by Andre Coelho | Jun 27, 2018 | News
This year’s 11th Basic Income Week is happening in September, from the 17th to the 23rd, with the motto: “Basic Income: An income you can count on!”
All planned events related to basic income in that week (but not limited to) are scheduled at a dedicated calendar, and new events can be submitted through a specific contact form. Also, on the second day of the Week – 18th of September – a global banner event will be performed, open to all participants. A Videothon Playlist will also be compiled, during the week, containing all the videos sent by participants, an idea already explored at the 10th Basic Income Week in 2017.
Basic Income Week has been happening since 2008, having been initiated by Günter Sölken, at the time through the joint operation of Basic Income Network Germany, Basic Income Network and Social Cohesion Austria, Switzerland BIEN and of Attack Germany, Attack Austria and Attack Switzerland, plus the help of many independent basic income initiatives in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Since then the event has grown to a truly international event, with participants and organized events from around the globe.
More information at:
11th International Basic Income Week website
11th International Basic Income Week Twitter and Facebook pages
by Andre Coelho | Jun 24, 2018 | News
The Global Unification International (GUI) is a “sustainable development think tank”, striving for the integration of technologies and social policies between all stakeholders – corporate, government and third sector organizations – in emerging economies. Founded in 2006 and with headquarters in Queensland, Australia, it promotes “specialized programs focusing on justice, equality, peace, health, education, sustainable development, technology transfer and the eradication of poverty”. For that purpose, GUI is based on a Constitution, which sole purpose is to “advancing humanity for the continued evolution of co-operation”.
The GUI has a commitment to “design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Universal Basic Income Project”, and its strong social media presence (a 79000 follower page on Facebook) regularly refers actual statements from people receiving basic income (e.g.: from GiveDirectly’s experiments in Kenya). The think-tank also produces research articles and other knowledge-based media, through its publications page, where basic income has also been featured. A wide variety of experts, mainly from but not limited to African countries, cover aspects such as health, social policy and IT/computer science.
More information at:
GUI website
GUI Facebook page
by Andre Coelho | Jun 17, 2018 | News
Horizon Factory is a “platform through which organizations can set up an independent basic income project, supporting their own community while contributing to Horizon’s global basic income service”. Aiming high at a world-wide basic income, naming this as the United Basic Income Platform, Horizon’s goal is to link up all the world’s basic income initiatives, thus effectively creating a global basic income network. Horizon defines itself, as “the first decentralized platform for uniting universal basic income initiatives.”
Built upon the Ethereum blockchain, the general idea is to distribute crypto tokens, so that everyone can build “a basic income for him or herself”, especially as buying cryptocurrencies is fairly easy and people have the ability to buy things like Bitcoin and Ethereum using basic means. This includes being able to buy crypto with credit card, making it a very simple process. The platform’s role is to collect money from donations and partnerships and redistribute it within the blockchain network. The final aim is aligned with that of many basic income supporters, which is to provide people with more effective freedom, the possibility of a more meaningful and less stressful life. Thus, if consumers can go ahead and learn more about how digital currencies can be bought with credit cards (similar to how Coin Cloud and the like work), it would be easier for many to invest in various cryptocurrencies. Before cryptocurrency enthusiasts decide to do this, however, there comes a need to know more about the domain and its potential upticks and pitfalls.
The currency chosen to distribute these tokens is the Ethereum (ETH), which saves Horizon time, money and effort to launch its own crypto currency, plus benefiting from the ETH already established value (at the moment 1 ETH ~ 500 US$). Moreover, because the Horizon’s platform is also programmed on the Ethereum blockchain, it also takes advantage of the community already invested in this system, and the fact the supporting software is continuously being reviewed and updated by experts. According to Horizon’s whitepaper, “to build a decentralized basic income service, there is no need to reinvent the wheel”. Hence, Horizon’s role is to “write smart contracts for its basic income service”. For this, cutting edge programming technology is used, such as MiniMe tokens, ERC20 standard, Truffle framework, ESLINT and Solium. The Horizon platform can be used, however, for purposes other than distributing a basic income.
