Coronavirus impacts are causing starvation and threatening to plunge a half billion people globally into extreme poverty. 30 million children might die for economic reasons – not from the virus itself, which rarely kills them. The World Food Program estimates that acute hunger will more than DOUBLE by the end of 2020. Providing a global universal basic income is one way – perhaps the only way to potentially ameliorate this distress. Per the World Basic Income Foundation, a fund of $1 trillion, or 1.2% of world GDP, would be enough to stave off most of the anticipated “extreme starvation” by distributing a universal basic income. Reaching that goal would require coordinated international effort that feels far off in the nationalist tides that reign.
GiveDirectly is a 4-star rated charity that enables you to directly send cash to poor people in need. I found it through givewell.org, a charity review website that found its program to be reputable and impact on improving lives to be demonstrable. GiveDirectly’s research is impressive and it invests in ongoing studies of the impact of its work partnering with independent researchers. This opinion written by GiveDirectly’s founders in the Atlantic provides an interesting overview of cash transfers and suggests the novel idea that every development-oriented charity should be required to demonstrate their benefits relative to just giving cash. It described a study conducted of its work by USAID with major partners such as Google. This demonstrated that in Rwanda, a gift of $530 per household had demonstrable impacts on childrens’ height and mortality whereas the normal development and education program had little impact.
As a scientist, I am excited to read about a non-profit actually studying the impact of its programs in sophisticated, randomized, controlled trials, and look forward to supporting their work further. A breath of fresh air to share.
References:
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-05-11/more-than-a-billion-people-escaped-poverty-in-the-last-20-years-the-coronavirus-could-erase-those-gains
https://insight.wfp.org/covid-19-will-almost-double-people-in-acute-hunger-by-end-of-2020-59df0c4a8072
http://www.worldbasicincome.org.uk/blog/coronavirus-will-cause-starvation-only-a-truly-universal-basic-income-can-prevent-it
https://www.givedirectly.org/basic-income/
https://www.givewell.org/charities/give-directly
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/09/14/647212387/which-foreign-aid-programs-work-the-u-s-runs-a-test-but-wont-talk-about-it
https://www.givedirectly.org/blog/