# Deliver refugee cash assistance without bank fees

> The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) uses its Building Blocks platform to deliver cash assistance to Syrian refugees in the Jordanian camps of Azraq and Zaatari through its own distributed ledger. Entitlements are held on the blockchain and recipients are identified at the point of sale by iris scan against the existing UNHCR registration. According to the UN Innovation Network, more than USD 23.5 million has been disbursed in around 1.1 million transactions, cutting transaction fees from roughly USD 300,000 to about USD 3,000.

**Sector:** Tertiary sector · **Industry:** Non-profit organisations · **Organisation:** United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) · **Maturity level:** Production

Canonical URL: https://www.sapientblock.com/en/use-cases/united-nations-world-food-programme-hilfszahlungen-gefluechtete-bankgebuehren

## Documentation status

- **Project status:** Production
- **Evidence:** Evidence medium
- **Editorial review:** pending

## Description

The United Nations World Food Programme operates its own distributed ledger with Building Blocks, through which refugees in Jordanian camps receive their cash assistance. Until then, these transfers were made via local banks, which incurred fees, took several days, and required the sharing of personal and biometric data with third parties. Through the shared ledger, several UN organisations can use the same payment view without any single organisation controlling the data of the others.

Building Blocks started in early 2017 as a pilot with around 10,500 Syrian refugees in the Jordanian Azraq camp and was subsequently expanded to the Zaatari camp and other deployment countries. Technically, it is a privately operated, access-restricted ledger based on Ethereum, which only manages the entitlement and payment logic. The WFP thus avoids involving commercial banks as payment intermediaries and instead settles collectively with traders in the camps. At purchase, the identity of recipients is verified by iris scan against the already existing biometric UNHCR registration, so no additional ID or bank card is needed. According to the UN Innovation Network, all approximately 106,000 Syrian refugees in Azraq and Zaatari were served via the system, more than 23.5 million US dollars were processed in about 1.1 million transactions, and transaction fees were reduced from around 300,000 to about 3,000 US dollars. The real progress lies in multiple UN organisations working on the same data basis without giving up their independence or data sovereignty over their beneficiaries.

## Benefits

- A robust reference model for mass payments to recipients without bank accounts.
- Significantly lower proportion of administrative costs relative to the amount paid out.
- Immediate availability of aid at the point of purchase without a bank card or additional ID.
- No sharing of personal data with commercial banks.
- According to the UN Innovation Network, transaction fees fell from around 300,000 to about 3,000 US dollars.
- Several UN organisations work on the same payment view without any one of them gaining data sovereignty over the others.
- Personal and biometric data of beneficiaries no longer need to be shared with local banks.
- Payments are available immediately at the point of purchase instead of after several days of processing time.
- Elimination of ongoing coordination with banking partners over individual transfers.
- A shared, auditable data basis for reports to donor organisations.

## Challenges

- Building a dedicated ledger and acceptance point network is only economically viable with very high transaction volumes.
- The use of biometric identification for particularly vulnerable persons raises data protection issues that must be secured organisationally and legally.
- The model requires an already existing, reliable registration of beneficiaries and cannot be transferred without this foundation.
- Governance between multiple UN organisations regarding write permissions and data visibility must remain continuously coordinated.
- Staff need knowledge of the network’s governance rules and the data protection requirements of biometric verification.

## Technology foundation

Building Blocks is a privately operated, access-restricted Ethereum-based ledger that exclusively manages the entitlement and payment logic of the involved UN organisations. A distributed ledger is suitable for this purpose because multiple aid organisations require the same payment view without any one of them gaining data sovereignty over the others.

## Sources

- [Building Blocks](https://www.wfp.org/building-blocks)
- [Blockchain Against Hunger: Harnessing Technology In Support Of Syrian Refugees](https://innovation.wfp.org/blog/blockchain-against-hunger-harnessing-technology-support-syrian-refugees)
- [How the Building Blocks blockchain network is transforming humanitarian aid](https://www.uninnovation.network/blog/how-the-building-blocks-blockchain-network-is-transforming-humanitarian-aid)