Social Income

We live in a world where more than 700 million people still live in extreme poverty, with roughly 60% of them in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. Meanwhile, North America and Europe collectively harbour over 55% of the net wealth worldwide. 

The mission of Social Income is to tackle this problem (poverty and global inequality) by leveraging the efficiency of direct cash transfers, coupled with the redistributive properties of an unconditional basic income. Our pilot project is based in Sierra Leone: With a projected GDP per capita of $532 in 2026, Sierra Leone is among the poorest countries in the world, with more than 80% of Sierra Leoneans classified as vulnerable to multidimensional poverty. The factors that contribute to such high rates of poverty are diverse:

• Poverty trap: Extreme poverty is a spiralling mechanism that is almost impossible to escape of. People who already lack capital have difficulties acquiring the necessary amount to get out of this trap, which creates a self-reinforcing, often inter-generational cycle. Poor infrastructure, poor health care systems and wars (the civil war in Sierra Leone ended in 2002) further contribute to this. 
• Limited financial inclusion: People who live in extreme poverty have limited access to financial services. Despite deliberate policy-making in some countries, Sub-Saharan Africa lacks the institutional quality necessary to extend (digital) financial access to the poor. In Sierra Leone, only 28.9% of people older than 15 years have access to formal financial services (including mobile money).  
• Structural barriers in the labour market: Individuals living in poverty often experience impediments and barriers to employment, such as limited or no access to education, the burden of care-tasks, discrimination, exploitation, instability and lack of crucial support.  
• Vulnerability to shocks and emergencies: People living in poverty are limited in their capacity to cope with shocks – they don't have a buffer against disaster loss. This is especially critical in light of climate change: Because of their high dependance on natural resources, poor households  are among the most vulnerable to climate variability and weather extremes. 
• Social exclusion and gender inequality: In Sierra Leone, women are at risk of sexual and gender-based violence as well as harmful practices like FGM. Their visibility, participation and representation in political positions remains low compared to men. Related challenges include lack of financial autonomy, high illiteracy, political violence and entrenched customs. Other demographics also suffer from marginalisation and exclusion, e.g. survivors of Ebola, former child soldiers, disabled people (approx. 10% of the population) and members of the LGBTQ+ community.  

Social Income builds on global solidarity and is designed to address (1) extreme poverty and (2) widespread wealth inequality. We want to give everyone a chance to contribute to, and benefit from, a fairer, more sustainable future.

Our approach is simple, innovative and scalable: Leveraging the use of mobile phones and digital technologies, we pay out a guaranteed basic income to people living in poverty, enabling them to improve their livelihood and well-being in a sustainable, self-empowered and community-based way. The funding is provided by people who contribute 1% of their salaries every month through a subscription (with a retention rate of 91.7% after 12 months).

The payments to recipients are sent directly to their phones via mobile money providers. Contributions, payment confirmations, recipients' data and impact measurement responses are managed with an easy-to-use, cloud-based software that we designed and developed (the code is published as open source and was selected for the GitHub 'Tech for Social Good' program). For beneficiaries who possess smartphones, we are currently in the final stages of developing an app, which will simplify and facilitate confirmations of payments as well as the on- and off-boarding (see image below).  

In our pilot project in Sierra Leone, recipients receive monthly payments of USD$32 (Int. Poverty Line x PPP Conversion Factor), guaranteed for three years. Due to a very lean model – made possible by the work of volunteers, low maintenance costs, and covering all our organisational expenses through institutional grants –, we are able to pay out 100% of individual donations directly to recipients. We have made further commitments to radical transparency (we display all our financial flows and statistics in real-time on our website) and sustainability (we account for, optimise and offset our emissions). 

Social Income provides immediate relief and helps alleviate the multi-dimensional financial hardships for people living in poverty, without any conditions. 

Our main, broad target groups are the following: 

• Youth (aged 16-24): Poverty presents unique challenges for young
  people as it can impede their access to resources and opportunities, heighten their susceptibility to negative outcomes, and have adverse impacts on their mental health. Social Income can address these challenges by mitigating financial barriers, fostering entrepreneurship, and improving poverty-induced mental health issues. Main impact: Improve digital financial inclusion; encourage higher education; stimulate participation in the labor market; tackle discouragement from lack of long-term engagements and feelings of neglect.
• Women: By targeting women, Social Income addresses the unequal access and use of financial services, and as such can improve women’s capacity to respond and cope with future crises. While digital financial inclusion should not be simply equated with ownership of mobile money accounts, access to services and products is a first step towards inclusion in an increasingly digitalised ecosystem. By focusing on the empowerment of women in particular, gender-based vulnerabilities can be acknowledged, such as risk of displacement, increased burden of care-tasks, lack of livelihood opportunities, and other compounded experiences of conflict, violence and injustice. Main impact: Improve digital financial inclusion; tackle financial illiteracy; foster self-reliance; decrease physical and emotional violence.
• Rural population: Those who work in the primary sector are especially vulnerable and directly affected by climate change and volatile weather conditions. Main impact: Improve digital financial inclusion; Improve food security and diversity of diets in rural areas; improve resilience to future shocks and natural disasters.

