The Ford Family Notre Dame Award for International Development and Solidarity
Presented by the Kellogg Institute’s Ford Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity, the Ford Family Notre Dame Award honors individuals and organizations committed to standing with those in deepest need. Rather than imposing solutions, awardees work alongside the communities they serve, empowering them to become the primary agents of their own change.
Recipients are chosen for their transformative contributions to international human development through research, practice, public service, or philanthropy. This year, the Ford Award will be presented to Paul Niehaus followed by the Ford Lecture in Human Development.
Paul Niehaus
Co-founder and Director of GiveDirectly
Chancellor’s Associate Endowed Chair in Economics, University of California, San Diego
Distinguished Recipient of the Ford Family Notre Dame Award
Paul Niehaus is the co-founder of GiveDirectly and Segovia, and an economics faculty member at UC San Diego. His work focuses on using technology and rigorous scientific methods to improve social programming in emerging markets, specifically in India. Paul holds a PhD from Harvard and has been recognized by Fast Company, Inc., and Foreign Policy for his innovative leadership in finance and global development.
Ford Lecture in Human Development: Money for Nothing
Is it nuts to give money to the poor with no strings attached? And if not, why? This lecture charts GiveDirectly's journey from a controversial idea to a billion dollars delivered, examining what 24 randomized controlled trials revealed along the way about poverty, human agency, and the assumptions implicit in international development. Beyond the economics lies a deeper argument—that program evaluation is never truly neutral, and that choosing which questions to ask is itself an ethical act.
This Ford Lecture in Human Development will be preceded by the bestowing of the Ford Family Notre Dame Award for International Development and Solidarity on Paul Niehaus.