Intimate partner violence is a significant challenge in Kenya, as in other developing countries. Nearly 40% of ever-married Kenyan women report physical abuse by a spouse (KNBS and ICF Macro 2010), and in a separate survey, almost 90% report some form of emotionally abusive treatment (Haushofer and Shapiro 2016). Women who are subject to physical […]
Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
Operations
On accepting fundraising donations
Donors have been asking us why they can’t direct online donations to pay for fundraising, which could potentially generate tremendous leverage for them (details below). It’s a fair question. Here’s how we think about it. For context, we’re not happy with the status quo in which donors typically have very little information about how their […]
Opinions
The Pope on giving unconditionally
This week the Pope endorsed giving unconditionally, because giving something to someone in need is “always right,” reports The New York Times. Many people ask us, when we talk about giving unconditionally to the poor, “what if they spend the money on alcohol?” Someone asked the Pope the very same question, and here’s how he […]
Operations
What it’s like to receive a basic income
Last October we began sending monthly universal basic income (UBI) payments to 95 people living in a rural village in Western Kenya. While people in 200 villages will eventually receive cash transfers as part of our test of a UBI, we wanted to begin with a one-village pilot. Doing so allows us to test and […]
Operations
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 […]
Opinions
Why We Invested: GiveDirectly’s Basic Income Experiment
Omidyar Network’s Tracy Williams and Mike Kubzansky describe why Omidyar is investing in GiveDirectly’s basic income experiment. Omidyar Network’s foundational belief that empowering people frees them to better themselves, their families, and their communities has great evidence in the growing literature around the benefits of cash transfers. In these programs, low income individuals who receive […]
Operations
Research Director Field Studies – Day 3: Cash transfer experts
In the final 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.At GiveDirectly we talk a lot about the poor being the true poverty experts. Today I had the great privilege of being able to ask questions of poverty experts […]
Operations
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 […]
Operations
Research Director Field Studies – Day 1: In the details
In the first 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. Truth and customer service: two of many things that have been said to be in the details. What I saw today was GiveDirectly’s call center team in Kisumu, […]
Opinions
What would you do with an extra $1,000?
Mika Marcondes de Freitas explains what biking across Europe has to do with GiveDirectly, and why he’s committed to donating 10% of his earnings directly to extremely poor families.What would you do with an extra $1,000? I would personally take a couple of months off and ride my bicycle solo from Copenhagen to Istanbul. […]