UBI Piloters Network
Newsletter 12- July '24
Anveshi, INBI and BIEN Asia-Pacific hub share reflections from the Basic Income and Care Project for Transgender Persons at the workshop in Hyderabad, India
'Basic Income opened up more choices in life’, shares a participant of the Basic Income and Care Project for Transgender Persons. A one-day workshop, ‘Reflections on Basic Income and Care for Transgender Persons,’ was conducted on June 15, 2024 in Hyderabad, India. The project was jointly launched by the Anveshi Research Center for Women’s Studies and the India Network for Basic Income (INBI) in collaboration with American Jewish World Services (AJWS) to pilot unconditional basic income as a radical social policy intervention. This is a research and advocacy project that emerged from the WorkFREE team. The BIEN Asia-Pacific hub has joined the team as a research partner. Ten participants were provided INR 7000 per month for a period of 12 months. Additionally, Care workshops were conducted as a part of the project, which aimed to create spaces of connection, solidarity, and care between and amongst participants. On the occasion, the participants of the project shared their experiences with basic income and their engagement at the care workshops with the attendees. Several senior academics and activists working with the transgender community in the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, researchers from different universities, and students of Social Work and other disciplines have joined. The organisers and the attendees have attempted to co-create a common research and public policy agenda, emphasising the pressing themes that require state and social attention and interventions. More details on the Workshop are on this Link.
The CLARISSA Social Protection pilot in Bangladesh has published its final evaluation, with exciting findings on the synergies between unconditional cash and unconditional community support.
The publication is available here and the abstract is below.
This paper presents the results of the multi-method evaluation of the CLARISSA Cash Plus pilot, which was an innovative social protection scheme for tackling social ills, including the worst forms of child labour.
A universal and unconditional ‘cash plus’ programme, it combined community mobilisation, case work, and cash transfers, and was implemented across a high-density, low-income neighbourhood in Dhaka. Findings show that the intervention was impactful in reducing people’s poverty and increasing their wellbeing and resilience. Impacts on work and working conditions were present but limited, quite likely because impact pathways on this ultimate outcome are complex and overlapping. The positive synergies between cash and non-cash components were marked and strongly suggest the need to replicate and scale an intervention of this nature. Recommendations from the evidence are offered for government, donors, and civil society.
Project Community Connections, Inc. Direct Cash Transfer Project- Cohort One Report.
Project Community Connections, Inc. (PCCI) initiated a groundbreaking cash transfer program in 2022 to address the multifaceted challenges faced by individuals experiencing homelessness in Atlanta, GA. This innovative program distributed $400 monthly for 12 months to a randomly selected group of individuals experiencing housing insecurity, alongside essential rental, utility assistance, and caseworker support. The ongoing evaluation employs administrative data, spending data, longitudinal survey data, and qualitative interviews to explore the impacts of unconditional cash transfers on recipients' lives. This report presents the results of the program’s pilot year, which enrolled 50 PCCI clients in the cash transfer program.
The American Guaranteed Income Studies: Richmond, Virginia
The Center for Guaranteed Income Research shares findings from GI pilot in Richmond, Virginia.
Key findings include:
Enhanced financial wellbeing – Recipients of the GI reported an increased ability to save, cover a $400 emergency, create liquidity, and pay down debt. Some were also able to progress towards long-term goals like homeownership and strategic asset-building during the pilot.
Supported education and employment – For some recipients working full-time, the GI augmented low wages so that they could afford bills and transportation costs. For others, the GI offered a financial buffer while they pursued certifications and further education programs, which in turn equipped them to seek better-paid, more stable long-term employment.
Increased quality time spent with family – GI temporarily eased the pressure of balancing paid work, unpaid care responsibilities, and quality time with family. Recipients were able to step back from supplementary second jobs in order to be more present with their children; they were also able to share the benefits of the unconditional cash with extended family and community networks.
The Potential of Basic Income Social Works and Artifacts for Peace to the New International Monetary Socio-Economic EcoSystem From the Global South to the United Nations
Of the Intellectual Properties of Humanitarian and Solidarity Activities and Work embodied in tokenizable Social Arphefacts as a guarantee of payments of basic income of the minimum vitals as financial instruments of fiduciary backing for the reserves of value of the Transactional exchange currency of the InterBlockchain Platforms of the New EcoSistema Socio-Economic Monetary International MultiNodal.
Taking as a starting point the implementation of the Calls for the NEPAS Support, Development and Social Innovation Program of the ReCivitas Institute, here called "Basic Income and Peace", the present case study takes as its object its production as social artifacts to evaluate the socioeconomic potential of such a collaborative initiative in solidarity with the dedicated cause and corporate name of the Institution, using for this purpose the method of projecting results verified in diverse and adverse future scenarios using the criterion of organizational resilience given by the correlation between the sustainability of the end activity depending on their social impacts on financial instruments of future smart contracts in multi-parity-equitable exchange currencies of blocks and international entities such as NDB/BRICS+, IDB.
Constituting, therefore, the comparative analysis of the potential of solidarity economic activities and production as social artifacts carried out in projects, programs and public governance policies of organized civil society aimed at the protection, defense and guarantee of universal rights to life and freedom and human development of human person and peoples in the face of current challenges to the United Nations and integration of the emerging populations and communities of the Global South on new information technology platforms for monetary and financial registration and protection of the person, society, property and values of the international multinodal geopolitical order in contrast and counterposing the persistent trend of humanitarian and social environmental destruction of world peace caused by the hitherto irreducible escalation of the growth of totalitarian necropolitical practices promoted by the state-private industries of war and perpetual exploitation, terror, disinformation, segregation and extermination and mutual and general destruction assured.