World Bank, Algorithms Allocation of Cash Assistance Threatens Rights

ROME – Governments around the world are turning to automation to deliver essential public services. However, entrusting these decisions to machines risks excluding some or identifying others, for investigations based on errors, discriminatory criteria or stereotypes about poverty. There World Bank it is one of the major development players driving public sector automation, particularly in developing economies. This report documents the human rights impact of Takafula social welfare program funded by the World Bank in Jordan which relies on an algorithm to assess which households qualify for money transfers after ranking them according to economic vulnerability.

Some terms of Islamic jurisprudence. The term Takaful sometimes it is translated with “solidarity”, the closest word that recalls its meaning; or with “mutual guarantee”. In other words, it is nothing but a cooperative system of reimbursement in the event of loss, impoverishment, linked to various causes, organized in accordance with the law of the sharia. A substantially alternative concept to the insurance tradition, in the way in which the Ribs?, Islamic legal term which essentially means “usury” or “interest” and the Gharar, which means uncertainty, danger, possibility or risk. It represents a negative element in the Islamic rulings governing commercial transactions and is roughly described as “the sale of what is not present”: fish not yet caught, or crops not yet harvested.

Rights and social security are at risk. Drawing on 70 interviews with beneficiaries, government officials and activists, this report documents how the algorithm is leading to money transfer decisions that strip people of their Social Security rights. The burden of meeting the algorithm’s calculation needs is also making the online application process more challenging, while the distribution of money transfers through electronic wallets is causing recipients to pay fees and in some cases travel long distances to nearest collection point. These findings demonstrate the need for universal social protection systems, which eliminate the need for bias-prone assessments of people’s financial well-being and simplify eligibility.