How do we efficiently scale aid delivery without losing touch with the realities of local NGOs and the communities they serve?
This was a key question at the 2025 Humanitarian Aid Payments Council, and this year, participants learned about tangible progress and a new tool to solve the paradox. Key leaders in blockchain, humanitarian organizations, and finance met in Berlin for the second meeting of the Council, founded by Algorand in 2024.
Members include diverse stakeholders in the aid value chain, such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Circle (stablecoin issuer), Worldpay (payment service provider) and MercyCorps Ventures. The Council was pleased to welcome new participants, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mastercard, Paycode (biometric identity for payments), Coala Pay, Meld (fintech service platform provider), and Rahat (blockchain-based aid platform).
From pilot to scale
Members discussed moving beyond pilot programs to scale the impact of humanitarian aid on blockchain. They emphasized the need for education so that all stakeholders can understand the technology and how it applies to their specific area of responsibility.
Matt Keller, Director of Impact at the Algorand Foundation, highlighted efforts to scale what’s already working. Algorand powers blockchain-powered aid delivery in the real world with multiple UN agency partners working across Afghanistan, Syria, and beyond. Results include over 100,000 households served and over $20M in funds distributed.
Afghanistan’s HesabPay, a digital payment and mobile wallet platform, is a key initiative. Efforts are also underway to extend blockchain-enabled aid payments to new regions, including Syria.
The Aid Trust Portal (ATP): Tracking aid payments on-chain
Tools to increase transparency and efficiency are crucial in sensitive regions. It is often difficult to distribute aid to the most vulnerable people in these areas. In response to the challenge, the Algorand Foundation was pleased to present the Aid Trust Portal (ATP) to Council members. This online portal, built on the Algorand blockchain, allows users to track and visualize humanitarian aid payments.
The portal brings transparency to aid payments in a completely new way. The ATP analyzes and visualizes the flow of disbursed funds, showing the relationship between different wallets and creating transparency for donors, aid organizations, government agencies, compliance teams, and regulators.
HesabPay in Afghanistan already uses the Aid Trust Portal to track aid payments made by several clients, including multiple UN agencies.
Council members' enthusiasm about the ATP announcement sparked a broader discussion about its potential to rebuild trust by bringing transparency to aid payments. This is the first time the aid sector—local and international—has had free access to advanced blockchain analytics tools to revolutionize trust in humanitarian aid payments.
The future of humanitarian aid payments
The ATP is one example of how blockchain helps solve the challenge of delivering humanitarian aid directly to people’s mobile devices, even in areas without banks, while keeping a clear, unchangeable record of the payment’s journey. With the ATP, aid payments programs can scale and serve many more people, without losing touch with local needs or getting bogged down by slow paperwork and possible corruption.
Council member Sandra Uwantege from MercyCorps Ventures said, “The role of local NGOs and organizations -that some of the tech players here can support - could change the face of humanitarian aid to be more local, yet running on stablecoin rails and using the most advanced technology available to deliver aid. That’s what excites me”.
For more information, please visit the Humanitarian Aid Payments Council website page.