here for Part 1) was GiveDirectly’s launch of the first long-term Universal Basic Income evaluation in history. Over the last twelve months, cash transfers have moved toward center stage in international policy circles under a new name, Universal Basic Income (UBI). While there has been much debate, […]

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Launch of core operations in Rwanda

In October, the Rwanda team launched its core operations project entitled “Kungahara” (which translates to “Prosper”) with the aim of enrolling 3,600 households by the end of February 2017. Kungahara operates in two sectors in Gicumbi, which is the second poorest district in Rwanda.The modelGiveDirectly Rwanda is utilizing a new model, also being tested in […]

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A turning point in my life

Joice was living in poverty when she received a cash transfer from GiveDirectly’s donors in 2014. Now she is a GiveDirectly field officer whose job includes telling new recipients about GiveDirectly. This is her story.  I was born in Kisumu County and I was married in Siaya County. I had great dreams of improving my […]

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On GiveDirectly’s use of paid media

We’ve received a couple of questions about an online advertising campaign for GiveDirectly that’s been running on Facebook and general banner ads. The ad inventory for the campaign was donated by a corporate partner, and so comes at zero cost to GiveDirectly aside from staff time. We are not yet sure what role advertising has […]

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Announcing: GDLive

The last week has been an emotional one for many of us, and I hope that today we can provide a small channel for something more uplifting: a reflection of your collective compassion for the global poor and an honest look into their lives and the impact of your investments. Today, we launch GDLive, which […]

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