Last week the UN Special Rapporteur for Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Olivier De Schutter, presented the Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth to the UN Human Rights Council, outlining a visionary, hopeful, radical pathway beyond the crises and catastrophes of contemporary capitalism and towards a liveable world for all of us. The Roadmap was developed in consultation with over 400 experts from trade unions, movements, UN agencies, universities, policy bodies, and civil society institutions around the world. BIEN EC and Team Members including Neil Howard, Vibhor Mathur, Diana Bashur, Nicholas Langridge and Patrick Brown wrote the Policy Profile on basic income, which is available here. The BIEN community will find it worthwhile to look at the entire Roadmap and the dozens of policy profiles outlining how we transform everything from care to energy to community here.
Students as young as elementary age took the stage at Taipei’s Forum Music Auditorium on Friday, June 5, showcasing their talents to raise money for basic income in Taiwan. By the end of the night, the roughly 10 performers and an audience of about 30 had brought in thousands of US dollars toward a US$20,000 goal.
Students paired live music with social impact project presentations during the talent night at Taipei’s Forum Music Auditorium.
Hosted by UBI Taiwan and sponsored by Ascent Academy, the event paired the musical performances with social impact projects designed by the academy’s middle and high school students. The proposals ranged from free public speaking classes for underprivileged communities to a basic income plan for homeless people around Taipei Main Station. One student, Tony Wang, has been studying homelessness pilots abroad to adapt a version suited to Taiwan. Another, Wenxuan, is conducting public polling on basic income designs in Taiwan to inform policy discussions.
Students chose their own projects, and the night was theirs to run. “That was up to them. We gave them the stage, and they chose all that,” said Tyler Prochazka, co-founder of UBI Taiwan and Ascent Academy. “We have our creative side, and we have our hard logic, rational side, and that they’re using both of those to try to help other people, I think is a really beautiful message.”
Young performers play a violin duet during the evening’s musical program.
For Prochazka, the value of the exercise was as much educational as it was charitable. Students arrive with plenty of ideas, he said, then discover how much harder those ideas are to carry out in the real world. “Inputs don’t necessarily lead to outputs,” he said. “To be impactful, you have to learn to be adaptive. You have to learn how to overcome challenges, and you have to work with other real people.”
The room was filled with parents and students there to back the idea of giving young people a platform to widen opportunity for everyone, regardless of background.
The defining moment, for Prochazka, came when long-time student Wesley Low held the stage after the projector failed. Low had started in the program years earlier as a nervous public speaker, and had since represented his work at the United Nations and at Harvard. “There was a problem with the projector, and he was riffing and working the crowd very comfortably and very effectively,” Prochazka said. Improvising, Low spoke about how the projects had changed the way he thinks about his impact on others, and how serving as a role model can inspire that same shift in the people around him.
“He could command the stage and present his project and make people care about it,” Prochazka said. “That’s maybe the most valuable skill you can have to make a difference. You have to convince the stakeholders to care.”
The night’s total surpassed what organizers had projected. “I thought NT$40,000 would be very good. But it ended up being a lot more,” said UBI Taiwan Operations Manager Steve Wei. “We need to send thanks to Eric and Tyler. They tried very hard to promote this fundraising event.” Eric Tseng, administrative director of Ascent Academy’s Elite Program, helped drive the event’s promotion alongside Prochazka.
The money will go toward reviving UBI Taiwan’s single-parent basic income program next year. The organization aims to support at least three recipients and to assign a media team to document their progress, building on the documentary it produced about its first recipient.
UBI Taiwan sees single parents as among the most important recipients of unconditional cash. Raising children on a single income leaves little room to absorb a setback, and the organization argues that supporting these households shows in concrete terms how Taiwanese society would benefit from expanding unconditional cash programs.
Students improvised and worked the room as they made the case for their projects.
The approach follows the organization’s 2023 pilot, which gave Ms Yu, a single mother who had been diagnosed with cancer, NT$10,000 a month for a year. UBI Taiwan produced a documentary tracing her experience on the program. Prochazka said the organization remains in contact with her, and that she is doing well and holds a stable job. Read about the pilot program.
Before recruiting new candidates, UBI Taiwan needs to secure funding. “We have to make sure that the organization is administratively ready, and we have all those funds secured before we start,” Prochazka said. The next round will likely involve a partner organization in selecting recipients. Working through a partner gives “added protection for the candidate,” Prochazka said, since choosing from a vulnerable group calls for a sensitivity an outside organization is better positioned to provide. The details remain tentative until funding and partners are confirmed.
The program’s revival comes as Taiwan moves toward a possible universal child basic income. UBI Taiwan argues that parents themselves need support to give their children the strongest start, and that the single-parent program makes that case directly.
“We really need to rethink our roles in society for everybody. And that starts with young people, because that change almost always comes from the next generation,” Prochazka said.
To support UBI Taiwan’s work toward economic security for all, you can donate here.
By Rain Wang
Students and organizers gather on stage during the UBI Taiwan x Ascent Academy fundraiser.
With the rise of the internet came the digital age of BIEN. In 1996, BIEN launched its website, continuing to spread ideas of an unconditional basic income, this time operating more efficiently and reaching more people. All the while, the network gradually expanded from a localized “European Network” to a globalized “Earth Network.”
To read the full article, click here (coming soon).
BIEN in the 2000s
The new millennium marked a new identity for BIEN. In 2004, as the network expanded from Europe to the rest of the world, the Basic Income European Network changed to Basic Income Earth Network. Affiliations from all continents joined BIEN, and five international congresses were organised with a clear goal of discussing the idea of an unconditional basic income.
To read the full article, click here (coming soon).
Together with United Nations agencies, governments, civil society, academics, trade unions and others, the former Special Rapporteur is developing a Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth.
The Roadmap will be presented to the UN on June 25 2026, providing policymakers with a catalogue of concrete measures that can shift our economy away from profit-at-all-costs and towards fulfilling human rights.
Read more and see a video presentation by Olivier De Schutter, click here.
The project will collect personal reflections, pivotal memories, behind-the-scenes stories, photos, and video messages from people who helped build, shape, and expand BIEN over the past four decades.
The form asks contributors to reflect on their history with BIEN, including the most pivotal moment they experienced, their most important contribution to the organization, lesser-known stories from BIEN’s history, and what they believe will be essential for the basic income movement’s success in the coming decade.
The Oral History Project also invites memories from four major eras in BIEN’s development: the early academic gatherings of 1986-1996, the broadening of membership and affiliates from 1996-2006, the global expansion of 2006-2016, and the period of professionalization and mainstream attention from 2016-2026.
“These stories are part of the living history of the basic income movement,” said Tyler Prochazka, director of the 40th anniversary media project. “BIEN’s 40th anniversary is an opportunity not only to celebrate what has been built, but to preserve the memories and lessons of the people who made that work possible.”
Responses will help document BIEN’s shared history and support reflection on the future of the movement as it enters its next chapter.
Contributors may write as much or as little as they wish until July 3, 2026. Those with photos or video messages are also encouraged to include links through the form.
About BIEN The Basic Income Earth Network is an international network dedicated to discussion, research, and public understanding of basic income. Since 1986, BIEN has connected scholars, activists, policymakers, and advocates working to explore and advance basic income around the world.
Guy Standing is professor of Development Studies at SOAS and co-founder of the Basic Income Earth Network. He is best known as a long-standing and prominent advocate of Universal Basic Income, but he is also responsible for redefining and revitalising the term ‘precariat’ which describes a new emerging social class suffering from job insecurity as well as identity insecurity and lack of time control.
