In August 2020 the Dutch NGO INclusion started a basic income pilot in the village Welle in Nebbi District in Uganda, together with Ugandan partner AFARD. All 350+ people of the village, adults as well as children, have received a basic income amounting to the equivalent of 15 euros, currently 60.000 Ugandan shilling, for the past three years. Now, the first major study by researchers of the University of Groningen of the project shows very positive results.
The midline evaluation report analyses the results 2,5 years into the project, comparing the situation during the baseline study before the start of the project, and the latest measurement in December 2022. The report is written by PhD Elisa van Dongen under the supervision of Professor Dr. Robert Lensink and Associate Professor Annika Mueller.
This basic income pilot of INclusion has some unique features. To begin with the intended duration of seven years. Most basic income experiments and projects only run for one or two years. Secondly, children receive the same basic income as adults, whereas usually children are excluded or receive less. Because of this, the amount a family receives is relatively large, amounting to 80% of the international poverty line. Thirdly, 10% of the basic income is not given to people individually but to the village as a whole. Because a generally accepted characteristic of basic income is that it is individual, these 10% do not count as basic income. But it is unconditional, and the village fund enables the community to invest in public facilities that benefit everyone.
The study took a broad look at the project results. Some of the findings:
extreme poverty diminished from 55 to 10 percent
food security improved considerably
much better access to clean drinking due to a water well that was the first investment from the village fund
the percentage of children going to primary school increased from 70 to 87 percent
the number of days missed at school or work due to illness decreased by 75 percent
60 percent of the families built a new, better house
the basic income was also used to buy and hire more land for farming
the percentage of households owning cattle increased from 9 to 49 percent
ownership of solar panels rose from 19 to 74 percent
Not surprisingly, the study also found that the residents of Welle experience much less stress than before and are more optimistic about their future.
Not included in the report but also an important outcome of the project is the fact that before the project started many people in Welle earned a small income by producing charcoal. This has ceased altogether. Although this might count as a negative result just looking at economic figures – a decrease in economic activity – in reality it is very positive. Not just because it was hard and ill paid work, but also because a lot of trees were cut for the charcoal production. Since the start of the project the number of trees around the village, and greenery and biodiversity in general, has improved visibly.
The UBI Piloters Network brings together researchers, policymakers, activists, and civil society actors interested or engaged in trialling Unconditional Basic Income (UBI). The space is convened by the University of Bath, the University of Freiburg’s Institute for Basic Income Studies, and the Basic Income Earth Network. We aim to create connection across the UBI piloting field, to build new collaborations, share key learnings, and establish best practice. Sign up to our newsletter here and read on to learn more.
Research, policy, and activist interest in UBI has exploded in recent years, and this has led to a huge rise in the number of global UBI pilots. Yet for all this amazing growth, until now, no global platform has existed for sharing UBI pilot findings, creating community across the piloting field, or supporting researchers to engage effectively with policymaker audiences. The UBI Piloters Network aims to remedy these issues by building and curating the world’s first global network of UBI piloters, taking inspiration from the work of the Basic Income Earth Network and US UBI Community of Practice.
Launched in Summer 2023, The UBI Piloters Network curates a monthly newsletter that brings together updates from across the piloting community, featuring updates on recent research, policy developments, potential gatherings, publications, and opportunities for collaboration.
The Network also hosts an online seminar series for piloters to share recent findings and discuss emerging developments. It will host a hybrid Winter School on ‘How To Build A Pilot’, and convene the world’s first ever conference of UBI piloters – hosted in Germany in Summer 2024.
If you have ideas for how to expand this work and make it more relevant to you and the UBI piloting community, please do get in touch! We want this to work for the community it aims to serve.
Please also share the Network with piloters far and wide!
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Our Partners
The UBI Piloters Network is a collaboration between the University of Bath (in particular the UBI piloting WorkFREE research team), the Freiburg Institute of Basic Income Studies (FRIBIS – especially the UBI Experiments Team), and the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN). Seed funding has come from Bath, FRIBIS, and the European Research Council.
The University of Bath is a leading centre of UBI research in the UK and is in the process of building a UK UBI Beacon to nurture the next generation of UBI scholars, activists, and engaged policymakers. At Bath, WorkFREE brings together scholars, activists and civil society institutions from India and the UK to pilot ‘UBI+’ in four informal settlements in inner-city Hyderabad, India. UBI+ combines universal basic income (UBI) and needs-focused, participatory community organising in order to support people to increase their power to meet their needs. The two-year pilot seeks to answer a wide range of questions, including ‘What impact does UBI+ have on people’s freedom from exploitation?’ and ‘Can UBI+ support the green transition?’.
