USAID Monthly Report: Unconditional Cash Transfer Activity Emergency Assistance to Populations Impacted by Covid-19

The program provides digital unconditional cash transfers delivered through mobile money to support micro-entrepreneurs, market traders, smallholder farmers, and the rural poor. The overarching goal is to protect the value of assets and avoid increases in debt by providing smaller, regular cash transfers that provide an alternative means of meeting basic needs. To date, GiveDirectly has identified and verified 82,678 recipients and sent 145,813 payments totaling 1,130,050,750 Liberian dollars to 67,239 recipients. The most common expenditure among recipients is buying things for an existing business, followed by education for someone else and food. Follow-up data indicates that an estimated 31.8% of recipients paid to date are market traders or microentrepreneurs, 67% are smallholder farmers, 54.5% are women, and 19.8% are youth. Implementation of the program has been adapted to minimize transmission risk due to the surge in COVID-19 cases within Liberia. Measures include providing all staff with COVID-19 protective equipment, limiting the number of recipients who can attend any GiveDirectly events, and training staff on how to communicate accurate COVID-19 information. GiveDirectly has also conducted phone-based outreach to recipients whose payments have been delayed due to a mismatch between the recipient's name in GiveDirectly's systems and the name registered to the Mobile Money account. Disciplinary meetings were held for the Associate Field Manager and Field Officer implicated in a potential Conflict of Interest policy violation. Both staff members were suspended for failing to follow the appropriate channels for reporting and failing to seek guidance from a senior manager regarding the appropriate course of action. Refresher trainings were held for all staff, and the organization will standardize refresher training on a quarterly basis. The program has achieved significant progress, with 96.1% of recipients reporting receipt of grant, 54.5% of recipients being women, and 19.8% of participants being youth. The speed of grant delivery has also improved, with 87.3% of recipients receiving their first payment within 40 days of first contact. Recipients have reported a high level of understanding of key details of the Activity, with 96.3% of recipients understanding the Activity's objectives and procedures.