UN Secures Circle Grant to Upgrade Cross-Border Refugee Aid Systems
The Circle Foundation has the United Nations funding to update how it delivers humanitarian aid through digital financial infrastructure, such as regulated stablecoins like USDC.
The World Economic Forum in Davos announced the plan on Wednesday. Its goals are to make cross-border payments easier, cheaper, and more open to refugees and others who have had to leave their homes.
The grant supports the UN’s Digital Hub of Treasury answers (DHoTS), launched by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in 2021 to bring together new banking and risk management technologies across all UN systems. It builds on a partnership between Circle, UNHCR, and DHoTS in 2022 that was the first to use to send money to Ukrainians who had to leave their homes because of the war.
didn’t specify the donation amount, but they said that digital technologies, like stablecoins, can reduce the cost of delivering humanitarian aid by up to 20%. This would make the most of the $38 billion in annual humanitarian contributions that are currently stuck in sluggish, outdated systems.
Using Stablecoins to Make Aid Easier
The main goals of the project are to enable cross-border transfers to occur almost instantly, allow banks and fintech partners to convert local currencies, and provide programmable disbursements. will enable quicker payments and easier tracking, reducing the delays and middlemen that come with traditional correspondent banking.
UNHCR pilots have been underway since 2022 and have shown promising results: Blockchain-based systems provide quicker, more human-centered aid with full transparency, improved accountability, and initial cost reductions of up to 20%.
significant Things Officials Said
Alexander De Croo, the head of the UN Development Programme, talked on how much more efficient things have become: “Stablecoin payments would let the UN ‘make every dollar work harder’ with ‘tight budgets.'”
He went on to say that adopting regulated stablecoins for program payments and can “lower costs, make things clearer, and create more open and trustworthy financial systems that protect people’s data, respect monetary sovereignty, and support long-term resilience.”
Barham Salih, the UNHCR High Commissioner, underlined the human impact: “This is about using technology to protect the dignity and choice of people who have to flee, while getting the most out of every dollar we are given.”
Elizabeth Carpenter, Chief Strategic Engagement Officer at Circle and Founding Chair of the Circle Foundation, said that combining regulated stablecoins with AI-enabled compliance and will accelerate aid, make it more accountable, and save money, thereby building trust in global aid.
Wider Effects on Humanitarian Finance
The project shows how stablecoins are becoming more significant for . Bloomberg Intelligence predicts that stablecoin flows will reach $56.6 trillion by 2030, with an annual growth rate of 81%.
The grant’s goal is to modernize the UN’s financial gateway to better protect recipient data, make aid more accessible to those in need, and support those who are being displaced around the world. This alliance might set a new benchmark for efficient and open humanitarian finance as the UN’s digital infrastructure grows.
