SHIKILIA

Shikilia provides emergency cash transfers to low-income Kenyan communities that have been the hardest hit by COVID-19. Measures to control the spread of COVID-19 inadvertently destroy informal labour markets and trap low-income communities into extreme poverty. With no way of earning income and few savings to fall back on, these households suffer an attack on their health, wellbeing, and dignity. Shikilia sends mobile money installments to low-income Kenyans to replace lost income due to COVID-19 and prevent a widespread humanitarian crisis... We are a coalition of private sector and NGOs: entrepreneurs, operators, designers and researchers, working together to meet this immediate need within our communities... Using data on a range of indicators we are able to target those with the highest need, and send cash to their mobile phones using a near-universal mobile money system in Kenya.