MobileAid Cash for Internally Displaced Persons in DRC

Summary

In 2025, GiveDirectly committed to expand its highly innovative MobileAid model in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to directly reach more than 8,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) with urgent humanitarian support by the end of April 2026. The GiveDirectly MobileAid model identifies IDPs based on mobile phone usage patterns and sends cash directly to people who have been displaced by conflict within a week of their displacement. GiveDirectly’s MobileAid for IDPs project is already helping more than 10,000 people affected by conflict in eastern DRC, providing $300 per household to meet basic needs, improving income and livelihoods, shelter, nutrition, health, and general resilience and well-being. Through this commitment, GiveDirectly will also support research into other applications of the MobileAid technology, including testing the model to support people displaced by flooding.

Approach

GiveDirectly proposes using a novel technology to identify, enroll, and immediately send cash assistance to those displaced by the conflict.

Current INGO ‘rapid’ humanitarian response is an average of over 100 days in the DRC. To tackle this issue, GiveDirectly is partnering with Flowminder (a leading expert in using novel data sources to analyze population displacement) , to adapt its existing MobileAid methodologies to be able to identify groups of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) based on cell tower data and enroll them, all completely remotely. Once enrolled, GiveDirectly sends $300 in cash over 2 or 3 months within a week of displacement from a security incident.
Cash transfer programming, particularly using remote targeting, provides a dynamic and impactful alternative to existing humanitarian support. GiveDirectly is demonstrating remote targeting and enrollment into cash transfer programming, offering a promising path to scale.
The primary impact of the ‘MobileAid for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in DRC’ project is to provide life-saving cash transfers in response to displacement. The secondary goal is to leverage donor funds to scale the use of a tool that can make future humanitarian responses more rapid, efficient, and effective.

Action Plan

Step 1 → Month 1 (November 2025) Analyze operator data and prepare for launch GiveDirectly uses operator data between different cell tower clusters across North and South Kivu, DRC. If a security incident has been identified, GPS coordinates population movement data to confirm whether any excess displacement can be seen.
Cell provider Airtel then identifies the phone numbers that have moved from the relevant cell tower clusters, and shares these numbers with GiveDirectly.
GiveDirectly will then roll out a campaign to eligible cell phone users, and invite them to register to receive a cash transfer.
Step 2: Month 2 (December 2025) Registration and verification.
IDPs then complete a self-registration process, completing a registration survey. Recipients will then receive messages either confirming their enrollment or letting them know if they are on a waiting list.
A small share of recipients will also undergo additional checks based on a randomized sample to identify fraud or concerning trends.
Step 3: Months 3–6 (January–April 2026) Payments and monitoring.
Once a potential recipient has been verified and confirmed, the first payment will be issued to them*.
Individuals with existing active mobile money accounts should receive their payments almost instantly. Those without active mobile money accounts will receive remote assistance from GiveDirectly’s call center to set up a mobile money account.
Once payments have been issued, the GiveDirectly call center will follow up with recipients to verify that they can access the transfer. These interactions are also opportunities for additional sensitization around recipient safeguarding.
Step 4: Month 6 (April 2026) Wrap up and report.
Final round of payments (if applicable) completed.
Close out all open case management and audit investigations.
Prepare end-of-program reporting.
*Once enrolled, GiveDirectly will deliver multipurpose cash transfers (either $150 per month for 2 months or $100 for 3) through mobile money.

Background

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is experiencing one of the biggest displacement crises in the world, due to the M23 conflict in Eastern DRC, leading to more than two million people displaced in the country. The DRC is a context of protracted crisis – including conflict and climate events such as flooding and volcano eruption – and cyclical displacement, as communities are often displaced multiple times, increasing their need for rapid response.

There are urgent needs, yet humanitarian response is not able to respond effectively, with current international NGO ‘rapid’ humanitarian response taking an average of over 100 days in the DRC. Cash assistance is one proven, effective method that allows individuals to utilize humanitarian aid to most effectively meet their needs.

Progress Update

Partnership Opportunities

GiveDirectly is seeking donor support to scale up this model, now that it has been successfully piloted in DRC. This program will scale up GiveDirectly’s cash transfer assistance to thousands of IDPs while increasing the speed of cash transfers to affected populations, and strengthening the project design with new additions. This will strengthen emergency response to future displacements driven by security incidents, natural disasters, or other shocks.,GiveDirectly is committed to making the insights from this program widely accessible to strengthen the sector as a whole. This includes: i) Sharing best practices and tools developed through the program with peers and partners, enabling others to adapt and replicate effective approaches; ii) Contributing evidence and lessons learned through academic publications, policy convenings, and global technical working groups, ensuring findings reach both practitioners and decision-makers; iii) Building the public evidence base by releasing results and learnings openly, helping to improve targeting, response, and accountability across humanitarian action.
Beyond the direct impact on recipients, GiveDirectly is committed to accelerating sector-wide progress toward more effective, evidence-driven responses.