This podcast is on Universal Basic Services (UBS). The experts are Anna Coote of the New Economics Foundation and Maeve Cohen of the Social Guarantee Network. The host is UNESCO’s Iulia Sevciuc.
Thread 1 untangles the agenda of UBS, going into the:
Premises – what is the core of UBS and how it should be approached as a framework rather than a stand-alone policy?
Targets – why are equity, sustainability and gender so tightly linked to UBS and how would UBS deliver against such objectives?
Thread 2 talks UBS vs UBI, discussing the:
Framing – why is the debate being framed as UBI vs UBS and how deep does the competition run within the fiscal space and beyond?
Now and later – could UBI, as a single policy with immediate turnaround effects, be the solution for the urgency of the current crises and UBS, and as a complex suite of policies with results in the medium- to long-term, be the solution for later?
Contexts – could UBS be more fit for countries with a stronger baseline of (state/collectively provided) services, while UBI could be more appropriate for countries without this baseline?
Politics of policy-making – what are the chances of UBI “winning” through support from across the political spectrum and UBS facing pushback due to the perception of increased government intervention?
Thread 3 is about knowledge and policy. It speaks to:
Knowledge producers – where are the gaps in data and evidence on UBS?
Policymakers – what are the key messages on UBS that deserve greater attention?