To pay out basic income at each node, Horizon uses the Splitter – a function used to “divide the collected deposits among all token holders” – which will record the tokens in possession, the periods in which the distribution is to be made, and how many Ethers shall be paid for each token. Each Splitter owner, including the Horizon Factory, has its token reserve which is used to pay its token holders, and is the sole controller of that Splitter. The Factory Splitter is not privileged in any way, being just another split node following the same rules. However, a 1% fee is charged on deposits to Splitters (for the Factory Splitter), to cover for operating expenses. Technically, the platform also allows for transaction fees to be fed in the basic income distribution scheme (similar to a Tobin tax), although that is still dependent on Horizon’s partnerships.
The Horizon NGO has been setup and is managed by Dirk von Heinrischshorst and Eliott Teissonniere, both experts in electronics, information technology and computer science. As leaders of the Horizon project, they both share a vision of open source systems, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) and of an economy which works for the common good.
More information at:
Horizon’s website
Horizon NGO executive summary
Horizon whitepaper
by Andre Coelho | Jun 10, 2018 | News
The Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) group, based in New York, is preparing a large-scale cash transfer study in Liberia, particularly focusing on rural farming households. Cash transfers will be delivered by GiveDirectly, and also coordinated with USAID, to be rolled out for at least two years. GiveDirectly has been responsible for other large scale unconditional cash transfer programs, namely in Kenya, and is applying the randomized controlled trial method to the Liberian study as well.
There have been other cash transfer programs in Liberia, such as the Cash for Work on Vulnerable Youth in Liberia, but “no positive psychosocial or economic impacts were observed”. This program, due to its conditionality, “was found to be undesirable and faced implementation challenges”. It was also managed by Innovations for Poverty Action, now innovating by participating in a basic income-style cash transfer study.
IPA and GiveDirectly are, therefore, recruiting senior researchers, program managers and office administrators. To this end, J-PAL – Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab – is also helping with providing ways to draw top human resources to this task. Already onboard are principle investigators Jon Robinson (University of California, Santa Cruz), Jenny Aker (Tufts University), Alan Spearot (University of California, Santa Cruz) and Shilpa Agarwal (India School of Business).
More information at:
Kate McFarland, “US/Kenya: GiveDirectly launches UBI experiment”, Basic Income News, November 17th, 2017
by Andre Coelho | Jun 3, 2018 | News
Image credit: La Razón.
BONOSOL is a mandatory, non-contributory, central government social security program in Bolivia. It is unconditional in nature and started in 1997, having endured to this day, having risen more than 220% from 2008 through 2016. It disburses, at the moment, 404 €/year per adult over 60 years of age who does not benefit from a State pension, and 323 €/year for those in that same population cohort who benefit from a State pension. BONOSOL is, thus, a universal but cohort restricted non-contributory pension programme.
Although the programme targets people older than 60 years of age, its coverage includes all people older than 21 in 1995 (at the moment 44 years of age). It has also been suspended, soon after its start in May 1997, re-introduced with a different name (BOLIVIDA) on a 51 €/year value and then re-established again as BONOSOL in 2002, with a value of 206 €/year.
Nowadays, around one million people in Bolivia benefit from BONOSOL (with or without a state pension), also called Renta Dignidad, or about 9% of current population. There is no monitoring or evaluation processes for this programme, although the total fund from where payments are made is subject to annual audits. The annual cost is 0.25% of Bolivia’s GDP, and has been originally set up as a way to redistribute collected funds by the State, derived from the privatization process. However, despite, its longevity and growth along recent years, “studies have shown that at current levels of benefits in payment, the fund will run out much earlier than expected”. This might indicate a need to diversify the fund’s financing streams into the future.
More information at:
Jesus Paco, “Diputados aprueban suba de la Renta Dignidad”, El Deber, May 5th 2017
International Labour Organization, Social Security Department – Bolivia, Bonosol
Autoridad de Fiscalización y Control de Pensiones e Seguros: Requisitos Renda Dignidad
