Saturday May 17, 2025
Kilifi, Kenya

Three years ago, Thomas Kazungu Karisa was working at a gas station in southeastern Kenya, pulling the devil by the tail. Then he received a cash donation, which, he says, “changed his life”.
“My family often went to bed hungry. My children were expelled from school because they hadn’t paid their school fees, and I was drowning in debt,” recalls this father of five, who then earned around 80 euros a month.
That was before the neo-farmer received a cash loan of 110,000 shillings (around 900 euros) from the New York NGO GiveDirectly, which enabled him to rent land, irrigate it and then farm it.
With the money generated, he then bought two cows and a chainsaw, which he occasionally rents out. His farm in Kilifi County (South-East) is now lush. He grows okra, a tropical green vegetable with a taste somewhere between zucchini and green bean.
If NGOs “had given me food, there wouldn’t have been any left for a long time”, explains Thomas Kazungu Karisa to AFP. “But thanks to the money, I was able to change my life.”
His feedback validates GiveDirectly’s presupposition that charities should distribute less aid (food, textbooks, etc…) and more money to their beneficiaries.

– Poverty waits for no one” –

The American NGO claims to have given money to 1.5 million Africans and carried out 25 impact studies on the continent. Every dollar received has generated 2.5 dollars within the families helped, it assures.
“Cash has helped to reduce domestic violence, improve child mortality, improve business results, make families healthier and give children access to a better education,” says Caroline Teti, its vice-president.
While the USA and other Western countries have drastically reduced their humanitarian aid in recent months, cash donations make it possible to do more with much less, GiveDirectly believes.
Traditional aid systems spend large sums on transport, infrastructure and expensive expatriates. A study carried out in 2022 by the University of Washington revealed that administrative and personnel costs alone absorbed 30% to 60% of US budgets allocated to global health projects.
In contrast, GiveDirectly claims that 80% of the donations it receives go directly to its beneficiaries.
“Cash is not a miracle solution,” observes Ms Teti. The governments of the populations we help must always invest in their schools, hospitals, water and electricity.

But giving cash is a quick and effective way of dealing with a crisis. “Poverty doesn’t wait,” stresses Mrs Teti. “One year is enough for a girl to drop out of school… for a mother or child to die.”
The humanitarian world has gradually come around to this idea over the last ten to fifteen years. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) today gives 20% of its aid in cash, but could easily go up to 45%, comments Tariq Riebl, its Director of Strategy and Innovation, interviewed by AFP.
Even USAID, the US humanitarian agency dismantled in recent months, had recognized, after years of reluctance, that cash payments were effective in reducing poverty, in a policy paper in October.
– Latent conservatism
The biggest obstacle is the “latent conservatism” of humanitarian actors, notes Mr. Riebl. “There’s something more comforting about handing over a kit of non-food items or a bag of rice than giving cash,” he acknowledges.
Cash donations are not applicable everywhere, however, particularly in war zones where basic necessities are virtually non-existent, or where specialized items are needed, such as identity cards for refugees or HIV drugs.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reports having used cash transfers on only two occasions: in Syria in the mid-2010s and recently in the Darfur region of Sudan.
“Cash for healthcare remains very rare,” says its advocacy manager Tarak Bach Baouab. “We want to be sure of the quality of our programs, which is why we prefer to procure medicines and equipment ourselves.”
The NGO is also concerned that “health outcomes will decline” if the money is not spent in this way by beneficiaries, notes Mr. Baouab.
An argument brushed aside by GiveDirectly. “Lives can only be changed by the people who live them”, says Caroline Teti. By helping them with cash, “we give them dignity and we give them choice.”

Humaniterre with AFP