Social Income is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

based in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

that provides unconditional cash transfers via mobile phone to people living in multidimensional poverty in

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

. Since 2020, Social Income has been running an open-ended universal basic income program in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

History

Social Income was established in December 2019 and became operational in March 2020, coinciding with the onset of the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

crisis. While individual donors, pledging 1% of their income, provide the majority of financial donations, operational costs are also supported by corporate contributions, prize money such as the Lean Innovation Award, and support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in the framework of the Humanitarian Innovation Exchange and Accelerator.

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.

Basic income experiment

In March 2020, Social Income launched an open-ended experiment to test a

universal basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive a minimum income in the form of an unconditional transfer payment, i.e., without a means test or need to perform Work (hu ...

(UBI) in

. The instalments are paid out unconditional. The country was selected for this experiment due to its significant poverty levels, with 59.2 percent of the population living in poverty. Social Income differs from other universal basic income projects like GiveDirectly in that it operates as an open-source initiative.

References

External links

* {{Universal basic income Foreign charities operating in Sierra Leone