Circle Foundation has announced two grants to help the United Nations Development Programme and World Food Programme test digital payments for development work and humanitarian aid.
Summary
- UNDP will create a Digital Asset Innovation Pool to help country offices use lessons from earlier payment pilots.
- WFP will test two to three country payment corridors over the next three years.
- The WFP grant will fund risk controls, payment records, compliance tools and links to local financial providers.
- Circle Foundation’s funding comes from an equity commitment by U.S.-listed Circle Internet Group.
Circle Foundation said in its Sep. 25 announcement that the separate grants will help UNDP and WFP examine whether digital payments, including regulated payment stablecoins, can get funds to recipients faster and at lower cost.
UNDP will focus on making payment methods tested in individual projects available to more country offices. WFP will build the controls needed to test stablecoin payments alongside local financial services.
The grants fund different stages of that work. UNDP has already tested digital payment methods in several countries and will use its grant to support their use in regular programs. WFP’s grant, made to World Food Program USA, will pay for systems and partnerships needed before it tests payments across two to three country corridors.
How Circle Foundation will support UNDP payments
UNDP will establish and operate a Digital Asset Innovation Pool under the grant. Circle Foundation said the pool will help country offices use regulated payment stablecoins where they suit a development program, with guidance on local rules, day-to-day operations and safeguards for people receiving funds.
The pool will also give UNDP tools to measure how long payments take, what they cost and how many people they reach. UNDP said the mechanism will provide another option when ordinary payment systems create high costs, delays or barriers to access. It will continue using established banking channels.
Earlier pilots give UNDP a starting point. In Aleppo, Syria, the agency tested digital payments for a cash-for-work project. In Haiti, it tested disbursements designed for limited connectivity. A Guatemala project linked remittances to community investment, while work in The Gambia connected mobile wallets to existing cash-agent networks.
In July, crypto.news covered UNDP’s expanded Stellar partnership after 16 months of blockchain payment tests. UNDP reported that the Syria pilot reduced distribution costs from 10% to 2%. It also said a Haiti pilot kept processing payments during a cellular network outage. Those results came from earlier projects; the new pool will help country offices decide how to apply lessons from them.
Robert Pasicko, team lead at UNDP’s Alternative Finance Lab, said the pool will support payments that are “faster, more affordable and easier to access,” particularly for people underserved by conventional banking. The lab led the agency’s Sustainable Development Goals Blockchain Accelerator, through which the earlier payment solutions were tested.
What WFP will test over three years
WFP’s grant will support the payment infrastructure behind its proposed trials. According to Circle Foundation, WFP and its Innovation Accelerator will develop governance and risk rules, treasury and reconciliation systems, and compliance tools that can work across multiple country operations.
Reconciliation matters when an aid organization needs to match money sent through a payment system with its own records and the amounts received locally. WFP will also connect the planned payment systems with local fintech firms and mobile-money providers, so a digital transfer can reach people through services available in their markets.
Over the next three years, WFP plans to test two to three country corridors linking its payment system with local financial providers and markets. Circle Foundation said the tests will produce evidence on payment efficiency, transparency and resilience. The grant will also support independent research into costs, speed and whether stablecoin payments can work in humanitarian operations.
Bernhard Kowatsch, director of WFP Global Accelerator and Ventures, said the funding will let WFP explore regulated stablecoin payments in “real-world contexts.” WFP will use the trials to develop the evidence, partnerships and systems needed to assess their use.
How the grants fit Circle’s UN payment work
The two grants follow Circle Foundation’s first international award, announced in January for the Digital Hub of Treasury Solutions. UNHCR launched that shared UN platform in 2021 to modernize financial operations. Circle said 15 organizations participate, including UNDP and WFP.
Circle’s January funding supported work on cross-border transfers, conversion into local currencies and links between financial systems. As previously reported by crypto.news, the foundation announced its first U.S. grants on Sep. 22, awarding funds to Accion Opportunity Fund and Pacific Community Ventures for lending and data tools serving small businesses.
The U.S. connection also runs through Circle Internet Group, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under CRCL and supports the foundation through a commitment of about 1% of its equity. Circle’s filings, cited in the earlier report, show that its board reserved up to 2,682,392 Class A shares for foundation contributions over ten years. Circle Foundation operates as a donor-advised fund managed by Fidelity Charitable.
That equity commitment describes how Circle funds the foundation. The Sep. 25 announcement identifies World Food Program USA as the recipient of the WFP-related grant and says its funding will support WFP and the WFP Innovation Accelerator’s payment work.
