Lessons from Vanuatu— half a year of delivering relief aid on blockchain
The Oxfam-led response program to Covid-19 and TC Harold in Vanuatu has passed a 6-month milestone. We’re looking back at the last half a year to see what was accomplished and what lessons can be learned to scale digital cash assistance.
IMPACT — Reviewing the program outcomes
The successive impacts of COVID-19 and TC Harold have resulted in a significant reduction in income and livelihoods across Vanuatu. In order to address these growing needs, Oxfam is deploying a large-scale cash intervention, adopting a consortium-style approach. The program is covering the most vulnerable households in Sanma, Tafea, and Shefa Province. Local partners have been conducting monthly Post-Distribution Monitoring (PDM) in order to improve the way assistance is designed and delivered. We present and discuss these results below.
The program, and thus the UnBlocked Cash solution, has been successful across the main 3 objectives/outcomes:
45% decrease in food insecurity
18% increase in access to savings
98% feel safe using e-vouchers
What works & why?
Increased capacity
One of the major benefits of digital cash assistance programming, which Oxfam trailblazes with the UnBlocked Cash project, is the increased capacity to deliver assistance to vulnerable populations. Previously, Oxfam has been the only humanitarian organization in Vanuatu with the technical expertise in cash assistance — which is the preferred way of delivering aid globally (and one of Oxfam’s Global Strategy 2030 commitments).
Thanks to the digital payments platform running on blockchain infrastructure, Oxfam has been able to extend its technical cash capacity to a number of partners through a joint cash consortium. Today, 19 different organizations from international and local NGOs to the private sector and local governments can work together and extend cash assistance to more vulnerable people efficiently.
- 19 partners in cash consortium have been able to reach
- +20k people* living across
- 13 islands, 20 council areas of Vanuatu
- representing *13 % of the total population in those targeted areas.
Empowerment and safety
The increased cash assistance capacity translates to a greater number of people being assisted in an empowering and dignified way. The UnBlocked Cash program in Vanuatu follows the unrestricted voucher approach, which enables participants to spend their funds as they see fit within the network of program vendors. Additionally, the program is designed to mitigate the risks of gender-based violence and strengthen women’s economic empowerment.
“It puts the power back in the hands of the individual to respond to their own needs. Greater acceptance of this type of technology could decrease the need for large amounts of cash in rural/remote areas, thereby increasing the safety of vulnerable individuals and decreasing the potential for theft/fraud.”
— Kendra Gates Derousseau, Country Director, World Vision
(one of the response and consortium partners)
The freedom of choice and restored sense of agency among the most vulnerable populations (disabled, elderly, displaced, single mothers, widowers) contributed to a healthier community, as reported by the community leaders in the area councils targeted by the response.
- 3,744 families (households) are assisted through this program with
- 53% female participants and
- 42% of vendors are female (or female-owned businesses)
Financial & digital inclusion
The use of the digitized version of the local currency (in the form of a collateralized blockchain token) enables the UBC response program to be inclusive of informal vendors who are the backbone of many rural communities. In this way, UnBlocked Cash has introduced the concept of digital financial inclusion and access to Vanuatu.
“[What I like the most about the UnBlocked Cash is] providing cash access to the unbanked population.”
— Wilmaraia Vocor, General Manager, Wanfuteng Bank
(one of the response and consortium partners)
In previous cash programs, NGOs like Oxfam were not able to include the informal vendors or even small businesses, because of the operational and financial constraints that would make the payments process too long and not sustainable for small vendors to handle. Now equipped with the blockchain payment system Oxfam can improve the efficiency of these processes and pay all vendors on a weekly basis. The program criteria require vendors to have a bank account in order to facilitate these payments, which is a pull factor for many unbanked to open their accounts and gain access to future financial services.
The added value of the Digital Cash Assistance approach is the increased digital literacy among all stakeholders of the program: participants, vendors, local staff, and volunteers. Across the 6 months of the program deployment, we have observed a 61% increase in the high knowledge of digital literacy among vendors, reaching a 100% self-reported digital literacy.
The program is seen as a technology revolution for rural shopkeepers because it generates a stimulus to a local, community-driven economy — a foundation of resilience and disaster preparedness. 87% of vendors have reported a positive impact on their businesses, with 96% increasing their revenue, 9% able to repay debts.
- 100,000 transactions…
- worth over $2.5M USD (+220M Vatu)…
- was spent at 341 local vendors, ranging from big wholesale stores and supermarkets to market-mamas and boat drivers, to pharmacies and local retail shops.
What can be improved?
We have surveyed our staff and response partners to hear about areas that could be improved. This is what we’ve learned:
- More technology training and engagement opportunities for implementing partners and volunteers throughout the program duration [not just prior to the response implementation]. For many program partners and staff, it would be an opportunity to increase their own digital skills and better support program participants.
- Better quality of hardware/devices. Staff and partners complained about ongoing issues with mobile phone devices as well as faulty cards. The procurement process can be definitely improved and an asset management database established to monitor the issues with equipment.
- Greater capacity building for implementing partners, especially those without prior experience in emergency responses, such as the development-focused local organizations or churches.
- Access to the dashboard and data visualization. Different viewer options for different stakeholders should be available (e.g. more advanced statistics for finance and program leads, easy-to-read and understand charts, and key statistics for partners, local governments, and donors).
- Improving partnership management. What could help is creating a partnership governance group with regular meetings to ensure operational issues are managed together and expectations are clear.
