Joy Sun: Should you donate differently?

翻译人员: kiki zhang 校对人员: Yumeng Guo

I suspect that

我猜测，

every aid worker in Africa

每一个在非洲的救援人员

comes to a time in her career

在她的职业生涯中都会有这样一个阶段，

when she wants to take all the money for her project —

想要把她所有项目的钱——

maybe it's a school or a training program —

也许是一所学校，或是一个培训项目——

pack it in a suitcase,

塞进行李箱里，

get on a plane flying over the poorest villages in the country,

坐上飞机飞过这个国家最贫穷的地区，

and start throwing that money out the window.

然后把那些钱都扔出窗外。

Because to a veteran aid worker,

因为对于一个有经验的救援人员来说，

the idea of putting cold, hard cash

把现金交到

into the hands of the poorest people on Earth

地球上最贫穷的人手里的理念

doesn't sound crazy,

并不疯狂，

it sounds really satisfying.

而是让人感到满意极了。

I had that moment right about the 10-year mark,

在工作了正好十年后我也有了这样的想法，

and luckily, that's also when I learned

幸运的是，那也正是我知道

that this idea actually exists,

这种想法的确存在的时候，

and it might be just what the aid system needs.

而它也许正是救援体系需要的东西。

Economists call it an unconditional cash transfer,

经济学家称它为无条件现金转移，

and it's exactly that: It's cash given

正如其字面意思：

现金直接转移，没有中间过程。

with no strings attached.

Governments in developing countries

发展中国家的政府

have been doing this for decades,

数十年来一直是这么做的，

and it's only now, with more evidence

随着科技不断发展，

and new technology that it's possible

种种迹象表明，

用这种方式来传递帮助到如今才成为可能。

to make this a model for delivering aid.

It's a pretty simple idea, right?

这是一个相当简单的想法，对吧？

Well, why did I spend a decade doing other stuff

那么，为什么我花了十年的时间

为穷人们做其他事呢？

for the poor?

Honestly, I believed that I could do more good

老实说，我之前相信

with money for the poor

比起让穷人们自己用这些钱

than the poor could do for themselves.

我可以用钱为他们做更多的好事。

I held two assumptions:

我曾有两个假定：

One, that poor people are poor in part

第一，穷人之所以贫穷

because they're uneducated and

部分是因为他们没有接受过教育，

don't make good choices;

并且不懂得如何做出好的选择；

two is that we then need people like me

第二，我们需要像我一样的人

to figure out what they need and get it to them.

去帮助他们弄清楚他们需要什么，然后给他们。

It turns out, the evidence says otherwise.

然而，事实表明并非如此。

In recent years, researchers have been studying

最近几年，研究者一直在研究

what happens when we give poor people cash.

当我们把钱给了穷人，会发生什么。

Dozens of studies show across the board

几十份调查显示

that people use cash transfers

所以人都用汇给他们的钱

to improve their own lives.

来改善他们自己的生活。

Pregnant women in Uruguay buy better food

在乌拉圭，孕妇购买更好的食物，

and give birth to healthier babies.

生出更健康的孩子。

Sri Lankan men invest in their businesses.

在斯里兰卡，男人投资他们的生意。

Researchers who studied our work in Kenya

调查我们在肯尼亚的工作的研究者

found that people invested in a range of assets,

发现人们投资了一系列资产，

from livestock to equipment to home improvements,

从家畜到家用设施到房屋的改进装修，

and they saw increases in income

而且，钱送到他们手上的一年后，

from business and farming

研究人员还看到了他们在商业和农业方面收入的增加。

one year after the cash was sent.

None of these studies found that people

没有任何一项调查发现

spend more on drinking or smoking

人们在喝酒或抽烟上花费更多的钱，

or that people work less.

或减少工作时间。

In fact, they work more.

实际上，他们工作得更多了。

Now, these are all material needs.

现在，物质需求能满足了。

In Vietnam, elderly recipients used

在越南，年长的接受者

their cash transfers to pay for coffins.

用他们得到的钱来买棺材。

As someone who wonders if Maslow got it wrong,

就像一些人怀疑马斯洛的理论是否错了，

I find this choice to prioritize spiritual needs

我觉得这样优先满足精神需求的选择

deeply humbling.

让我感到深深的羞愧。

I don't know if I would have chosen to give food

如果是我，我不知道我会选择

or equipment or coffins,

把钱用在食物、家用设施还是棺材上，

which begs the question:

这就引出了一个问题：

How good are we at allocating resources

我们替穷人分配资源，

on behalf of the poor?

分配的效果如何？

Are we worth the cost?

值得我们这样做吗？

Again, we can look at empirical evidence

我们再来看看经验事实——

on what happens when we give people stuff

把我们选择的东西给穷人时

of our choosing.

会发生什么。

One very telling study looked at a program in India

一项研究调查了一个支援印度的项目—— 把牲畜给所谓的“极端贫困者”，

that gives livestock to the so-called ultra-poor,

该调查结果极具说服力，

and they found that 30 percent of recipients

他们发现30%的接受者

had turned around and sold the livestock they had been given

竟把给他们的牲畜卖掉了，

for cash.

