The United Nations World Food Programme (UN WFP) will use blockchain technology as part of its “Zero Hunger initiative” to address food security and hunger in Tunisia. The UN WFP is one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations with the aim of eradicating hunger globally.
In collaboration with Devery, an Ethereum technology start-up and the Tunisian Ministry of Education to UN WFP will use an open source protocol verification system designed on the ethereum blockchain to track food aid being delivered to 1,500 primary school students in Tunisia.
Speaking about the effort to use Ethereum-based Blockchain technology, the WFP’s director of innovation and change management Robert Opp said that “When I think blockchain, this is not just San Francisco and New York,” he further explained that. “If this can reach the poorest people in the world, the most vulnerable people in the world, I really think it could be a transformation story.” This emerging technology has been used in in assisting 10,000 Syrian refugees currently living in Jordan as well as in Pakistan.
Fighting Hunger with Blockchain Technology
Adapting this new technology would enable UN WFP manage its food supply chain operations more efficiently from warehouse to warehouse. In a post on the UN WFP, the organization laid out a framework titled: “What is ‘Blockchain’ and how is it connected to Fighting Hunger?” It describes how humanitarian organizations can develop better partnerships with underdeveloped countries when using blockchain technology. Currently, the Zero Hunger Initiative accommodates one thousand five hundred school children but UN WFP hopes to increase that number to 400,000 before 2020.
United Nations and other global agencies look to Blockchain Technology
This is not the first time the UN WFP has used Ethereum blockchain technology; the food aid organization has previously experimented with the technology to simplifying payment and prevent misappropriation of funds in meant for Syrian refugees. With this experience, the organization is hoping to support the Tunisian Government’s existing efforts in food aid.
The rise in the use of blockchain technology in managing complex administrative duties has caught the attention of numerous organisations. Due to its features—transparency and immutability—blockchain is being used in supply chains and distribution management. The United Nations has made great strides in blockchain adoption since its Humanitarian Blockchain Summit back in November 2017.
