Belgium Makes $2.4 million donation to WFP Blockchain Payments Project
The European Union’s involvement with blockchain technology isn’t recent news, granted the fact that the EU has been actively pursuing and funding a variety of crypto and blockchain-related projects. Now, recent reports indicate that EU-member Belgium has contributed with $2.4 million in order to support the United Nations World Food Programme, known as the WFP.
To put things better into perspective, the WFP has been working on a blockchain-based payment system that would help make sending and receiving payments easier for refugees. The Ethereum-based pilot was started back in 2017, with a few other goals, including increasing the efficiency of cash transfers made to the Syrian and Jordanian refugee camps.
With this in mind, the contribution of Belgium will be used for several purposes, such as: expanding the research effort of the agency’s blockchain department, providing funding for the WFP unmanned aerial vehicle project (which will likely be used to facilitate topographical data gathering, alongside damage analysis when natural disasters strike).
Following the contribution, Belgium’s deputy prime minister, who is also the minister for development cooperation, Alexander De Croo, mentioned that: "Belgium lauds the efforts of the WFP to come up with innovative solutions to save more lives and help more people in need."
The WFP programme has also been praised by the UN food assistance department, which mentioned that the project is now delivering more aid with lower spending.
Additionally, the WFP Chief of Staff also made a press statement, saying that: "Humanitarians must relentlessly look for ways to harness the most promising digital technologies in the service of the world's most vulnerable people. The challenge of reaching Zero Hunger by 2030 is immense. Humanitarians must relentlessly look for ways to harness the most promising digital technologies in the service of the world’s most vulnerable people. We are grateful to committed partners such as Belgium for helping us do just that."
It is important to point out that WFP’s blockchain-based payment system isn’t active as of this moment, due to the fact that development hasn’t been finished. However, it is expected that the system will be implemented in the near future, and thus have an important impact for refugees across the EU.
Based on everything that has been outlined so far, humanitarian aid in this form, alongside state-sponsored contributions to blockchain-based projects, have the potential of quickly accelerating adoption, while also providing a handful of other benefits.