The well known radio show This American Life has collaborated with Planet Money to investigate the work of a charity called GiveDirectly. Instead of funding schools or wells or livestock, GiveDirectly has decided to just give money directly to the poor people who need it, and let them decide how to spend it. The team goes to Kenya to speak to beneficiaries of the scheme and others in their communities. The podcast explores whether this method of charity works, and why some people think it's a terrible idea.
It also investigates the evidence on the work of other development aid programmes aimed at lifting people from poverty, including through livestock and life skills trainings, and asks the controversial question of whether we really know what works best to help families out of poverty, and what the challenges are to finding that out.
The piece is 28 minutes and is the second part of the podcast called "I Was Just Trying To Help", available to stream for free at: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/503/i-was-just-trying-to-help