Economic research has shown that in aggregate, cold hard cash is the most impactful aid you can give someone as well as the least impactful intervention you can impose on the market.

The freedom to make your money work for what you personally deem best is the creative, and personally empowering, juice that promotes the most productive behaviour.

Providing water, food, and shelter affects each of these markets in often deleterious ways. For example, consider the oft-cited criticism against foreign aid.