you make them lazy. it prevents creativity.

it kills entrepreneurship. you’re playing for god.

Today’s specialty coffee world has a lot of rigid ideas about the right way to be doing good to the poor. Anything outside this box, puts you at risk of being scolded, laughed at, or looked down upon. The proven concept of basic income as an intervention to reduce poverty is no exception. In our experience, we notice how quickly the room gets divided when we want to talk about basic income openly. The sharpest of the tongues advise us - often unsolicited - not to play God while our allies want to know how to help and contribute. Many of us from wealthier countries conveniently choose to forget that we already do enjoy basic income and that it is inbuilt in many of our societies. Healthcare systems, pension funds, unemployment benefits or just education - it’s there everywhere. We did not need to start from scratch. We could simply waltz in and enjoy the fruits.

This isn’t true for those in less wealthier countries. They are forced to fight for their basic amenities. It is the shortcoming of their government, that intentionally or unintentionally does not deliver these services at an affordable price. It makes it impossible for the poor to freely educate, forget to worry about healthcare costs or retire when they please. It puts them under a lot of pressure. The day to day worries catch up to them. Limited employment opportunities and a dwindling income at a household level makes the entire situation very tense. This also holds good for many smallholder coffee farmers especially in rural areas. Our offer to find a market that will pay more for better qualities does not always land. It is because these farmers are in survival mode. Growing coffee is not a passionate career choice, but the only way to make ends meet. The only way to get a little bit of hard cash. Meanwhile the coffee farmers that are passionate and do produce a high quality product can get snowed under in a situation like this. Often cooperatives combine coffees from different places in the region to reach the contract volume blending the different qualities into one. This might kill the motivation to produce high quality coffee all together.

What will happen if we can give these farmers a breather by providing them with basic income for limited time? Not unlimited amounts, but for the basic needs. Give them a chance to think about their future, wonder if they want to actually want to be coffee farmers. Some farmers might not want it while others might want it even more. Look for the motivation to educate themselves, invest in their farms and make better quality. This is our goal with the basic income project: foster coffee farmers to become agro-entrepreneurs by choice. We proactively invest in the welfare of these people and the quality of product will also get better.From here, we create are in an upward cycle: those who have a basic grip on quality and want to learn more, can go and improve it even further, leading to more control, better prices and better long term partnerships. It’s here where the connections between roasters and these coffee producers come into play, and magic will happen.

not a test balloon,
but a scientifically proven approach

The idea of providing basic income is privy to harsh criticisms such as giving money to poor never works, it makes them dependent and complacent. These concerns might hold true for few of them yet overwhelming evidence suggests that basic income changed lives for good. In our case, farmers can use this opportunity to focus on professionalization- hiring more labour, producing better quality. It allows them to be the architect of their own lives.

Evidence also suggests that temporary unconditional cash transfers for a definitive period of time boosts economic development and improves livelihoods. Basic income can be a breath of fresh air for those who have never had the chance to thrive. Children can go to school and they can have three meals a day. 

As good middleman, we at This Side Up are consistently open towards improving our social, economical and environmental agenda at origins. Nothing is a taboo. Not even basic income. We care about the personal welfare of our farmers. While paying higher prices is the most obvious thing to do, it does not guarantee they will have a decent livelihood. The impact of the high prices is an incentive provided you have the motivation, knowledge, land and yield. For most smallholder coffee farmers with land holding between 0.5-2 hectares with low yielding coffee trees and poor farm management, waltzing out of poverty seems far fetched.

As a social enterprise our financial means are there to make impact. The seed for our collaboration with Belgian NGO Eight is a result of many in-depth conversations between Maarten and Steven. Eight’s work and their proven success in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda paved way for our partnership. Having an experienced field team fully operational in Uganda, it felt like the obvious step to expand this to our Ugandan export partners in Nebbi: Zombo Coffee Partners.

Motivated farmers who want to produce good quality coffee but don’t have the headspace for it, because they’re constantly in survival mode. Supporting these farmers with a basic income helps them shift their focus towards professionalization. Unconditional Cash Transfers are a proven concept, but this case is unique in the sense that they’re not connected to a single village, but to a demographic group, being coffee producers. Via This Side Up’s partners of Zombo Coffee Partners, we start via the coffee microstation of Ndhew, and the townships and village that provide coffee to it. The first is the Nyacana Merber community.

Eight, a Belgian Non profit organization that has been in a pursuit of providing basic income without conditions. They have done projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. They follow a scientifically proven evidence based approach backed up by independent research conduct by University of Antwerp and IPIS. Their goal is giving people the freedom of choice. Through unconditional cash transfers they have been able to make a difference in quality of life, health, education and entrepreneurship for 3928 people in 11 villages until now. The documentary Crazy Money shows one of their former projects.