Joanna Macrae (Director of European Partnerships, GiveDirectly), EA Global X Berlin 2017, Oct 14/15 2017

1. Delivering
Development
Resultsat
Scale
Delivering development impact at scale

2. Why This
Matters
Source: Zhang, Chandy and Noe (Brookings 2016) “The global
poverty is falling. Billionaires could help close it”
Foreign Aid vs. Total Poverty Gap

3. The traditional aid model is expensive and opaque
Money & Decision Making Power

4. Most aid
provided as
goods and
services:
70%
of Syrian refugees selling large
portions of food aid (2014)

5. A new, scalable model for aidGiveDirectly

6. 1
1
2
1
1
1
1
7
4
4
2
1
1
1
1
2
3
1
1
1
5
Unconditional or both
Conditional
Unconditional or both
Greatly increase total consumption
and its main component, food
consumption, in both rural and
urban areas in Columbia
(Attanasio, 2006)
Increased parents' belief that
education was a worthwhile
investment, in Morocco
(Benhassine, 2013)
Decrease early pregnancy in
Kenya by 34% (Handa, 2015)
Opportunities to shift food to
more nutritious options, reduce
financial indebtedness in India.
(Shubhashis Gangopadhyay, 2013)
Increase in income, food and
health spending
(The World Bank, 2011)
Increased enrollment &
attendance among children
in the Philippines.
(Chaudhury, 2013)
Earned male entrepreneurs a
100% rate of return after 5
years in Sri Lanka.
(McKenzie, 2008, 2012)
Increased earnings by 40%
and labor supply by 20%
after 4 years in Uganda.
(Blattman,2013)
Decreased teen pregnancy,
school dropouts, and cut HIV
prevalence by 50% in Malawi
(Baird, 2013)
Decreased teen pregnancy,
school dropouts, and cut HIV
prevalence by 50% in Malawi
(Baird, 2013)
Increased girls height-for-age
and weight-for-height,
increased labor supply in
South Africa.
(Aguero, 2006)
Increased birth weight,
maternal health in
pregnancy in Uruguay
(Glassman et al., 2013)
Increased health for physical
and psychosocial health for
children under 7, positive
spillover for siblings in Brazil.
(Shei et al, 2014)
Significantly better performance on
the number of words a child was
saying, and on the probability that
the child was combining two or
more words in Ecuador
(Fernald, 2011)
Improves school
attendance in Costa Rica
(Duryea, 2004)
Accelerated early childhood
development in Nicaragua
(Macours, 2012)
Increased long-term living
standards in Mexico
(Rowe, 2011)
Significant positive effects
on total household expenditure
(Leroy, 2009)
Increased school
enrollment, increased and
health / education
spending, decreased
alcohol use in Kenya.
(Baird, 2013)
Improvements in food security,
household coping strategies, or asset
ownership between the two groups.
(Aker, 2013)
2
Increased birth weight,
maternal health in
pregnancy in Uruguay
(Glassman et al., 2013)
1
Conditional
Cash
works:

7. There are 93 countries with mobile
money and >400M current mobile
money users

8. A More Transparent Model
~$0.9 reaches recipient

9. How do we do it? Unconditional, large cash grants
Target
Transfer
Monitor
Audit
Census & Registration: Staff go door-to-door collecting contact, text, image, and GPS
data for whole village, data captured on powerful, bespoke software Enroll households
that meet objective poverty criteria (e.g., thatch roof);
Validation: Multi-layered independent human and machine checks for accuracy and
to avoid fraud
Transfer up to $1000: using mobile money, delivered in two tranches
Field visits and call center follow up to ensure that funds received and no
problems. Capture stories through GDLive

10. Does it work? Independent randomized control of our program
showed:
+ $430 (58%) increase in total assets
+$330 increase in nutrition spending; 42% reduction in
children going to bed hungry
0.26 SD reduction in stress + $270 (+34%) increase in earnings
With no increase in expenditure on alcohol, tobacco, gambling

11. Key lessons
Scaling a
new model
of aid

12. We have scaled field work quickly without compromising quality
12
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
45000
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 est.
Financial efficiency
Households enrolled
Cumulative amount transferred
(as of 3/31/17)
$65M
Current annual transfer run rate
(2017)
$42M
Cumulative households reached
(as of 3/31/17)
70,674
Recipients reached for follow-up
(historical)
99%
Efficiency
(Kenya/Rwanda, 2016)
89% / 91% Mean time to collect transfer 87 Mins
Mean recipient daily
consumption (Ke/Ug)
$0.65/$0.83
Recipients who paid a bribe or
experienced theft
0.82%

13. Barriers to scale
• Perceptions of the poor
(can we trust them?)
• Procurement and
contracting of official aid;
• Vested interests of legacy
institutions

14. “Cash-based programming supports the agency of people by allowing
them to purchase the goods and services they need most while also
supporting local economies. Where markets and operational contexts
permit, cash-based programming should be the preferred and
default method of support."
Rhetoric Changing
Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon

15. Action is Not
<1%
of US aid funding is
cash-based
The other ~99% of funding is not evidence-based interventions like graduation either
<2%
of UK aid funding is
cash-based

16. • Invest – Size matters
• Challenge: How are aid resources being allocated?
• German aid budget - $17.6 billion
• Private philanthropy
Accelerating scale: How can you help?