UNDP Expands Stellar Blockchain Payments After 16-Month Pilot Success

Pilot Results Show Cost Savings and Resilience

UNDP conducted pilot programs in Haiti, Syria, Kenya, Guatemala and The Gambia, with additional projects in Colombia and Papua New Guinea. The results validated blockchain's utility in humanitarian contexts. In Syria, a Cash for Work program that recorded payments onchain reduced distribution costs from 10% to 2%. That efficiency gain matters when every dollar of aid must stretch further.

Resilience emerged as a second key benefit. A pilot in Haiti continued processing payments during a cellular network outage, a capability traditional payment rails can't match in fragile or conflict-affected regions. When infrastructure fails, blockchain doesn't.

Expanding Beyond Payments

The next phase will establish the process for country offices to use blockchain payments across a wider range of programs. This signals a shift from experimental pilots to operational deployment. UNDP launched a Blockchain Advisory Group at the Proof of Talk conference in Paris, France, to help guide its use of blockchain technology across development programs.

The Blockchain Advisory Group will explore how blockchain can support digital public infrastructure and improve public systems beyond digital payments. That scope is ambitious. It suggests UNDP sees blockchain not as a payments novelty but as infrastructure for development itself.

"650 million people don't have access to a bank account in Africa. With a smartphone, you have access to stablecoins, so you can save in a currency that is not exposed to fluctuations of inflation and making you poor." — Vera Songwe, former UN under-secretary-general, speaking at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in January