In 2016, Uganda took in more people than any other country in the world — and that includes all of Europe at the height of the refugee crisis. Unfortunately, it’s not making headlines.
In 2018, GiveDirectly successfully piloted large, unconditional cash transfers to long-term refugees. Simply put, cash worked – recipients reported considerable and wide-ranging positive impacts. In addition, recipients preferred cash to in-kind aid.
Today, we’re building on the success of our pilot to test the impact of giving lump sum cash grants to refugees at scale.
Through this experiment, we hope to inform some of the biggest challenges facing humanitarian aid today, help us explore how we can go beyond helping refugees to survive, and instead empower them to prosper.
We are excited to have received funding to support this work from the Ikea Foundation, Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation, UK’s Department for International Development, Comic Relief, UBS Optimus Foundation, Conrad Hilton Foundation, and Tent Foundation.
