Blockchain is best known as the technology behind the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. At the end of 2017, it started entering the world of humanitarian aid.
At the end of 2017, UNICEF, the UN agency dedicated to protecting children, has brought Russian-speaking blockchain experts in a meeting in Kazakhstan. “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.
Using the technology, UNICEF wants to offer refugees a virtual identity, reassuring donors that their money is well spent, and delivered to people who needed them the most.
Aid charities are experimenting with the technology, hoping that it can improve their work in the future.
The goal of this project, is to develop a "smart contract" that would facilitate transactions between organizations and their numerous partners for deliveries and payments, only if certain conditions were met.
Fabian admitted that adding blockchain for "social good" can affect many things, or even failures. But here, the agency wants innovations. And blockchain is one of them.
The technology allows users to create and spread information across a very large network of computers, in a way that is more secured and transparent. This makes blockchain a popular choice, making it being adopted by other industries beyond finance.
For aid and development groups, blockchain can come in all shapes and sizes.
And in this case, in theory, the technique can reduce transaction costs, fight corruption by making everything transparent, and allow a better record of where food aid is delivered, or make sure that medicines are not counterfeited.
The expansion of blockchain is not without risk. For example, there should be a reliable internet connection, and the concerns about the governance and data protections.
In February 2018, UNICEF's office in France has also launched an operation called Game Chaingers, which asks tech enthusiasts and gamers to install on their computer’s software aimed at creating Ethereum, a virtual currency, to help Syrian children.
