* Argues strongly for overlooked approach to development by showing how the poor use money in ways that confound stereotypical notions of aid and handouts * Team authored by foremost scholars in the development field Amid all the complicated economic theories about the causes and solutions to poverty, one idea is so basic it seems radical: just give money to the poor. Despite its skeptics, researchers have found again and again that cash transfers given to significant portions of the population transform the lives of recipients. Countries from Mexico to South Africa to Indonesia are giving money directly to the poor and discovering that they use it wisely “ to send their children to school, to start a business and to feed their families. Directly challenging an aid industry that thrives on complexity and mystification, with highly paid consultants designing ever more complicated projects, Just Give Money to the Pooroffers the elegant southern alternative “ bypass governments and NGOs and let the poor decide how to use their money. Stressing that cash transfers are not charity or a safety net, the authors draw an outline of effective practices that work precisely because they are regular, guaranteed and fair. This book, the first to report on this quiet revolution in an accessible way, is essential reading for policymakers, students of international development and anyone yearning for an alternative to traditional poverty-alleviation methods.

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Shortlisted for the 2018 FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award A brilliantly reported, global look at universal basic income—a stipend given to every citizen—and why it might be necessary in an age of rising inequality, persistent poverty, and dazzling technology. Imagine if every month the government deposited $1,000 into your bank account, with nothing expected in return. It sounds crazy. But it has become one of the most influential and hotly debated policy ideas of our time. Futurists, radicals, libertarians, socialists, union representatives, feminists, conservatives, Bernie supporters, development economists, child-care workers, welfare recipients, and politicians from India to Finland to Canada to Mexico—all are talking about UBI. In this sparkling and provocative book, economics writer Annie Lowrey examines the UBI movement from many angles. She travels to Kenya to see how a UBI is lifting the poorest people on earth out of destitution, India to see how inefficient government programs are failing the poor, South Korea to interrogate UBI’s intellectual pedigree, and Silicon Valley to meet the tech titans financing UBI pilots in expectation of a world with advanced artificial intelligence and little need for human labor. Lowrey explores the potential of such a sweeping policy and the challenges the movement faces, among them contradictory aims, uncomfortable costs, and, most powerfully, the entrenched belief that no one should get something for nothing. In the end, she shows how this arcane policy has the potential to solve some of our most intractable economic problems, while offering a new vision of citizenship and a firmer foundation for our society in this age of turbulence and marvels.

The real-life Nickel and Dimed—the author of the wildly popular “Poverty Thoughts” essay tells what it’s like to be working poor in America. ONE OF THE FIVE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS OF THE YEAR--Esquire “DEVASTATINGLY SMART AND FUNNY. I am the author of Nickel and Dimed, which tells the story of my own brief attempt, as a semi-undercover journalist, to survive on low-wage retail and service jobs. TIRADO IS THE REAL THING.”—Barbara Ehrenreich, from the Foreword As the haves and have-nots grow more separate and unequal in America, the working poor don’t get heard from much. Now they have a voice—and it’s forthright, funny, and just a little bit furious. Here, Linda Tirado tells what it’s like, day after day, to work, eat, shop, raise kids, and keep a roof over your head without enough money. She also answers questions often asked about those who live on or near minimum wage: Why don’t they get better jobs? Why don’t they make better choices? Why do they smoke cigarettes and have ugly lawns? Why don’t they borrow from their parents? Enlightening and entertaining, Hand to Mouth opens up a new and much-needed dialogue between the people who just don’t have it and the people who just don’t get it.

