UBI Taiwan hosted a press conference to spotlight the progress of its basic income pilot program for single-parent households. The event brought together policymakers, academics, and beneficiaries to celebrate this milestone and advocate for a more equitable future.
Two Taiwanese national legislators were present at the event, offering their support and emphasizing the broader implications of basic income for Taiwan. They stated they hoped this experiment could become a stepping stone for Taiwan to become a more fair and just society.
Yu-Ling Chang, Assistant Professor of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley, hailed the initiative as a pivotal development in Taiwan’s social welfare history. “Implementing the basic income experiment is a new milestone for social welfare in Taiwan,” she remarked.
Adding a personal dimension to the event, Ms. Yu, the first participant in UBI Taiwan’s basic income experiment, shared her experience. She expressed gratitude for the program, which provided much-needed stability and relief during a challenging period in her life. “The basic income gave me a moment to breathe,” she said, reflecting on how it allowed her to focus on her child and navigate life’s uncertainties, such as her recent battle with cancer.
A documentary about Yu’s journey with basic income will be released later this year.
To further raise awareness and funds for the single-parent basic income program, UBI Taiwan held a national charity debate competition in December. Students from Taiwan and Japan participated to deliberate on whether Southeast Asia should implement basic income, presenting diverse perspectives on issues such as entrepreneurialism, foreign direct investment, fiscal capacity, and governance challenges in developing nations.
The championship round showcased arguments from both sides, with opponents emphasizing feasibility concerns while proponents argued that the social costs of inaction outweigh the investment required to implement basic income.
The tournament raised over $1,000 USD, with the proceeds going toward developing the single-parent program. The fundraiser was organized by UBI Taiwan and Ascent Academy’s Youth Leadership Program, which is designed to connect young people with social impact initiatives in the spirit of basic income.
Beyond the debate competition, students in the Youth Leadership Program are developing additional programs to address pressing social issues. Current projects include initiatives to support the homeless using cash cards and provide educational resources for low-income students.
UBI Taiwan plans to expand the single-parent basic income program this fall. To support this initiative, the organization also hosted a fundraiser talent show in January, inviting supporters to perform in support of the program.
Jiakuan Su, chairman of UBI Taiwan, said he saw positive changes during the pilot program from finding a better job to improved educational development for the child.
“The value brought by basic income is not just the money, but more importantly the changes it brings to your life,” Su said.
The concept of sufficiency has gained traction in both public and scholarly debates in recent years as an organizing principle to direct the ecological transition. However, there are few evaluations of sufficiency policies to date, and even less is known about sufficiency elsewhere in the world. Sufficiency is a fast-evolving field for policy innovation in many emerging economies, which are tasked with addressing the significant environmental footprints of its growing consumer classes. To understand how current and future sufficiency policies can be better designed and implemented across contexts, it is crucial to learn from diverse global experiences. This roundtable will bring together around 30 researchers and practitioners at Sciences Po to have an open, in-depth, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary dialogue on policies for sufficiency in emerging economies.
The Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), at its general assembly in 2019, created the Working Group for Clarification of Basic Income Definition. Since then we have had online open forum, including at the online venue of the BIEN congress in 2021 Glasgow and in 2022 Brisbane, and had an hybrid open forum at the 2024 Bath Congress. We are going to finalize our discussions by our Congress in August this year in Brazil.
We would like to make an open call for the final round of collective discussion. We expect to have several sessions from March to May. Each online session run around 90 – 120 minutes, started with speaker’s presentation(s) with discussions following. Each session would host 1 or 2 speakers. If you are interested in speaking, please show your interest by email both to anniemillerBI@gmail.com and toruyamamori@gmail.com, by 20 February. We might be able to accommodate later submission, but we would appreciate earlier submission.
After we and the speakers agree on the date, we expect speakers will send us a draft paper for their presentation at least a few weeks before the session. In June and July, the working group would work for making a final report on the ‘Clarification of Basic Income definition’. Papers presented at open forum might be attached to the report as appendicies.
The 24th Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) will take place from August 27 to 29, 2025, in the cities of Niterói and Maricá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The call for papers is open until February 18. Submissions for panels, papers, posters, and cultural productions are welcome in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.
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Event registration is available at a discounted rate for early-bird participants untilApril 30. In addition to the main Congress event, taking place in Niterói, two pre-congress events will be held in the city of Maricá:
• Latin America Day – August 25 • Early Career Day – August 26: You can find the call for papers for this day here. We look forward to welcoming you to Brazil! More information: www.bien2025.com.br
Today, we are joined by Karl Widerquist, a political philosophy professor at Georgetown University-Qatar. He has an extensive research and publication record on universal basic income. He uses an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating economics, politics, philosophy, and anthropology into his work. He has also developed indepentarian political theory, specifically within his framework of justice as the pursuit of accord (JPA). What do indepentarianism and justice as the pursuit of accord mean?
Prof. Karl Widerquist: The idea of justice as the pursuit of accord stems from criticisms I’ve made of natural rights theory and social contract theory. We need a new framework to justify social arrangements. A well-intentioned individual seeking to organize social arrangements and interact with others should aim to cooperate rather than impose their will.
The 24th Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) will take place from August 27 to 29, 2025, in the cities of Niterói and Maricá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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