View the panel discussion from our recent Melbourne event – Blockchain and the future of the for-purpose sector, featuring:
In the lead up to our event on Tuesday July 10th 2018 – Blockchain and the future of the for-purpose sector – we have put together a visual guide of blockchain basics for attendees and those interested in learning more about the basics of blockchain. Follow the image links to find out more!
Blockchain is a technology that facilitates secure online transactions such as exchanging money or updating a digital record without the need of an intermediary body. It is an uneditable and therefore incorruptible digital audit trail. Blockchain is a type of ‘distributed ledger technology’ which is explained in a little more detail below.
Blockchain 101 (Hewlett Packard Enterprise)
Islamic Finance Global (source: IFRC.org)
In the lead up to Blockchain and the future of the for-purpose sector (July 10,Melbourne), Melbourne Development Circle is talking to companies and organisations about what is going on in the blockchain space here in Melbourne.
Amanda Robinson shared an example from International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC).
Case study: Red Cross Blockchain
The value of global Islamic Social Finance is projected to grow from $1.9 trillion currently to $3.5 trillion by 2021. There is increasing awareness that through more effective management and distribution, Islamic Social Finance can play a major role in bridging the gap between available funding and growing humanitarian and development needs. For example, Zakat, an obligation for Muslims to give alms, is already one of the largest existing forms of wealth transfer whereby eligible Muslims are required to donate at least 2.5 per cent of their wealth to improve the welfare of those in need of assistance. But collection of zakat and other types of Islamic Social Finance is largely unregulated and disjointed, which presents a strategic opportunity to engage and direct funding to sustainable and impactful social and humanitarian initiatives.
In early 2018, a blockchain application developed by the International Federation of the Red Cross and AidTech won a global finance competition (FinTech Islamic Finance Challenge). The application promotes traceability and transparency of Islamic Social Finance, and offers individuals and organisations the ability to track their contributions in highly complex humanitarian settings.
Read more about it here: http://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/press-release/ifrc-blockchain-application-wins-global-islamic-finance-competition/.
In the lead up to Blockchain and the future of the for-purpose sector (July 10,Melbourne), Melbourne Development Circle is talking to companies and organisations about what is going on in the blockchain space here in Melbourne.
Lexi Randall-L’Estrange spoke with Peter Baynard-Smith about dutyof.care.
What problem is dutyof.care trying to solve?
Organisations working with vulnerable people are required to undertake verification checks on their staff, volunteers, consultants, and contractors. 1 in 5 workers in Australia are now required to carry some form of accreditation. This applies across multiple sectors: aged care, education, health, disability services, humanitarian aid, sports, and many more. More than 5000 such accreditations have been revoked in the past few years.
In the event of an individual’s accreditation being revoked, the integrity of the verification data relies on regularity of checking. The current systems for organisations to ensure their compliance involves costly manual checking, inadequate frequency of checks, unreliable record keeping, and inability to detect errors/tampering or inconsistencies. Essentially, organisations are simply not checking that cards remain valid.
Public enquiries (eg Royal Commission) and catastrophic disclosures (eg Oxfam) have uncovered systemic failures. Vulnerable people have been the ones to suffer, and organisations have also borne huge cost in reputation, funding, and redress costs.
What’s your solution to the issue?
dutyof.care is a secure online platform for managing and continuously verifying staff certifications for safeguarding and compliance. The solution was designed in response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institution Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia as a secure one-stop-shop, allowing organisations to automatically verify individual staff certification requirements such as working with children checks, medical registrations, teachers’ accreditations and other professional licenses and registrations.
Over 10 organisations are already using the platform in the private beta stage, including companies from across disability services, sports clubs, churches and performing arts. A public beta will be announced shortly.
The potential for this technology in the humanitarian aid and development sector lies in its ability to transform the sector’s verification and safeguarding integrity, dramatically improve cost efficiency, provide CEO’s and boards with peace of mind that they are doing all they can to ensure the safety of vulnerable people, provide real-time response and data feedback, and operate across multiple jurisdictions globally.
