Dealflow | February 17, 2017

Universal basic income to get another test, in Kenya

ImpactAlpha
The team at

ImpactAlpha

Universal basic income will get another test, this time in Kenya.

GiveDirectly will provide 6,000 rural Kenyans with $0.75 per day for the next dozen years.

That’s about half the adult income in Kenyan villages, according to Omidyar Network, which provided almost $500,000 towards the $30 million pilot.

The premise of universal basic income — that money to meet basic needs reduces the stress of poverty or under- and unstable employment — is being tested from Finland to San Francisco.

Tesla’s Elon Musk last week said such support is necessary because, “There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better.”

In Kenya, basic income addresses not only poverty but “premature deindustrialization” in a region where globalization and automation mean manufacturing jobs may never come.

Photo credit: Amit Dave/Reuters