Accordingly, international organizations, governments and global NGOs have expanded programs for simply giving people money. GiveDirectly, a nonprofit established in 2009 for the sole purpose of disbursing cash to poor people around the world (including the families in the Kenya study), has witnessed rapid growth. During the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, an unprecedented 17% of the world’s population received at least one cash transfer payment, according to the World Bank. And academic interest in the subject has soared.