GiveDirectly, “This week in cash transfers”
GiveDirectly, “This week in cash transfers“, GiveDirectly Blog, 13 February 2015
AUDIO: David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein: Several National Public Radio reports on GiveDirectly, a charity that gives unconditional grants as form of development aid
[Jason Burke Murphy – USBIG]
Reporters David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein interview the founders of GiveDirectly and travel to a village in Kenya where they gave many inhabitants $1,000 with no conditions. Most of these recipients were getting by spending about that same amount every year.
Bernard Omondi got $1,000 from GiveDirectly. -Jacob Goldstein/NPR
Reporters were able to verify that many recipients made purchases with long-term beneficial consequences. These included roof repair, motorcycles for a taxi service, and a dowry for marriage. Interestingly, many recipients had a very low assessment of their neighbor’s use of the money. Reporters found that most neighbors were making good choices.
GiveDirectly is conducting very intensive surveys to compare their approach to that made by other charities. They have received support from Google Giving.
GiveDirectly is not issuing a Basic Income Guarantee. They only give once to each recipient and they do not give to everyone in an area. They often choose recipients based on simple indicators of deep poverty-like grass roofs. They are giving money unconditionally and their arguments for their approach mirror closely argument for a BIG.
Planet Money also talked about another charity, Heifer Project International, which gives livestock to poor people alongside training in how to raise them. Recipients promise to give the next offspring as a gift to someone else in need.
Planet Money asserts that future research would determine which approach solves more problems for poor people. The podcast mentions government cash transfer programs like those found in Mexico and Brazil. These have soft conditions like school attendance and immunizations. They are also a regularly occurring source of income.
More people are hearing about unconditional cash transfer and government development programs like Brazil’s Bolsa Familia. This is likely to make a guaranteed income more familiar when people do hear about it.
Several different version of this report were broadcast on different NPR programs:
A family in western Kenya received this cow as part of a Heifer International program. -NPR
A 28-minute report was broadcast on This American Life:
David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein, “Money for Nothing and Your Cows for Free,” as part of the one-hour episode, “I Was Just Trying to Help“, This American Life, August 16, 2013
A 6-minute report was broadcast on Planet Money:
David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein, “The Charity That Just Gives Money to Poor People“, Planet Money, August 23, 2013.
Morning Edition and All Things Considered broadcast a two-part story on this report:
David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein, “The Charity That Just Gives Money to Poor People“, Morning Edition, August 23, 2013 and David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein, “Cash, Cows, and the Rise of Nerd Philanthropy,” All Things Considered, August 23, 2013.
UBI: Short-Term Results from a Long-Term Experiment in Kenya
Abstract: “What would be the consequences of a long-term commitment to provide everyone enough money to meet their basic needs? We examine this hotly debated issue in the context of a unique eld experiment in rural Kenya. Communities receiving UBI experienced substantial economic expansion|more enterprises, higher revenues, costs, and net revenues|and structural shifts, with the expansion concentrated in the non-agricultural sector. Labor supply did not change overall, but shifted out of wage employment and towards self-employment. We also compare the effects to those of shorter-term transfers delivered either as a stream of small payments or a large lump sum. The lump sums had similar, if not larger, economic impacts, while the short-term transfers had noticeably smaller effects, despite having delivered the same amount of capital to date. These results are consistent with a simple model of forward-looking lumpy investment, and more generally with a role for savings constraints, credit constraints, and some degree of (locally) increasing returns, among other factors.”
Read a summary of the report.
Read the full report.
The Guardian reviews “Free Money” film on Give Directly Kenya pilot
Image credit: https://www.givedirectly.org/ubi-study/
On 19 April 2023 The Guardian published a review by Peter Bradshaw of the 2022 film, “Free Money”. The documentary follows an experiment funded by the charity GiveDirectly in which residents of the Kenyan village of Kogutu over the age of 18 can opt to receive a universal basic income of $22 per month for the test period of 12 years.
Will UBI Become Mainstream? – Al Jazeera Video
“Interest in universal basic income (UBI) programmes around the world is continuing to rise, with governments and private donor groups examining the social and economic effects of unconditional cash payments to citizens. Ireland recently joined the ranks of countries providing a basic income.
In a three-year pilot initiative, 2,000 artists and creatives are receiving payments of €325 ($355) a week. The programme, which has cross-party support, is similar to basic income plans trialled in other countries including Finland, the United States and Wales. About 10 million women in India’s Tamil Nadu state will receive basic income payments when a programme backed by state leaders launches in September. GiveDirectly, a New York-based NGO funded by private donors, is providing unconditional monthly payments to people in rural Kenya in a twelve-year programme.
Recipients of universal basic income – particularly those living in financial precarity – say the payments have improved their well-being and helped them focus on boosting their education and skills. Proponents of UBI say it helps spur local economies, given that recipients are free to use the money how they choose. Critics say the pilot schemes are merely providing free money with little oversight, disincentivising people from work and driving a wedge between recipients and other community members who miss out.”
This episode of Al Jazeera’s The Stream examines the increasing interest in basic income schemes around the world and asks if UBI is winning mainstream acceptance. Click here to view the episode.