How does blockchain technology help solve this problem?
dutyof.care uses blockchain technology to create a continuum of ‘verification events’ by storing encrypted data in a permanent, public and auditable ledger. Smart Contracts ensure the integrity of the data, forever. Alerts are sent out immediately when an issue is encountered and organisations can earn free platform credits (“VDOC Tokens”) for taking an active role in the dutyof.care ecosystem.
How would you summarise what’s unique about dutyof.care for the MDC community?
Read more about dutyof.care on their website.
Sign up for the July event here: http://mdc-blockchain.eventbrite.com.au/.
If you have a case study you want to share, send an email to Lexi.
Free To Shine was established to empower through education to prevent sex trafficking. We keep girls most at risk in school by helping them achieve their five essential human rights. These are; freedom from slavery; access to education; access to safe drinking water; enough food to not be hungry; and adequate shelter. Equipped with their human rights, our girls have the opportunity to become leaders who create communities and ultimately countries free from sex-trafficking.
Sex trafficking is a 32 billion dollar (US$) industry that relies on the degradation and torture of human beings to generate profit. The Asia-Pacific region accounts for 56% of the global total of trafficked persons. This is 3x higher than Africa (3.7 million persons) and 6x higher than Latin America (1.8 million persons).
With Free To Shine’s presence in Cambodia, Children are prevented from entering the sex trafficking industry. They are freed from the intergenerational cycle of poverty, and remain protected in school. With your help, Free To Shine can enrol more girls onto our sponsorship program. From as little as $35 a month you can ensure a girl remains in school, and not in the sex-trafficking industry.
Pollinate Energy has opened applications for the next Young Professionals Program in April 2016. The programs will be held in their second and third cities, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Pollinate Energy is a social business lighting up the lives of families living in India’s city slums by helping them access clean energy technology – like solar lanterns. They recently took out the ‘one to watch’ award at the Australian Social Enterprise Awards as they continue to scale their impact across India.
The Young Professionals Program is a chance for you to be part of that growth. You will spend two weeks in India with this dynamic socially driven startup. Together with your team of international and local professionals, you will use your knowledge to help Pollinate Energy overcome their most pressing business challenges, while learning about the problems faced by local entrepreneurs and families who are living in the slums of India’s major cities. You will also attend training sessions equipping you with the skills you need to visualise career progression and to succeed in senior roles.
Are you the next agent for change? Applications close 31st October, for more information and to apply click here.
“The Pollinate Energy Young Professionals Program is a ‘must do’ for anyone even remotely curious about changing the world for the better. I learnt more about India, poverty, social business and myself during the 2 week program than I have in the last 2 years!”
– Holly Hyder, YPP 2013, Pollinate Energy Ambassador
Dave Husy (left) and Adam Valvasori (right) taking questions from the audience. Photo by Dan A’Vard – Opencage Photography
Tumultuous Times: Aid Cuts & Partnership Impacts
Tuesday May 5th, 6-8pm, Donkey Wheel House Melbourne
Event summary by Kelly Rae
Disproportionate cuts to the Australian aid budget announced last December mean that Australian NGO’s are already starting to axe international programs, with a devastating impact on their partner organisations and communities in which poverty alleviation programs have been operating. With further aid cuts expected to be announced this May, NGO’s are in limbo, many starting to alert partner organisations that programs may have to be scaled down or ceased all together. The impact on partnerships, long term programming, and the people that they work with, will be profound.
Communication for Development approaches in the Australian NGO sector and academia / Knowledge sharing & networking for an improved practice
Wednesday 3rd June 2015, 2PM-6PM, Melbourne
2015 ACFID University Network Conference – side event
This event brings together academic researchers from Australian universities and think tanks with Australian NGO practitioners. The aim is to provide a platform for international development actors involved or interested in communication for development (C4D) work to share experiences, lessons learned and recommendations that can contribute to an improved practice. Connections between practitioners and researchers on C4D-related research projects that strengthen the value of the practice are also facilitated.
