UNICEF Announces Funding Call for Blockchain Startups

UNICEF , the United Nations Children’s Fund, has
announced funding for Blockchain-based
startups through the UNICEF Innovation Fund.
The organization is making available seed
funding, ranging from $50,000 to $90,000, for
startups with the capacity for positive global
impact.
The tender states-
“We are interested in companies that use
distributed ledger tech in new, groundbreaking,
ways that are scalable, and globally applicable.”
According to the tender , the fund is open, but
not limited to, proposals from startups
regarding Smart Contracts , Data Analytics,
Tokens, and Mining with global prosocial
capacities.
Innovation Fund
The UNICEF innovation fund is a newly
developed program created to finance early
stage open-source technology that may benefit
children by identifying promising emerging
technology and creating portfolios around them.
The purpose is to guide these technologies in a
way that benefits children, with an emphasis on
the world’s most vulnerable. The fund employs a
venture capital approach to create strategies and
solutions for “emergency and epidemic response,
transport & delivery, identity, finance, learning,
personal data and related fields.”
A New Frontier in
International Development
This is not the first time that UNICEF Innovation
Fund has dabbled in blockchain technology to
solve some of the most fundamental problems of
its global development goals. Namely, project
accountability and efficiency.
A number of projects have already been funded
through the innovation fund to tackle these
issues.
Accountability: A significant amount of funding
for development projects is withheld due to a
real or perceived lack of accountability. The Ixo
Foundation , with funding from the Innovation
fund, has created a “proof of impact” protocol
using blockchain technology. This protocol
assures project leaders, funders, and other
stakeholders that promised goals and claims of
impact are attained as they are recorded on a
distributed ledger.
Efficiency: UNICEF and Ixo have also partnered
to develop Amply , a blockchain-based system
designed to increase impact and accountability
of public services. This digital identity protocol
privately creates and safely stores a child’s self-
sovereign digital identity, assuring they are
receiving the public benefits they are entitled to
over their lifetime. The system also generates
real-time data that is useful in determining how
and where to deliver public services most
efficiently.
Similarly, UNICEF has recently created a system
for a Smart Contract based on the Ethereum
network. The project is aimed at improving
transparency, efficiency, and accountability in
executing contracts without the need of a
middleman and lowering the “cost of trust.” A
service much needed in developing areas.
Anyone with a relevant start-up registered in one
of UNICEF’S program countries with a
functional, open-source prototype is encouraged
to apply.
The deadline is February 28.