Points of Clarity | How Does Cash Assistance Work?

Video Transcript

• Points of Clarity | How Does Cash Assistance Work?

  This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

  Sending cash directly to the world's poorest households works because we've discovered that poor people know more, care more, and can do more, often than international NGOs. And that's in very simple ways. It's often that they have the knowledge already. But they're simply lacking the cash, for example, to get a business off the ground. Or it's about understanding that individual needs are very different.

  So within one community, one person could be trying to fix their roof, another person could be trying to get a bakery off the ground. Another person could be trying to invest in a motorbike or get their child into school. And cash allows that flexibility. How it works. Well, there's been a transformation now with the development of mobile money in Africa, which now means that a simple phone costing 6 or 7 dollars in the hands of somebody living in poverty can allow them to receive the money very efficiently with no people in the way, no middle people in the way, and allows that expenditure to be monitored and overseen.