A New Kind of Disaster Aid: Pay People Cash, Before Disaster Strikes
In the United States, cash assistance to mothers for the first year of their children’s lives strengthened their babies’ brain development. Dozens of American cities have pilot projects to give poor residents no-strings-attached cash.
Now comes the additional pressure of extreme weather, both slow and fast, aggravated by the burning of coal, oil and gas. Proponents of cash relief say it’s a more efficient way to use aid money because cash incurs fewer logistical expenses and funnels money directly into the local economy.
“Cash transfers help families survive climate disasters,” said Miriam Laker-Oketta, research director for GiveDirectly, an aid group that does just that. “Cash provides choice and reaches quickly.”
Skeptics say they are a Band-Aid solution that is no match for a battery of hazards that poor people face in the global South: deadly heat, rising sea levels, erratic rains. Not everyone who needs it will get cash. “It’s not sustainable. There will always be a limitation to where that money is coming from,” said Wanjira Mathai, a managing director at the World Resources Institute, an advocacy group.
Cash payments are increasingly being tried out in different places. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent has given cash to Mongolian shepherds during severe cold snaps and to families in Guatemala and Honduras just before Hurricane Julia brought catastrophic floods last October.
Source: The New York Times