In Sierra Leone, we have been working to serve a variety of more specific demographics, including: 

• Young artists: Social Income enables young artists and entrepreneurs (weavers, painters, musicians) to dedicate themselves to their craft without having to worry about basic needs (in collaboration with Réunion and Aurora Foundation). 
• Market women: Social Income provides the women working at the city markets with an alternative to micro-loans and borrowing with high interest rates, which may not only lead to economic stress and anxiety, but also puts them at risk of prosecution if they are unable to repay their debts (in collaboration with the Freetown City Council)
• Widows: Social Income supports widows by enabling them to embark on small-scale entrepreneur activities, by encouraging the use of digital technologies and decreasing dependencies on their relatives and communities (in collaboration with Jamil & Nyanga Jaward Foundation)
• People with epilepsy: Epilepsy is often associated with witchcraft in Sierra Leone, which puts people at risk of abuse and exclusion. Social Income enables people with epilepsy to buy the medicine they need to keep their condition under control, to fight the stigma and re-enter the labour market (in collaboration with Equal Rights Alliance)

Social Income is run by local staff in Sierra Leone (overseeing operations and partnerships) and a team of dedicated volunteers from around the world (overseeing fundraising, software development, and finances). We are a highly motivated and diverse team with backgrounds spanning a wide range of experiences (e.g. computer science, law, economics, philosophy, political science, environmental science, the arts). On average, team members have 15+ years of relevant experience. Our approach is digitally-driven and horizontally structured. For local, financial and strategic matters, we can count on various advisors and board members, both in Sierra Leone and Switzerland. We also closely collaborate with the Freetown City Council and various local NGOs who support vulnerable and disadvantaged communities (see examples and links above). Last but not least, our solution has been shaped and guided in big measure by recipients' inputs, feedback and suggestions, which is continuously incorporated into the designs. Through regular visits and exchanges, we collect ideas and work towards improving all the steps involved in our operations, most crucially our selection process of potential beneficiaries and off-boarding procedure.

Sensitised to the issues and harms arising from saviorism, neocolonial power structures and implications of racism in North/South relations, we are committed to local ownership, inclusivity, and transparence (planned undertakings are, for example, the extension of our local advisory board and commissioning local developers). Our team represents 'both sides' of the problems we aim to solve, which bears difficulties, but also many chances. Our team leads in Sierra Leone are part of the communities we are serving; they understand the challenges and cultural underpinnings of recipients, their concerns and needs. The team leads in Switzerland on the other hand understand what is needed to sustain donor's engagement and how to leverage social media for raising funds. What brings us all together is the conviction that Social Income is not just a smart idea, but a powerful one – one that has the potential to spark a movement of solidarity and wealth redistribution among thousands of people. Our track record so far is proof: we as a team are able to successfully deliver an innovative, inclusive and impactful humanitarian solution. 

145 directly, > 500 indirectly

Collaborating with MIT Solve gives us the opportunity to make an even greater impact and extend our reach to more people in need. While our mission to fight poverty is simple in its essence, the reality of it is complex and requires the right partnerships and networks. 

Some of our challenges:

• Public relations: We do have a social media presence, but are lacking strategy and coherent branding. With SOLVE's guidance in this area, we hope to develop and refine our marketing and fundraising tactics, thereby improving our messaging and increasing contributor numbers.  
• Off-boarding: We are currently developing a procedure to provide recipients in Sierra Leone with further guidance and support after they conclude the 3-year program. With SOLVE's help we hope to find ways to ensure that former recipients are not left on their own, but can continue to benefit through non-monetary support (e.g. by connecting them with local partner NGOs and ensuring access to certain services).
• Technology: We are particularly interested in exploring the use of AI and machine learning algorithms to refine our recipient selection process and ensure that our resources are directed towards those who need them most. With SOLVE's support in this area, we hope to leverage cutting-edge technology to achieve more accurate and effective targeting of beneficiaries.

We believe that by working together with Solve, we are able to access a wealth of resources that will help us overcome the challenges we face and build the next generation platform to manage direct cash transfers all over the world. 

Social Income doesn’t have any intermediaries, therefore we can circumvent most of the administrative costs that NGOs or humanitarian aid agencies usually have to bear, and are able to transfer 100% of every dollar donated. The large majority of the team works on a voluntary basis, and the little administrative costs that arise are covered by institutional grants. This ensures that our solidarity-based model of redistribution is direct, without any losses to overhead costs. 