An additional aim of this seminar is to offer a space to those who have an interest in this field and are planning to kick-start new C4D activities. It is a forum to brainstorm ideas and to put forward questions related to programme design to an experienced audience.
This event will be a unique opportunity to gather knowledge on the status of C4D work among Australian NGOs and research institutions, and to create a network of organisations where that knowledge is regularly exchanged.
Apply to present
If you would like to present your work at this event, please email your EOI to Dr Valentina Baú at the address v.bau@unsw.edu.au no later than Sunday 17th May 2015. You will be notified of your outcome by Friday 22nd May 2015
RSVP to attend
This event is free for participants, but RSVP is essential
If you would like to attend, please email v.bau@unsw.edu.au by Sunday 17th May 2015
Venue
La Trobe University city campus Teaching Room 2, Level 20, Westpac Building, 360 Collins Street Melbourne VIC 3086
Organisers
Dr Valentina Baú
School of the Arts & Media, University of New South Wales, Sydney Email: v.bau@unsw.edu.au
Tait Brimacombe
Institute for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University, Melbourne Email: T.Brimacombe@latrobe.edu.au
Download full event details in PDF, or online here
Formally recognising development practitioners who are doing development right
WhyDev is proud to support the 1st Annual Primetime Devie Awards created to give recognition to our Australian development peers who are demonstrating leadership, ethical behavior and guidance within the sector.
The Devie Awards are open to all Australian development practitioners, as well as anyone, from any country, working in Australia or for an Australian organisation. Awards are open in five categories, and individuals can nominate themselves or someone else in any, or all, of the categories. The deadline for online nominations is Friday, May 1, 2015.
Online nominations can be submitted via the WhyDev website
Four senior practitioners will review the nominations and choose a winner in each award category. Winners will be announced at the ACFID University Network Conference being held on June 4 and 5, 2015.
“The commitment and efforts of those who work on the ground in development often go unnoticed. Particularly, those who seek positive and innovative change in a sector that is stuck in neutral. At WhyDev, we are very excited to open the Devie Awards to recognise Australians who are committed to getting development right,” says Brendan Rigby, Managing Director and Founder of WhyDev.
The judges are: Emele Duiuturaga, Honorary Executive Director at Pacific Islands Association of Non- Governmental Organisations; Andrew Hewett, Sessional Lecturer at LaTrobe University; Deborah Rhodes, Consultant in International Development Cooperation, and Chris Adams, Independent Consultant, In-Depth Consulting Limited.
The award categories include: I got space; Yeah, Nah; Deviant; Failing Admirably and The build-up. Each category represents a quality valued by the sector and development practitioners.
WhyDev provides collaborative and participatory services for individuals, communities and organisations committed to getting global development right.
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If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Rachel Kurzyp at 0487401898 or email at rachel@whydev.org.
Website: http://www.whydev.org/the-1st-annual-primetime-devie-awards/
The Development Circle is proud to support the Campaign for Australian Aid.
As Australians, through Australian aid, we have played a key part in the international efforts of halving global poverty, helped reduce the number of children dying each year, provided access to vaccinations against the diseases of TB, HIV and malaria and helped millions of girls and boys get an education. It’s not something that you see or hear about very often, but you’ve helped to make the world a fairer place for all, and that’s something you can be very proud of.
That’s why we’re for Australian Aid.
Why now?
Now is a critical time for us to stand up for the life-changing work of Australian Aid, which is helping people living in poor communities to build a fairer future.
There have been unprecedented cuts to Australian aid in the past year and it has lost the bi-partisan support it once held. The Australia Aid campaign aims to build greater understanding and support for Australian aid by showcasing its effectiveness in countries around the world.
Now, more than ever, Australia needs strong support behind the life-changing work of aid.
Add your voice to the movement committed to a brighter future for Australian Aid.
The Campaign for Australian Aid is a joint initiative of the Make Poverty History and Micah Challenge coalitions.
This campaign is for all Australians who believe we can and should do more as a nation to end extreme poverty around the world.
For more information and to join go to http://www.australianaid.org/
The Development Circle 