I don't think this has been a significant problem for Give Directly, which sends money to people directly via the M-PESA cell phone network, in reasonably small amounts at a time, and with unpredictable timing. There's no easy access point for a corrupt official to swoop in and become involved.
Right. That's important to make this program work, and it's an unusual set of circumstances. Not many places have both extremely poor people and a high-quality mobile payment network!
Bad stuff can still happen: people could potentially be swindled or harassed out of their cash once they get it. But at least getting it there is a huge step.
Also, perhaps one thing you can take from this is that a full-featured mobile payment network needn't be thought of just as conveniences for the first world. It also makes stuff like this possible.
Actually, pretty much only places that have lots of extremely poor people have high-quality mobile payment networks, because they're the only places where there's a market.
