Heidi Hirvonen – GiveDirectly

[Video] Cashout day in the Kiryandongo refugee settlement

Heidi Hirvonen — Fri, 20 Dec 2019 21:25:55 +0000

GiveDirectly recently launched a $19M project in the Kiryandongo refugee settlement in Uganda, saturating the entire settlement with cash transfers. 10,000 refugee households and 5,000 host community households will receive transfers. The project is the first-ever randomized evaluation of large cash transfers in a refugee context. Our team has been testing facilitated cashout events in…

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A Bizarre Baraza: Why One Village Refused Funds — Then Changed Its Mind

Heidi Hirvonen — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 18:30:41 +0000

Recently, a village of about 70 households in the Chiradzulu district of Malawi was selected to receive GiveDirectly transfers. But when GiveDirectly field officers motorbiked to the village one weekday morning to hold a routine “baraza” — an introductory community meeting where GiveDirectly explains its work and invites households to either opt in or out of transfers — the field officers were…

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Behind the scenes at a GiveDirectly call center

Heidi Hirvonen — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 14:00:39 +0000

The room is quiet — except for the occasional clacking of heels on cement flooring, the soft sip of tea, the clicking of computer keys. Then the hotline rings. When recipients call the GiveDirectly hotline, they could be calling about anything: to ask about the status of a transfer, report theft, or just say “thank you.” GiveDirectly has a call center in every country we operate in…

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A photo update from 5 families receiving a basic income

Heidi Hirvonen — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 20:23:49 +0000

In 2017, GiveDirectly launched a Universal Basic Income Program. As part of this program, we are running a randomized control trial across 295 rural villages in the Western and Rift Valley region of Kenya. The results of the study will help us understand the potential impact that a basic income could have on eradicating poverty worldwide. In the summer of 2019, we photographed some of our UBI…

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In 9 minutes, meet everyone in this Liberian village

Heidi Hirvonen — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 22:42:50 +0000

The Liberian village of Matay Ta is made up of seven households, clustered together under a smattering of palm trees at the end of a long dirt road. The village is small enough that it doesn’t show up on Google maps, but over the last three months, GiveDirectly staff have reached the village multiple times using GPS coordinates and local guides. They visit quite frequently because Matay Ta (along…

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