换来了现金。

The real irony is,

真正讽刺的是，

for every 100 dollars worth of assets

该项目每送出100美金的资产，

this program gave someone,

they spent another 99 dollars to do it.

需要额外花费99美金来维护运营。

What if, instead, we use technology to put cash,

相反，如果我们用技术手段，

whether from aid agencies or from any one of us

不论是通过援助机构或者我们中的任何一个人，

directly into a poor person's hands.

直接把钱给到穷人手里，会怎么样呢？

Today, three in four Kenyans use mobile money,

现在，四分之三的肯尼亚人使用移动支付，

which is basically a bank account that can run

它从根本上说是一个可以在任何手机上运行的银行账户。

on any cell phone.

A sender can pay a 1.6 percent fee

一个捐助者可以付1.6%的服务费，

and with the click of a button

然后按一下按钮

send money directly to a recipient's account

直接把钱打到接收者的账户上，

with no intermediaries.

没有中介者。

Like the technologies that are disrupting industries

就像在现实生活中，科技颠覆着传统工业，

in our own lives,

payments technology in poor countries

在贫穷的国家，支付技术也可颠覆援助。

could disrupt aid.

It's spreading so quickly that it's possible

该技术传播得如此快，

to imagine reaching billions

用这种方式帮助全世界数十亿的穷人都成为可能。

of the world's poor this way.

That's what we've started to do at GiveDirectly.

这就是我们「直接给予(GiveDirectly)」项目的做法。

We're the first organization

我们是第一个致力于

dedicated to providing cash transfers to the poor.

将现金直接传递给穷人的组织。

We've sent cash to 35,000 people across rural Kenya

通过一次性给每个家庭1000美元，

and Uganda

我们已经把钱送到了肯尼亚和乌干达乡村地区的

in one-time payments of 1,000 dollars

per family.

35000个穷人手上。

So far, we've looked for the poorest people

目前，我们在最贫穷的村庄寻找最贫穷的人，

in the poorest villages, and in this part of the world,

在世界的这些角落，

they're the ones living in homes

他们住在用泥土和茅草

made of mud and thatch,

而不是水泥和钢铁，

not cement and iron.

筑成的屋子里。

So let's say that's your family.

我们假设那是你的家庭。

We show up at your door with an Android phone.

我们手拿安卓手机出现在你的门前。

We'll get your name, take your photo

我们将记下你的名字，拍下你的照片，

and a photo of your hut

还拍下一张你的茅屋的照片，

and grab the GPS coordinates.

并用GPS技术获取你家的经纬度信息。

That night, we send all the data to the cloud,

当天晚上，我们把所有数据上传到云端，

and each piece gets checked

每一份资料都由独立的团队

by an independent team

using, for one example, satellite images.

利用诸如卫星图像等信息进行审核。

Then, we'll come back,

然后，我们将回来，

we'll sell you a basic cell phone

卖给你一个具有基本功能的手机，

if you don't have one already,

如果你还没有的话。

and a few weeks later,

几周过后，

we send money to it.

我们会打钱到你的手机上。

Something that five years ago

在五年前看起来

would have seemed impossible

不可能的事，

we can now do efficiently

我们现在可以高效地完成，

and free of corruption.

并且没有腐败。

The more cash we give to the poor,

我们给穷人的钱越多，

and the more evidence we have that it works,

我们就会更多地获得该方式运作的数据事实，

the more we have to reconsider

我们也会对我们的其他一切付出思考得更多。

everything else we give.

Today, the logic behind aid is too often,

今天，援助的原则通常是：

well, we do at least some good.

好吧，我们最起码做了一点好事。

When we're complacent

当我们盲目自满，把这个原则当作目标，

with that as our bar,

when we tell ourselves that giving aid

当我们告诉自己给予帮助

is better than no aid at all,

总比一点也不给予要好，

we tend to invest inefficiently,

投资就会变得没有效率，

in our own ideas that strike us as innovative,

自以为我们头脑中的想法是具有创新性的，

on writing reports,

在撰写报告时，

on plane tickets and SUVs.

在飞机和SUV上。

What if the logic was,

如果是这样的逻辑呢：

will we do better than cash given directly?

我们会比直接给钱做得更好吗？

Organizations would have to prove

各个机构需要证明

that they're doing more good for the poor

相比穷人自己

than the poor can do for themselves.

他们能为穷人做更多的好事。

Of course, giving cash won't create public goods

当然，直接给穷人钱不会创造公共福利，

like eradicating disease or building strong institutions,

如消除疾病，或建立完善的机构组织，

but it could set a higher bar

但是它可以为如何帮助单个家庭改善生活

for how we help individual families

improve their lives.

树立一个更高的标准。

I believe in aid.

我相信援助。

I believe most aid is better than just

我相信大多数援助

throwing money out of a plane.

比直接把钱从飞机窗户中扔出去好。

I am also absolutely certain

我也可以肯定地说，

that a lot of aid today

现今的许多援助

isn't better than giving directly to the poor.

不比直接把钱给穷人来得好。

I hope that one day, it will be.

我希望有一天，援助能做到这一点。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）