Social Income
Founded2019 (2019)
Typenon-profit organization
PurposeAlleviating extreme poverty through cash transfers
Location
Area served
Freetown, Sierra Leone
Founding Director
Sandino Scheidegger
Employees
Approx 15
Websitesocialincome.org

Social Income is a nonprofit organization based in Switzerland that provides unconditional cash transfers via mobile phone to people living in multidimensional poverty in West Africa. Since 2020, Social Income has been running an open-ended universal basic income program in Sierra Leone.[1][2]

History

Social Income was established in December 2019 and became operational in March 2020, coinciding with the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.[3] While individual donors, pledging 1% of their income, provide the majority of financial donations,[4] operational costs are also supported by corporate contributions, prize money such as the Lean Innovation Award,[5] and support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in the framework of the Humanitarian Innovation Exchange and Accelerator.[6]

Operations

COVID-19 support

Social Income initiated over 2,000 payments to individuals adversely affected by the economic repercussions of COVID-19 restrictions. As the pandemic began to impact West African nations, leading to border closures, the project was concurrently launched to address the emerging needs. Recipients of the program are guaranteed support for a duration of three years.[7]

Basic income experiment

In March 2020, Social Income launched an open-ended experiment to test a universal basic income (UBI) in Sierra Leone.[8] The instalments are paid out unconditional.[9] The country was selected for this experiment due to its significant poverty levels, with 59.2 percent of the population living in poverty.[10] Social Income differs from other universal basic income projects like GiveDirectly in that it operates as an open-source initiative.[11][12]

References

  1. ↑ The Stanford Basic Income Lab (January 1, 2022). "Map of Universal Basic Income Experiments". The Stanford Basic Income Lab. Stanford University. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  2. ↑ MIT (February 1, 2022). "Financial Inclusion Challenge Social Income". Massachusetts Institute of Technology Solve. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  3. ↑ "Social Income: A Will and a Way to End Poverty". Borgen Magazine. October 22, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2023. In March 2020, the organization began sending its first cash transfers.
  4. ↑ "Finances". Social Income. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  5. ↑ Kernen, Cécile (September 9, 2022). "Lean Innovation Award – Melden Sie jetzt Ihre Idee an" [Lean Innovation Award – Get your idea registered]. Jungfrau Zeitung (in German). Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  6. ↑ Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (August 17, 2021). "Letter of Confirmation for the Participation in the Humanitarian Innovation Exchange and Accelerator 2021" (PDF). Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Eigentlich ist ein Prozent eine Frechheit" [Actually, one percent is an impertinence]. PS Zeitung. June 24, 2022. Retrieved September 18, 2023. Social Income garantiert das Grundeinkommen für drei Jahre. [Social Income guarantees basic income for three years]
  8. ↑ Flanders Arts Institute (February 28, 2023). "MIT Solve". Flanders Arts Institute. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  9. ↑ "Eigentlich ist ein Prozent eine Frechheit" [Actually, one percent is an impertinence]. Das Lamm. June 15, 2022. Retrieved September 18, 2023. Sie können mit diesem Geld machen, was sie wollen, und wissen am besten, wie sie sich aus ihrer schwierigen Lage befreien können. [They can do whatever they want with this money, and they know best how to get themselves out of their difficult situation.]
  10. ↑ "Country Profile: Sierra Leone" (PDF). Human Development Reports. United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  11. ↑ "Introducing Activating Developers and the new Digital Public Goods Open Source Community Manager Program". The GitHub Blog. March 13, 2023. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  12. ↑ "Public Repository". GitHub. Social Income. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
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