Photos of recipients in our Universal Basic Income Program highlight the diversity of investment decisions families make when receiving cash transfers.
Blog - Basic Income
Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
Recipients
How receiving a basic income affects elderly women
Since October 2016, GiveDirectly has been sending monthly cash transfers to 95 adult residents in a remote village in Kenya. This village is the pilot site for our broader universal basic income initiative. “Remote” is often a code word for “poor.” But other vulnerabilities in age, gender and marital status contribute as much, if not […]
Operations
Living with a basic income: aspirations (part 3/3)
Part 3 of a 3-part series on lessons we’ve drawn from observing the Universal Basic Income Pilot village over the past year. (Parts 1, 2) For an update on our UBI program please see our UBI study page. “Aspirations” are a hot topic among poverty researchers these days. Following suggestive evidence from studies like this […]
Operations
Living with a basic income: work (part 2/3)
Part 2 of a 3-part series on lessons we’ve drawn from observing the Universal Basic Income Pilot village over the past year. (Part 1) Perhaps the most controversial question about basic income is how it will affect the way people spend their time. Proponents think it will free them up to take more risk – […]
Operations
Living with a basic income: family relationships (part 1/3)
Part 1 of a 3-part series on lessons we’ve drawn from observing the Universal Basic Income Pilot village over the past year. Phoebe is one of the first 100 people in history to live in a community where everyone receives a guaranteed, long-term basic income. GiveDirectly’s basic income initiative launched in her village in October […]
Operations
We’re officially launching UBI
It has begun! As I write, field officers in Bomet County, Kenya are beginning to enroll the first (post-pilot) households into the largest basic income initiative in history.The past 19 months since we announced our plans to test UBI have been remarkable. The debate over basic income continues to rage, from skeptics who call it […]
Operations
Update on UBI and the Kenyan election
Folks, We’ve decided to postpone the launch of our basic income initiative in Kenya until after the new election. Earlier this month Kenya’s Supreme Court voted to nullify the August 8th presidential election results. Presidential candidate Ralia Odinga challenged sitting president Uhuru Kenyatta’s 54% win and appealed to the Supreme Court that the election had […]
Operations
What it’s like to receive a basic income
Last October we began sending monthly universal basic income (UBI) payments to 95 people living in a rural village in Western Kenya. While people in 200 villages will eventually receive cash transfers as part of our test of a UBI, we wanted to begin with a one-village pilot. Doing so allows us to test and […]
Opinions
Why We Invested: GiveDirectly’s Basic Income Experiment
Omidyar Network’s Tracy Williams and Mike Kubzansky describe why Omidyar is investing in GiveDirectly’s basic income experiment. Omidyar Network’s foundational belief that empowering people frees them to better themselves, their families, and their communities has great evidence in the growing literature around the benefits of cash transfers. In these programs, low income individuals who receive […]
Uncategorized
Some basic (income) questions, answered
“Cash transfers… universal basic income, what’s the difference?” That’s the question a lot of people have been asking us recently. The short answer: a universal basic income (UBI) is a type of cash transfer. As the name suggests, there are three discrete conditions that need to be met to consider a cash transfer a UBI: […]
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