Building Blocks
Building Blocks is a humanitarian project developed in the World Food Programme (WFP) Innovation Accelerator to improve aid tracking, coordination, and delivery.
Website: https://innovation.wfp.org/project/building-blocks
HQ: Munchen, Germany (UN WFP Innovation Accelerator Headquarters)
Active Markets: Global
Problem Addressed
Humanitarian aid delivery is a complex undertaking that can be slow moving, disjointed, and inefficient. Efforts to disburse aid during, before, or after a crisis face challenges coordinating various organizations and tracking delivery.
Project Description
Building Blocks leverages blockchain distributed ledger technology to facilitate coordination and distribution of assistance to impacted communities. The project does not store sensitive personally identifiable information, such as names, dates of birth, or biometrics, instead using anonymous identifiers, protecting the privacy and security of recipients. Building Blocks operates as its own blockchain network, maintained by member organizations. WFP built an application on top of the Building Blocks network which allows organizations to coordinate, transact, track, and deliver assistance, from cash and food to medicine and sanitation resources.
Progress to date
The project started as a 100 person pilot in Pakistan. Since then, Building Blocks has provided $325 million in direct cash transfers to 1 million refugees in Bangladesh and Jordan. The project’s use of blockchain rails saved WFP the equivalent of $2.4 million in transaction fees, increasing the amount of aid that can be put towards people in need. In Lebanon, Building Blocks helped to coordinate 15 organizations, streamlining the distribution of $56 million in assistance. Their deployment in Ukraine facilitated 18 humanitarian organizations, coordinating $337 million in cash aid to 3 million people. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Building Blocks facilitated a cash-for-work program for 467 Syrian refugee women, which stored entitlements on the UN Women’s blockchain node. The frequency of salary deposits were able to be reduced from monthly to weekly. Women in the program reported significant improvements with the new blockchain system: in one of the sampled refugee camps 89% of women participating indicated the digital wallet as being better for financial management, and a functional improvement from cash.
Business Data
Status: Active
Constituency Served: Disaster victims, refugees, armed conflict impacted communities, NGOs
Networks: Ethereum
Known Investors: Building Blocks was supported through the World Food Programme’s Innovation Accelerator.
Additional References: N/A
Business Model
Building Blocks is open-source software, available to collaborate with organizations across the world. Building Blocks completed its lifecycle in the WFP Accelerator and is now co-owned, -operated, and -governed entirely through non-hierarchical collaboration of member organizations.
Traction
Building Blocks supports over 4 million people every month, actively coordinating aid in four countries.