UNCDF Partners with Truepic to Support Transparency, Integrity in Development Projects
The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is partnering with Truepic to use a new photo verification technology to support its development projects in some of the world’s poorest and most remote regions.
“Truepic offers a unique product that can verify the authenticity of images, which can act as a public good and have important development value for a range of applications,” said UNCDF Executive Secretary Judith Karl.
“UNCDF uses multiples sources of evidence, including photos, to monitor, track, and document our development work in the world’s poorest countries. We are excited to partner with Truepic to test its technology to support the transparency and accountability of our work in infrastructure development and financial inclusion.”
Truepic, a California-based start-up, has created a phone application that uses the blockchain to act as a digital notary for images. Truepic ensures the integrity of photos via a proprietary technology, available through a free phone app, that meets a legal standard for evidence.
“Digital image authentication can offer a critical cost savings, efficiency, and trust tool for a variety of industries, including international development. We are honored to partner with UNCDF and support its efforts to provide transformative instruments and financing to small businesses and communities in the world’s poorest countries,” said Craig Stack, Founder and COO, Truepic.
UNCDF is committed to making information about its programmes and operations available to the public to meet the highest international standards of transparency and accountability. By verifying images around the world in real time, UNCDF hopes to streamline and lower the monitoring, verification, and auditing costs of its projects.
UNCDF makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 47 least developed countries. With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. UNCDF’s financing models work through two channels: financial inclusion that expands the opportunities for individuals, households, and small businesses to participate in the local economy, providing them with the tools they need to climb out of poverty and manage their financial lives; and by showing how localized investments — through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance — can drive public and private funding that underpins local economic expansion and sustainable development. By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to SDG 1 on eradicating poverty and SDG 17 on the means of implementation. By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a number of different SDGs.