UN Food Program to Expand Blockchain Testing to African Supply Chain

The United Nations World Food Programme is expanding its blockchain testing from refugee aid in the Middle East to supply chain management in Africa.

Following the agency's well-publicized pilot of an ethereum-based system for cash transfers in Jordanian refugee camps - a project known as Building Blocks - it now plans to test blockchain for the tracking of food delivery in East Africa, Robert Opp, the WFP's director of innovation and change, told CoinDesk.

Specifically, the new project will monitor the movement of food from Djibouti's port, where the WFP receives shipments, to Ethiopia, where much of its food operations are located.

Separately, the WFP also plans an initiative to educate Syrian refugee women in Jordan about managing their personal data and controlling third-party access to it on a blockchain system.

"We want to know how easy it is for people to interact with a system like blockchain and understand, 'this is my data, I can control access,'" he said.

The digital literacy efforts will be directed specifically at women who receive benefits this way via the WFP's recently announced partnership with the UN Women cash-for-work program.

Talking on a panel of the Blockchain Central event during the Concordia Summit in New York on Tuesday, Opp also discussed some of the achievements of the Building Blocks project by the WFP in Jordanian refugee camps.

"We are reaching 106,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan every month with cash benefits transfers. By implementing blockchain system we have been able to save around $40,000 a month in the transfer fees," Opp said on the panel.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies.

CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.