Sibongani Kayola on Ending Global Poverty, GivingDirectly Cash Transfers, and Finding Meaningful Careers | Evolve 077

Sibongani Kayola is Country Director of GiveDirectly Liberia, and someone deeply interested in the interaction between psychosocial factors and financial behavior. GiveDirectly is a nonprofit that lets donors like you send money directly to the world’s poorest households. Globally, GiveDirectly delivered $165M+ to over 534K households in 8 countries across 25 different programs in 2021. Sibongani joined the GiveDirectly Liberia program in 2018 and had a goal to deliver cash to ~12,000 people in 2 years. Fast forward to 2021 they enrolled and paid over 100,000 Liberians in a single year!  As country director she provides strategic leadership for GiveDirectly’s in-country operations. She is responsible for managing a US$ 70M portfolio (2022-2025), leading in-country fundraising and resource mobilization and managing relationships with entities such as the Liberia Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, USAID and the World Bank. And today, Sibongani shares her learnings of giving money directly in Liberia and how we can end poverty in our lifetime by direct giving, an efficient, proven, and empowering way to help.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE

• What are the drivers of global poverty
• The step by step journey from donating your cash to someone receiving it
• The effectiveness of giving cash directly for lifting someone out of poverty
• Key considerations when looking for a meaningful career solving global issues
• How an everyday person can make change to solve big issues
• and much more...

Full show notes, transcripts, and resources can be found here: evolvethe.world/episodes/77

The Evolve podcast is produced by Plato University.

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) - Introduction

(01:54) - What are the drivers of global poverty?

(06:05) - How does US poverty compare to global poverty?

(07:02) - The State of Liberia in 2018 making poverty worse

(10:32) - How much someone in Liberia lives on in a day

(12:40) - The first steps to giving cash directly to people in Liberia

(13:51) - What happens when they refuse to take the cash?

(16:51) - The step by step journey from donating your cash to someone receiving it

(18:50) - How country governments respond to GiveDirectly

(21:33) - How communities change when money is given directly to citizens

(24:15) - GiveDirectly's effectiveness compared to goods or service nonprofits

(26:17) - Long-term research and considerations of giving cash directly

(28:40) - Can crypto help end poverty?

(31:04) - How to provide financial literacy to receivers of cash

(34:08) - How Sibongani went from working in mental health to poverty

(37:23) - Key considerations when looking for a meaningful career solving global issues

(41:58) - Challenges to growing the GiveDirectly Liberia program

(46:15) - How an everyday person can make change to solve big issues

(49:16) - How we can push the world to Evolve