By emphasising, on the contributor side, the figure of 1%, we are using an inclusive approach that lets everyone participate equally in the fight against global poverty and inequality. On the recipients' side, the innovative aspect of our approach is the maximisation of served communities' self-determination. Recipients are not bound by any obligations connected to the monthly payments. They are financially empowered, which catalyses positive impact and ensures that our efforts are sustainable long-term. 

A further innovative characteristic of our solution is that it is powered by open source code. Our model thus not only illustrates how to make use of direct cash transfers as a low-cost and effective anti-poverty tool, it can also encourage other NGOs and stakeholders to develop similar schemes, influence funding priorities of donors all over the world and serve as a pioneering example in the humanitarian sector. 

Our main impact goal is to help individuals break out of the poverty trap. By providing them with direct cash transfers, we empower them to make their own decisions and take control of their lives. Unlike traditional aid programs, direct cash transfers do not perpetuate the cycle of poverty. Instead, they provide a safety net that helps individuals brace against shocks and invest in their own future. Our guiding principle is as follows: the more recipients, the better. For this purpose, we have already set up our infrastructure to be able to streamline payments for up to 100'000 people, which is the amount of beneficiaries we hope to be able to serve by 2028. 

Our second impact goal aims to empower other organisations and stakeholders in the humanitarian sector. We have created a cloud-based platform and app that can be used to quickly and easily implement direct cash transfer programs in other countries. By sharing our knowledge and expertise, we hope to encourage other NGOs to make a positive impact in the communities they serve. For the next year, we are working on starting a second pilot project in Niger, in collaboration with government agencies. Within the next five years, our goal is to support various NGOs with our open source software, and create additional revenue by offering licensing contracts for our tools to stakeholders and agencies in humanitarian aid. 

Our third impact goal is to become the most efficient NGO in our field by leveraging innovative technologies and evidence-based practices. By doing so, we can create a sustainable and scalable model that other organisations can adopt to make a significant and lasting impact on poverty reduction. This impact goal does not have a specific time frame.

Regarding our main impact goal:

We have established an impact measurement with both quantitative as well as qualitative indicators. By conducting periodical surveys, we collect essential data about the livelihood of recipients and monitor how Social Income impacts their lives and financial health. The first robust results regarding the project’s long-term impact will be available in 2024. So far, our preliminary findings from surveys that have been ongoing since August 2021 are consistent with the promising results of larger studies. 

Key indicators: 

• Ability to meet basic needs 
• Access to education 
• Access to basic services 
• Secure tenure rights to land 
• Participation in the labour market  
• Subjective well-being and mental health
• Expectations for the future, both in the short and long term

Our Platform (Core Technology)

The platform of Social Income is easy to use, well-tested, and already deployed, with a lean model that requires only minimal staff to run. The software was developed as an open-source platform and is now part of the  GitHub 'Tech for Good' program. Overall it

• combines all the necessary elements for a successful cash transfer program, including targeting, recipient enrolment, and payment monitoring.
• is cost-effective and scalable: We operate on a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) model, which significantly reduces upfront costs, enhances scalability, and improves security for a cash transfer program.
• follows an open-source approach, which ensures that our solution is transparent, flexible, community-driven and continuously improving. Other NGOs can build upon our software and tailor it to their specific needs.
• is easy to use, lightweight, and mobile-optimised for field use. It runs fully in the cloud. The new mobile app for Android and iPhone is an additional feature that simplifies the onboarding of smartphone users and streamlines the running of impact measurement surveys.
• provides a powerful tool for the government and other stakeholders to reduce poverty, promote entrepreneurship, and increase the resilience of the most vulnerable.

Mission: Social Income is committed to a collaborative and respectful practice. We aim to represent all kinds of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills, and make a concerted effort to meet as equals (across borders, bridging language barriers, age gaps and socioeconomic disparities). The long-term goal is to hand over all leadership tasks and strategic oversight of the initiative to local staff, with the Swiss 'office' responsible mainly for the fundraising.

Actions: 

• We have established decision protocols that address the leadership teams both in Sierra Leone and Switzerland to prevent isolated decision-making.
• Through monthly online meetings, we ensure full transparency towards all team members about our operations, finances, and planned undertakings.
• There is no formal hierarchy within the team. Anyone is welcome to step 'up' or 'down' based on their areas of interest and/or skills. Similarly, the board rotates through an annual co-presidency. 
• We have made targeted efforts to find developers from underrepresented demographics to join our team (so far only partially successfully). 

Social Income Team: As per May 2023, 80% of our board members identify as women, and 40% as people of colour. Out of six people in the leadership team, 4 identify as women, 2 as women of colour, and 2 as part of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Current revenue streams: 

• Individual donations through subscription model (retention rate: 91.7% after 12 months)
• Grants (e.g. by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC)

Potential: 

• Offering licensing contracts for our administrative platform to government agencies or other stakeholders who wish to establish a cash transfer program