What If Aid Could Move More Efficiently and Safely to the People Who Need It Most?
By Cristina Segarra and Suzana Moreno
In Peru, a small but important experiment set out to answer a simple question: can technology make humanitarian assistance more efficient, transparent and reliable for the families who depend on it?
In late 2024, AIDONIC partnered with the World Food Programme (WFP) to test a new digital traceability tool in a real operational setting. This was not a full rollout. It was a proof of concept designed to assess whether blockchain-based records could strengthen how humanitarian assistance is documented, verified and protected.
A secure approach to data and delivery
The pilot created secure digital records for both donations and cash-based assistance distributions. When assistance was delivered, time, location and transaction data were captured and anchored to decentralized storage. Most importantly, personal information remained off-chain and protected, ensuring privacy and dignity were not compromised.
For the people WFP serves, this underpins the safe and reliable delivery of assistance.
Reducing friction at the last mile
In humanitarian settings, small inefficiencies can mean delays. Weak data systems can create confusion. Limited transparency can erode trust. By testing a system that securely verifies when and where assistance is delivered, this initiative aimed to reduce friction, strengthen data accuracy and reinforce trust and protect sensitive information at the last mile.
Assessing what works
For WFP, the exercise was about assessing feasibility. Could this technology integrate with existing workflows? Could it safeguard privacy while increasing confidence in reporting? The Peru pilot demonstrated that this is technically feasible in a real-world operational context.
For the wider humanitarian sector, the lesson is not that blockchain is a silver bullet. It is that carefully tested innovation can strengthen accountability while keeping people at the centre.
This was not a promise of transformation overnight. But it showed that with the right safeguards, digital tools can help humanitarian assistance move with greater clarity, security and confidence, ultimately supporting more accountable, reliable assistance for the communities WFP serves.
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Testimonial from the Peru Country Office: “In January 2025, working with WFP Accelerator, we developed and tested a proof of concept with AIDONIC to streamline CBT delivery processes and costs achieving efficiency gains of 48 percent and cost gains over 25 percent. The gains were both facing beneficiaries and in the backend. The tests included biometric deduplication using pictures instead of fingerprints and a blockchain certificate for tracking humanitarian aid.”
