LONDON — A US-based nonprofit using algorithms to identify people in extreme poverty by analyzing their mobile phone habits has made direct cash payments to 30,000 people as part of a pioneering project in Togo.
GiveDirectly worked with the government of the West African nation and experts at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, for the high-tech approach to find some of the country’s poorest people.
They use satellite data to identify poor areas, and then harness machine learning to comb mobile phone metadata to identify those living in extreme poverty.
Potential recipients are contacted by phone and invited to apply for support.
“More than half of Togo’s populatio…
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