FRIBIS is an interdisciplinary network at the University of Freiburg dedicated to research on Universal Basic Income. By bringing together researchers and civil society actors from all over the world, we aim to provide a sound, well-researched foundation for the public and political discourse on Basic Income. In this way, it wants to contribute to transformation towards a more just and sustainable society.
BIEN is a global network of UBI activists and researchers. Drawing on its unique Basic Income expertise built over decades of work, BIEN strives to be a globally trusted, go-to source of information and analysis around Basic Income. BIEN builds connective tissue between people and institutions working on Basic Income, be these activists, campaigners, researchers, governments or civil society organisations. And BIEN aims to catalyse local and global debate and work to push the boundaries of what is possible, all in the direction of a more just, caring society.
The ERC is a major Europe Union research funding agency at the heart of research and innovation across the continent.
Share Your Stories and Contact Us
If you have UBI Piloting New to share, other relevant material to go out in the Newsletter, ideas you want to run buy us, or plans to pitch, please get in touch with us here: piloters@basicincome.org
In the second episode of UBI4ALL’s #checkoutbasicincome podcast, Sarath Davala, Chair of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), is interviewed.
In this episode Sarath tells about his life experience: how he became a UBI activist, when before he was skeptic about the idea. He also discusses what he learned in the well-known basic income experiments that took place in India.
Biographical note: Sarath Davala is an independent sociologist based in Hyderabad, India, and is currently the Chair of the Basic Income Earth Network. After a stint as a professor at IIM Bangalore, he switched to the voluntary sector and worked closely with several NGOs and trade unions in India and abroad. He has worked closely with the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), and was the Research Director of the Madhya Pradesh Basic Income Pilot Study that was conducted between 2011 and 2013 in India by SEWA. He is the co-author of the book: Basic Income: A Transformative Policy for India. He is currently co-directing another basic income pilot project with waste collectors in Hyderabad.
How popular is basic income among the general public and different groups within it? Although many argue that this question is hugely important for the political feasibility of public opinion, the current scientific evidence is very much scattered. This book provides the most-up-to date and fine-grained overview of the popularity of basic income that is currently available.
Using data from a wide array of public opinion polls conducted in different countries and years, the book first charts popular support for the ideal-typical version of basic income, broadly defined as a “periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement”. On top of that, the book maps popular support for the many other, differently designed varieties of basic income that are part of real-world proposals, pilots, and experiments – including, for example, a participation income, a negative income tax, and a stakeholder grant.
By investigating how and why support for different types of basic income varies across countries, evolves over time, and differs between individuals with different characteristics, this book offers crucial information about the political constituencies that can be mobilized in favor of (or against) the introduction of basic income, thereby contributing to our knowledge on the political feasibility of basic income.
FRIBIS will be hosting a three-part Summer School this year which will take place in Freiburg (Germany). Each part will focus on the topic of “Empirical Methods in UBI Investigation” but from different perspectives. The Summer School will be held in English and applications can be submitted now. Application deadline: 22nd May 2023.
July 10th – How to build a UBI pilot – Delivered by Dr. Neil Howard (University of Bath) & Dr. Sarath Davala (Basic Income Earth Network) – A growing number of UBI pilot tests are being proposed or are in preparation around the world. However, there is limited knowledge about how to design a pilot, the most appropriate methods, and the ethics of pilot research. Participants will address these issues.
July 11th-14th – Social Contract Lab Experiments – Delivered by Prof. Bernhard Neumärker (Universität Freiburg), Prof. Lorenzo Sacconi (Università degli Studi di Milano Statale), Prof. Marco Faillo (Università di Trento) & Dr. Virginia Cecchini Manara (Università degli Studi di Milano Statale) – It will focus on the application of Social Contract Theory to behavioural and experimental economics, both in theory and practice. Participants will discuss the relevance of behavioural experiments for normative theories and learn how to design and conduct lab experiments.
July 18th-20th – Microsimulation & Social Welfare Maximization – Delivered by Prof. Ugo Colombino (University of Turin) – Both young researchers (MSc, PhD) and more advanced academics who are nevertheless still beginners in static modelling will have the rare opportunity to learn from an extensive introduction to the development of static microsimulation models and welfare analysis, covering both theory and practice.
We are looking forward to your application and we’d be pleased if you could share the event with potentially interested students, phd-candidates & colleagues.
