UNDP's Approach to Blockchain For Development: Scaling Decentralized Solutions For Public Purpose
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure | SDG 13: Climate Action | SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
NITI Aayog | Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) | Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare | Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is spearheading a global transition toward using blockchain technology as a tool for systemic development. Acting as a “transformation broker,” UNDP facilitates over 50 pilots in 50 countries through its SDG Blockchain Accelerator. These initiatives utilize blockchain’s tamper-resistant, decentralized ledger to rebuild trust in institutions and streamline complex, fragmented processes such as digital identity, climate finance, and supply chain traceability.
Key Implementation Pillars and Global Best Practices:
The global strategy focuses on creating scalable public infrastructure that empowers local communities:
Financial Inclusion: Deploying blockchain systems in countries like Colombia, Haiti, and Nigeria to enhance payment efficiency and support community-led investment.
Digital Identity: Enhancing diploma verification in Ghana and privacy-preserving health services in Kazakhstan through secure digital profiles.
Waste Management: Pilots like the Zugdidi experiment in Georgia use “Eco-Tokens” to reward citizens for e-waste recycling, creating a circular economy model.
Energy and Livelihoods: Crowdfunding models in Jordan and Mauritius link solar energy for schools and tourism-linked livelihoods directly to transparent financial flows.
Education: UNDP is launching a Government Blockchain Academy in 2026 to educate up to 500 million individuals, bridging the knowledge gap between emerging tech and policy-making.
India-Specific Impact and High-Tech Pilots
In India, blockchain is being integrated with AI and IoT to solve localized challenges in the informal economy and environmental compliance:
Carbon Income for Farmers: In Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla district, a program aggregates smallholder rice plots, using blockchain to document climate-smart practices and convert verified emission reductions into tradable carbon credits.
Circular Plastic Recycling: The Streamline dMRV system combines IoT sensors, AI models, and the Cardano blockchain to monitor wastewater from plastic recycling units in real-time, preventing data manipulation and ensuring compliance with Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks.
Empowering “Safai Saathis”: In partnership with Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and Coca-Cola, UNDP is formalizing India’s waste management sector by linking 20,000 waste pickers to digital profiles, ensuring fair compensation and social security.
How does blockchain improve the reliability of carbon credit markets for smallholder farmers? Blockchain provides an immutable, transparent record of climate-smart agricultural practices on a decentralized ledger. By recording every stage of the verification process—from initial soil data captured by sensors to final credit issuance—the technology prevents “double-counting” and fraud. This transparency increases the market value of the credits, ensuring that smallholder farmers receive direct, fair compensation for their verified contributions to carbon sequestration.
Policy Relevance
These initiatives directly support India’s National Strategy on Blockchain and its LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) mission by institutionalizing transparency in grassroots development.
Sustainable Livelihoods: The Mandla model creates a scalable blueprint for monetizing “Green Credits” at the farm level, essential for rural economic resilience.
Regulatory Deterrence: Blockchain-anchored monitoring, like the Streamline platform, provides “regulator-grade” evidence for State Pollution Control Boards, significantly reducing compliance failures in industrial clusters.
Social Protection: Formalizing the informal waste sector through digital identities ensures better targeting of welfare schemes, as seen in the Utthaan program which provides social security to thousands of workers.
Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI): Leveraging blockchain to build open, interoperable systems ensures that India’s digital success in payments (UPI) extends to environmental and social governance.
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