ÔPauline Dixon has intellectual rigour and an openness to new ideas, together with compassion and practicality. A great and unusual combination which I admire enormously.Õ Ð Dame Sally Morgan, Adviser to the Board, Absolute Return for Kids and former chief advisor to Tony Blair, UK ÔThis fine book has a powerful message for policymakers and donors: the quality of schools matters even in poor countries; hence, the poor are abandoning failed state schools and enrolling their kids in low cost private schools. Instead of trying to close them down, the state and donors would do well to invest in children (through vouchers and cash transfers) and give parents a choice rather than create more atrocious, monopolistic state schools where teachers are absent and unaccountable.Õ Ð Gurcharan Das, commentator and author, India Unbound and former CEO of Proctor and Gamble, Asia ÔThis is a must-read book for anyone interested in the plight of poor children, particularly for those readers concerned with learning about culturally sensitive and proven ways to reach out and help less fortunate children in developing countries. I was fascinated and outraged by the compelling stories and actual data that Dixon shares in this gem of an exposŽ. Most readers will similarly be shaken and incensed by the failure of billions of dollars spent on state schooling in Africa and India. Dixon makes a compelling case for the value and contributions of low cost private schools in slums and low income areas in developing countries. After reading this book, I am now a believer!Õ Ð Steven I. Pfeiffer, Professor, Florida State University, US This fascinating volume challenges the widely held belief that the state should supply, finance and regulate schooling in developing countries. Using India as an example, Dr. Pauline Dixon examines the ways in which private, for-profit schools might serve as a successful alternative to state-run systems of education in impoverished communities around the world. The book begins with a through history of IndiaÕs government-run schools Ð based on the traditional British model Ð which are currently characterized by high levels of waste, inefficiency and subpar student performance. The author goes on to present comprehensive survey and census data, along with analyses of different school management types and their effect on student achievement, teacher attendance and quality of facilities. The book also tackles the problem of inefficient allocation and use of international aid, and offers recommendations on the development of new mechanisms for utilizing aid resources in support of low-cost private schools. This meticulously researched volume will appeal to students and professors of development studies, political economy and international studies. Policymakers and other officials with an interest in educational innovation will also find much of interest in this book.

How to Adopt a Village in Africa: A Story of Joy, Pain, and Purpose is the memoir of how author Sheena Ashdown started a small NGO, the Africa Village Project Association (AVPA). As a young adult, Sheena travelled around West Africa, doing almost a complete circumnavigation of the region. During this journey, she saw a world very different from her own. The poverty of the continent and the strength of the African people stayed with her, and when she eventually settled down and wanted to give back, she turned to the place that remained so close to her heart: Africa. For ten years, the AVPA partnered with a village in Tanzania. Working alongside her husband Dale, Sheena’s approach was based on Jeffrey Sachs’s Millennium Villages Project. Instead of focusing on one aspect to improve, the AVPA addressed the whole village. From infrastructure and education to business grants and health, the organization worked to improve the standard of living and self-sufficiency of the village. The outpouring of support was tremendous and gratifying. But what started as a way to give back became an extraordinarily challenging venture. After difficulties and disappointments, worsening need in the village and demoralizing fundraising, Sheena had to make a choice: endure or shut down. How to Adopt a Village in Africa chronicles the hardships and joys of charitable work and social activism. With honesty and vulnerability, Sheena shares how her determination to live a meaningful life led her on an unforgettable journey.

In Give a Man a Fish James Ferguson examines the rise of social welfare programs in southern Africa, in which states make cash payments to their low income citizens. More than thirty percent of South Africa's population receive such payments, even as pundits elsewhere proclaim the neoliberal death of the welfare state. These programs' successes at reducing poverty under conditions of mass unemployment, Ferguson argues, provide an opportunity for rethinking contemporary capitalism and for developing new forms of political mobilization. Interested in an emerging "politics of distribution," Ferguson shows how new demands for direct income payments (including so-called "basic income") require us to reexamine the relation between production and distribution, and to ask new questions about markets, livelihoods, labor, and the future of progressive politics.

"A sweeping intellectual history of the welfare state's policy-in-waiting From Thomas More to Thomas Paine, Milton Friedman to Mark Zuckerberg, centuries of public figures have hailed the power of government payments as a tool for advancing social justice. For some advocates, basic income is a moral imperative, a policy with potential to upend structural inequalities; for others, it's a market-friendly version of the welfare state that doesn't constrain capitalism. By appealing differently to different political sensibilities, basic income has persisted in the political imagination for centuries. In this deeply erudite and original work, Anton Jäger and Daniel Zamora offer the first historical examination of basic income as a policy of convenience--and, critically, as an intellectual backstop for the shortcomings of capitalism. With modern origins in works of neoliberals like Friedrich Hayek, basic income was conceived as a form of market-friendly welfare state-a safety net around capitalism that wouldn't impinge on capitalism. Although neoliberals failed to make the idea a reality, they succeeded in seeding a fascination that would permeate all corners of late-century capitalism, from supply-side Democrats to neoclassical economists and barons of Silicon Valley. Basic income, Jäger and Zamora show, is no mere political sideshow. Amid societies' ongoing search for market-friendly utopianism, it may be a policy whose time has finally come"--