A report published on Thursday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) suggests to governments the payment of a Temporary Basic Income for the poorest sectors of 132 developing countries. According to the report, the measure would target 2.7 billion people in extreme poverty, who would be allowed to stay in their homes rather than have to go out to work in order to eat.
For UNDP, this initiative is “of urgent need” especially “with the pandemic expanding at a rate of 1.5 million new cases per week.” “A Temporary Basic Income would give them the resources to buy food and pay for health and education. Financially it is within range: if granted for a period of six months, for example, only 12% of the total budget to respond to the expected Covid-19 for 2020, or the equivalent of one-third of what developing countries must pay in external debt this year would be required,” the study reads.
The report mentions countries that have already implemented this income, such as Togo (West Africa) or Spain. But the closest example for Argentina is the Emergency Family Income (IFE) that is already going for its third payment and the study of what would be the Base Income, an initiative that the Ministry of Social Development considers to implement once the IFE is completed.
