Revolution comes to world of humanitarian aid

By offering refugees a virtual identity, reassuring donors that their money is being well spent, or rushing funds where they are needed most, aid charities are experimenting with the technology in the hopes that it can improve their work

Blockchain, the technology behind the cryptocurrency bitcoin, is taking root in a sector far from finance: The world of humanitarian aid. By offering refugees a virtual identity, reassuring donors that their money is being well spent, or rushing funds where they are needed most, aid charities are experimenting with the technology in the hopes that it can improve their work. “We are at the very beginning. There is a lot of hype,” said Christopher Fabian, leader of Unicef ’s Ventures Fund, which invests in open source technology solutions.

At the end of 2017, Unicef — the UN agency dedicated to protecting children — brought together Russian-speaking blockchain experts in a meeting in Kazakhstan.

The goal? To develop a “smart contract” that would facilitate transactions between the organisation and its numerous partners for deliveries and payments, if certain conditions were met.

“It totally failed, but we learned a lot from that and will do the same challenge this year in Mexico,” Fabian admitted, adding that he could envision a host of future projects using blockchain for the “social good” — even if most of them will fail. But the agency is thirsty for innovation. Its French office has also launched an operation dubbed Game Chaingers (for blockchain), which challenges tech geeks and gaming enthusiasts to install on their computers software aimed at creating Ethereum, a virtual currency, to help Syrian children. project than a real blockchain.

But Sloan said it could serve as a “tool to bring different partners and organisations together to collaborate and make the industry much more effective.”