Basic Income Earth Network Congres 2026 | Basic Income and the Polycrisis: The Key to Unlocking the Puzzle

*In Person and Virtual Conference

The BIEN Congress will officially open on August 20. All Congress participants are also invited to a half-day, pre-congress session the afternoon of August 19 focused on Canada. 

The 2026 Congress is being held as the early decades of the twenty-first century are defined by a polycrisis: the causal entanglement of multiple, overlapping crises. These pressures span interconnected systems, including the natural environment (climate disruption), the economy (inflation, unaffordability, widening income and wealth inequality, and persistent poverty), political institutions (erosion of public trust, democratic strain, and the rise of exclusionary populism and authoritarian governments), and the rights-based international order. Together, they expose the limits of fragmented welfare systems that respond to risks in isolation rather than as cumulative and systemic challenges. In this context, basic income is gaining renewed attention not only as an anti-poverty measure, but as a foundational policy for strengthening social inclusion and solidarity.

This Congress theme positions basic income as a unifying response to the polycrisis—one that cuts across policy silos and reconnects income security to broader questions of justice, sustainability, and democratic capacity. The theme invites critical examination of basic income as part of a renewed social contract capable of countering precarity, fragmentation, and exclusion in complex, interdependent systems.

# Registration fees 

# Tier 1: Organization and Academic Rate ($350 CAD)

• This tier is designed for participants whose attendance is supported by organizations with significant resources and professional staff.
• Who should select this tier: Representatives of governments, large non-profits, academic institutions, and corporations. This tier also applies to individuals attending independently who possess better-than-average economic means.

# Tier 2: Standard Rate ($200 CAD)

• The standard rate supports the core costs of the Congress and is intended for those with moderate institutional or personal resources.
• Who should select this tier: Staff from smaller non-profits with modest resources and few paid employees, as well as individuals with moderate personal incomes.

# Tier 3: Low-income Rate ($100 CAD)

• BIEN is committed to inclusive dialogue. This reduced rate is intended to remove financial barriers to participation.
• Who should select this tier: Individuals with limited financial resources for whom the standard rate would make participation unaffordable or cause undue hardship.

More information available on the conference website.