Major takeaway: "evidence has accumulated that in many circumstances, cash improves the life of poor people more than equivalent spending on aid programs or goods."
Why is it important to reflect on that?
Togo made a digital government stimulus system in two weeks
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Re: Togo made a digital government stimulus system in two weeks
#12> In Togo, a nation of about 8 million people where the average income is below $2 a day, it took the government less than two weeks to design and launch an all-digital system for delivering monthly payments to about a quarter of the adult population. People such as Bamaze, with no tax or payroll records, were identified as in need, enrolled in the program, and paid without any in-person contact.
10 days from inception to rolled out. There was a slight hiccup with fraud, which was then handled almost instantly.
That kind of speed of development is absolutely possible, especially in richer nations. The key difference seems to be not the fraud prevention systems, but the desire to help those in need.
> “It’s a strong belief of mine that just because someone is poor doesn’t mean he’s irresponsible—he’s just poor,” she says. “So if you give him money, there’s no way he’s going to waste it. For me, it’s linked with dignity.”
That perspective isn't one you'll find popular in the nations that should be able to deploy programs like these, but don't. Their voters don't see them as helping the poor, and don't see the poor as likely to invest any protective income into survival. So the politician follows the culture of looking down on those with less, and perpetuates the cycle.
It's a self-inflicted cultural attack on the most vulnerable part of the population.
Who could be helped, in the space of weeks.
Re: Togo made a digital government stimulus system in two weeks
#13The speed of doing this is astonishing for sure, though the article also states that many people were excluded because they didn't have (or refused to have) the newer voter ID cards (issued after 2018) and also because they had to physically verify the cards due to fraudsters misusing lists obtained from polling stations. Exclusion is a larger issue that negates claims of equality or non-discrimination.
Tangentially, and moving a bit off topic, what was surprising to me is that biometrics wasn't mentioned (but I'm sure some influential people, companies and "banks" would soon push for it). In contrast, even though India has large (on paper) programs of direct cash transfers and subsidized food supplies, they're all tied to the exclusionary irrevocable/non-changeable biometric based number (called Aadhaar). That the poorest people would be living and/working in conditions that support destruction or rapid change in biometrics has been completely lost on all bureaucrats and politicians. On paper, alternative identifications are to be legally accepted, but practically nothing moves unless biometric authentication succeeds.
Re: Togo made a digital government stimulus system in two weeks
#14Major takeaway: "evidence has accumulated that in many circumstances, cash improves the life of poor people more than equivalent spending on aid programs or goods."
> Anyway I suspect if we change the meaning of "poor people" from African centric to West centric results may be less clear.
> In 2009, when Michael Faye co-founded the New York-based nonprofit GiveDirectly, whose mission is to alleviate poverty by providing unconditional cash transfers, skeptical development experts and philanthropists told him the sums would be misspent. But in the following decade, evidence has accumulated that in many circumstances, cash improves the life of poor people more than equivalent spending on aid programs or goods.
Did you miss that the evidence from GiveDirectly's efforts isn't African-centric? They operate on a global scale, including programs that run within US borders.
> GiveDirectly is the leading global NGO specialized in delivering digital cash transfers. We’ve worked in challenging contexts across 9 countries, from Houston after Harvey to the most remote parts of Uganda, and launched 15 experimental evaluations (RCTs) with independent researchers documenting the impacts on recipients and on the local economy.
Re: Togo made a digital government stimulus system in two weeks
#15Major takeaway: "evidence has accumulated that in many circumstances, cash improves the life of poor people more than equivalent spending on aid programs or goods."
US "poverty line" is at 80th percentile of world incomes.
In part because we have used regulations to require you to be rich.
In India the cheapest new street legal car is the Tato Nano, around $2500 (maybe small electric cars from China even less). But the cheapest new car in the US is the Chevy Spark at $13-14k.
Building codes and zoning regulations mean there’s a minimum price you have to pay for housing in the US that’s around a factor of 10 higher than in much of the world (less than $100/month for a single bedroom apartment in a city in India vs around $1000/month in the US in a city… median is currently around $1200/month). And if you can’t afford that, and try to live in a tent even with the permission of a landowner, you can be arrested because sleeping in a tent is illegal and against code. It’s illegal to be poor.
Luckily we at least have some social programs. But we make people jump through hoops to get access to them. A time tax and something that becomes a lot harder or next to impossible if you have literacy problems or aren’t good at forms.
Re: Togo made a digital government stimulus system in two weeks
#16Major takeaway: "evidence has accumulated that in many circumstances, cash improves the life of poor people more than equivalent spending on aid programs or goods."
Why is it important to reflect on that?
I think it's important because it sounds incorrect, but in reality it works out like that. In my experience most people think that if you give a poor person money they are just going to spend it on things which make their life worse, like drugs. It's one way to justify not giving a few quarters or a dollar to a homeless person on the street when they ask.
Re: Togo made a digital government stimulus system in two weeks
#17I dunno, is looking to "One of the World’s Poorest Countries" for economic advice really the best start? Even if they've done this well it seems risky to start trying to learn from the "successful" programs of poor states on the theory that maybe the things they are successful at are holding them back.
I still haven't seen a definitive article on how the Chinese are running Shenzhen. There are probably useful and general lessons there about how to make people wealthy at an indecent speed.
Re: Togo made a digital government stimulus system in two weeks
#18It would definitely great if the article is not locked on a pay wall.
I wondered why I was able to read the article, and then I realized that I have this extension installed on Firefox called Bypass Paywalls. I'd recommend trying that.
Re: Togo made a digital government stimulus system in two weeks
#19Re: Togo made a digital government stimulus system in two weeks
#20> In Togo, a nation of about 8 million people where the average income is below $2 a day, it took the government less than two weeks to design and launch an all-digital system for delivering monthly payments to about a quarter of the adult population. People such as Bamaze, with no tax or payroll records, were identified as in need, enrolled in the program, and paid without any in-person contact. 10 days from incepti…
>The key difference seems to be not the fraud prevention systems, but the desire to help those in need
The key difference is the complete lack of regulation and data policies. The potential for malevolence in a country the size of Togo is limited, but I'd rather not have the same processes in my own country.