Rory Stewart believes there’s a simple way to move the needle on extreme poverty worldwide: Just give people cash.
“If you really want to address multidimensional poverty — and I mean, not narrow things like malaria, which is very important, but multidimensional poverty, really empowering people to address their own needs — I cannot see anything which is as powerful as cash,” he said Wednesday at Devex’s event alongside the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Stewart took the helm at GiveDirectly last year and recently transitioned into a senior adviser role for the U.S.-based organization. He has become a kind of evangelist for unconditional cash transfers as a way to end extreme poverty globally — and to do it by 2050.