Policy & Advocacy
At GiveDirectly, we believe that people living in poverty deserve the dignity to decide for themselves how best to improve their lives. This is why GiveDirectly partners with governments, multilaterals, and major donors to ensure that cash transfers are embedded in policy and financing decisions.
Our policy engagement centers on four priority GiveDirectly focus areas:
Emergency cash
Policy Priority:
Build a humanitarian system that can deliver cash within days of a crisis
Why It Matters:
Crises are growing, but aid systems are still too slow. Direct cash gets support to people fast and gives families the flexibility to meet their most urgent needs and recover from shocks.
Policy engagement:
- We advocate for donor policies and humanitarian reforms that make rapid cash a standard crisis response, and we work to build the systems needed to deliver it at speed and scale. This includes:
- Advocacy towards the U.S. Congress and State Department to embed direct cash as a core tool in U.S humanitarian assistance.
- Advancing cash transfers as a core pillar of the humanitarian reset and one of the most effective ways to deliver aid in a severely constrained funding environment
Key policy resources:
- 📝 When crisis hits, emergency cash could arrive in days, not months
- 📝 Switching to more cash aid would help millions in 2025
- 📝 ODI Policy Brief: Make aid go further – Give cash first in crises
- 📝 ODI Policy Brief: The case for large cash transfers: supporting refugees to meet basic needs and build resilience
Cash plus digital coaching
Policy priority:
Position large, one-time cash transfers as a core tool to reduce extreme poverty in national policy and donor portfolios – and find ways to multiply their impact by layering scalable digital coaching.
Why It Matters:
Large lumpsum transfers can significantly accelerate people’s exit from extreme poverty, with evidence showing broad economic and wellbeing gains and significant spillover effects. Coaching can enhance impact: some people are better able to realize their goals when given money and dedicated coaching support. Digital data sources, modes of delivery, and payment systems can drive rapid and cost-efficient scalability of this model.
Policy engagement:
- Work with national governments and donors to include large lumpsum transfers in social protection and poverty reduction strategies.
- Advocate for policy acceptance and financing of coaching-infused cash models that improve uptake and outcomes.
- Drive a comprehensive research agenda to inform optimal design, fiscal feasibility, and scalability of these models.
Key policy resources:
- 📝 Cash transfers increase incomes. Can digital coaching multiply the impact?
- 📝 How GiveDirectly works with governments
- 📝 Early findings from the world’s largest UBI study
- 🎥 Large lump sums vs. flow payments
Mothers and Babies
Policy priority:
Integrate unconditional cash support for mothers and infants into U.S. and African policy frameworks as part of health and social protection strategies.
Why it matters:
Evidence shows that getting cash to expectant mothers around birth dramatically improves survival and health outcomes. In Kenya, a large-scale study found infant deaths fell by nearly half with $1,000 unconditional cash transfers — underscoring cash as a powerful tool alongside healthcare access.
Policy engagement (U.S.):
- Advocate for the use of federal and state funding streams (e.g., TANF and others) to deliver unconditional cash to pregnant women and families
- Promote models (like Rx Kids) that provide policy pathways for adoption and scale.
Policy engagement (Africa):
- Elevate evidence from maternal and infant health studies and pilots to shape how cash is integrated with care delivery and health systems
- Work with governments and funders to adopt maternal-focused cash programming within national health and social protection policies.
Key policy resources
- 💡 Playbook for replicating Rx Kids: Utilizing TANF and protecting public benefits
- 📝 Study: Giving cash to mothers cuts infant deaths in half
Climate adaptation
Policy priority:
Increase the allocation of international climate finance towards large unconditional cash transfers for frontline communities to support resilience and adaptation.
Why It Matters:
Traditional climate finance often bypasses the people most affected. Cash provides flexible, dignified support that strengthens resilience, allows timely adaptation investments, and can complement other climate interventions.
Policy engagement:
- Build evidence on the optimal design of Large lumpsums to drive adaptation and resilience outcomes
- Engage in global climate policy spaces (e.g., multilateral funds, UNFCCC processes) to identify entry points for large lumpsums as a viable component of locally-led adaptation (LLA)
- Influence Governments in GiveDirectly’s countries of operation to adopt large lumpsums within Climate policy and financing priorities
Resources:
- 📝 Cash for loss and damage case study: Full version & 2-page version
- 📝 Direct cash transfers to address loss and damage: principles for effective response: Full version & 2-page version
- 📝Blog: Can giving people direct cash reverse deforestation?
Grow the cash movement with us!
This work can’t be done alone. We invite policymakers, donors, researchers, and advocates to collaborate with us in building a future where aid starts with trust—and starts with cash.
- 💝 Donate to send cash directly to people living in extreme poverty.
- 📩 Get in touch with our Policy & Advocacy team by filling out the form below.