Simon and I were discussing this offline and my model of this is that even if Stewart had believed this while he was the head of the Department for International Development he would have struggled to divert significant money to cash transfers.
I’m not an expert, but I reckon that (Let’s say 50%% if we’re giving numbers): - Aid is political and backs political projects, Give Directly doesn’t necessarily support UK aims in, say, Rwanda. I might be a hard sell - Changing aid requires buy in from several government departments, their secretaries of state, the PM and the top civil servants in that department. It’s not about one person’s opinion. - DfiD is well regarded in the EA community - It would be more effective to spend all UK aid on GiveDirectly, political concerns aside. Would love to hear someone disagree or give a sense of the impact of UK aid compared to it all being spent on GD
In 2015, it seems to be ~2% (£200m/£12bn). This was general support for cash transfer schemes which included other features though, like nutritional support. Seems very high though still! Can’t see anything more recent—my naive guess would be its less than this now.
Simon and I were discussing this offline and my model of this is that even if Stewart had believed this while he was the head of the Department for International Development he would have struggled to divert significant money to cash transfers.
I’m not an expert, but I reckon that (Let’s say 50%% if we’re giving numbers):
- Aid is political and backs political projects, Give Directly doesn’t necessarily support UK aims in, say, Rwanda. I might be a hard sell
- Changing aid requires buy in from several government departments, their secretaries of state, the PM and the top civil servants in that department. It’s not about one person’s opinion.
- DfiD is well regarded in the EA community
- It would be more effective to spend all UK aid on GiveDirectly, political concerns aside. Would love to hear someone disagree or give a sense of the impact of UK aid compared to it all being spent on GD
DfiD was already funding and researching cash transfers, and seems to have been doing this for quite a while.
Any sense of what UK aid cash goes to them?
In 2015, it seems to be ~2% (£200m/£12bn). This was general support for cash transfer schemes which included other features though, like nutritional support. Seems very high though still! Can’t see anything more recent—my naive guess would be its less than this now.
Link on UK spend 2011-15 on cash transfers.