What happens if you give everyone $700? A local economy thrives

Yonas Fote has created a makeshift cinema for the village. | BLOOMBERG

Aug 29, 2026

Yonas Fote smiles as he proudly shows off his cinema. In an earth-floored room with low wooden benches, he uses a television and sound system to show pirated Nigerian movies dubbed into the local language to his friends. He charges them the equivalent of 12 cents each.

It might sound like a teenage side hustle, but 19-year-old Fote’s makeshift movie theater in the bustling village of Kamala in southern Malawi is part of an experiment designed to showcase what the future of aid might look like: Give people cash and see what they do with it.

Fote is among the beneficiaries of what calls itself the world’s biggest unconditional large, direct cash transfer trial, a $198 million program run by the not-for-profit GiveDirectly. As many as 230,000 adults in two districts of Malawi are each receiving about 1.2 million kwacha, or almost $700, and they can do whatever they want with it.

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