When Super typhoon Yolanda devastated the Visayas region last 2013, donations from International community pour massively. The Foreign Aid Transparency Hub, also known as FAITH, is composed of web pages in the government’s official website. It shows the total foreign aid and assistance pledged and received by the Philippine government from other countries. It also shows the list of countries, government and private individuals or organizations that made a donation or pledge to our government. The problem is it lacks data. It doesn’t show the details on how they are spending or distributing the money and goods they received from the International communities.
This problem propelled Gava Technologies Inc. to develop a technology product that would solve issue on corruption and would champion transparency in the government even Freedom of Information Bill isn’t passed yet in the legislative.
Founded by Ann Cuisia- Lindayag, GavaChain aims to deliver a blockchain solution for global giving that aims to combat corruption, misuse, and abuse of foreign aid to the country or location under state of calamity. This foreign aid donation system on blockchain technology will have fully transparent transaction using TCM – triple confirmation method where the public can monitor funds real time, from donor to beneficiary up to its actual use. It has also a provision of scores on how a foundation or organizations have spent their funds on supposed programs.
Lindayag, who is also the founder of Gava Gives, Southeast Asia’s leading crowdfunding platform, says that this initiative is a very timely since Philippines being a typhoon prone country receives a big amount of foreign aids during calamities. “Human greed and the lack of better system cause for foreign aids to not reach their proper recipients. We don’t know how these donations are being spent and sometimes it becomes the root of corruption. So GavaChain is here to promote transparency and accountability.”
GavaChain is among the 20 finalists in Startups to the Resque, a competition organized by QBO Innovation Hub (QBO), the Philippines’ first public-private initiative for startups by Ideaspace, J.P Morgan, the Department of Science and Technology, and the Department of Trade and Industry to showcase emerging startups in ASEAN leveraging on their existing technologies and business models to solve the region’s most urgent problems.