A former cabinet minister and Conservative leadership hopeful has been named as the new chief executive of a global development charity.
Rory Stewart, who was international development secretary in 2019, took over at the US-based GiveDirectly this weekend, where he will be both president and chief executive.
GiveDirectly has a partner charity called GiveDirectly UK, which collects donations in this country.
GiveDirectly UK contributed almost £3m to the US charity in 2021, according to the latest filings with the Charity Commission. This is its highest fundraising total to date, and triple the amount raised four years ago.
Stewart succeeds Michael Faye at the top of the charity. Faye, GiveDirectly’s co-founder, has become its executive chair.
The organisation mainly raises money through payroll giving, using services run by the Charities Aid Foundation and other platforms, and the trustees of GiveDirectly UK then choose which of the US-led international projects this money will support.
GiveDirectly says it has distributed the equivalent of about £170m through its largest programme of direct, unrestricted cash transfers since 2009, through projects set up across Africa.
Stewart said: “People have talked about ending poverty for decades, but GiveDirectly gives us the model that can deliver it.
“Unconditional cash transfers have been proven to deliver support to those that need it with unprecedented speed and scale, meaning we now have the opportunity to do something really historic.
“I am beyond excited to take on the role of president as we embark on this endeavour, at a time when climate change and the pandemic make global poverty more urgent than ever.”
Stewart served as a foreign office minister and justice minister when Theresa May was Prime Minister, but resigned when she left office.
He ran to replace May but finished fourth in a ballot of Tory MPs. He quit as MP for Penrith and the Border at the 2019 general election.