cash transfers

This month Foreign Affairs featured an article in which Chris Blattman and Paul Niehaus argue that donors funding poverty reduction should benchmark the costs and benefits of their in-kind assistance against just transferring cash.

I have had the privilege of living and working in West Africa for the past 15 years. In 2007, I spent several months in northern Nigeria, interviewing grain traders in cross-border markets. These markets were some of my favorite places in West Africa—bustling, chaotic, open-air markets th...

I’m a pretty big fan of cash transfers. I’ve become convinced that cash is an efficient immediate way to help the poor and very often a better alternative than other standard development interventions like training or building schools. 

In 2009, Michelle Adato and a co-author pointed out that cash transfers could add value to the HIV response, by reaching the poorest households relatively quickly. Now, a new generation of cash transfer programs in sub-Saharan Africa is reducing new infections and HIV-related risky behavior—and docu...

This post, co-authored with Alan Gelb, was originally published in Financial Times: This is Africa On November 28 Anadarko Petroleum doubled the estimate of its massive Mozambique gas discovery. If this proves correct, Mozambique will become a major gas exporter and can expect a hefty windfall. ...