Candace Kelly, Chief Legal and Policy Officer at Stellar Development Foundation, discusses how blockchain technology enables faster, cheaper cross-border payments for humanitarian aid and frontline workers. The Stellar Disbursement Platform has helped UNHCR distribute $5 million to 2,500 Ukrainian families and supports GIZ in paying conflict zone workers, while addressing regulatory challenges and scalability barriers.
In this live podcast from the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, Candace Kelly explains how Stellar's blockchain technology addresses real-world development challenges. She distinguishes blockchain from cryptocurrency speculation, highlighting partnerships with UNHCR, GIZ, and Mercy Corps that use the Stellar Disbursement Platform for direct payments. UNHCR has distributed $5 million to 2,500 Ukrainian families via stable dollar-backed tokens and digital wallets, while GIZ uses similar systems to pay frontline workers in conflict zones within seconds at minimal cost. Kelly discusses barriers to scaling including regulatory uncertainty around stablecoins and the need for cross-border coordination. She emphasizes that blockchain solutions can be implemented incrementally without overhauling existing systems, and highlights future potential including programmable payments for anticipatory crisis funding and building credit histories for unbanked populations. The conversation underscores how abstracting away blockchain complexity while focusing on human-centered design enables broader adoption in development finance.
