Connecting internal talent with live blockchain and AI workstreams
June 26, 2026 | NEW TECHNOLOGIES, PORTFOLIO DEVELOPMENT
UNDP teams are increasingly being asked to make sense of fast-changing digital systems before the institutional playbook is fully written. As part of this shift, blockchain is entering more practical development conversations, and UNDP’s ability to engage well depends on colleagues who can look beyond the technology and assess the operational and public-interest conditions around it.
The Virtual Development Assignment Programme (VDAP) offers a structured approach to build this kind of judgement as a UNDP people-development modality. Hosted by the Talent Development Unit under the Office of Human Resources and accessed through Fuel50, VDAP allows colleagues to take on assignments outside their usual office or bureau and contribute to live areas of work to build skills through applied exposure rather than detached training.
For blockchain, UNDP AltFinLab has been using this modality to bring colleagues closer to active workstreams while drawing on their regional and operational experience. A digital payment system needs liquidity, compliance, reporting and user trust; a credentialing tool needs legal recognition and data protection; a traceability system needs reliable actors across the chain. And through VDAP, AltFinLab brings colleagues into this practical layer, where technical promise is tested against operational reality.
VDAPs have grown alongside AltFinLab’s portfolio as it moved from building internal learning through the Blockchain Academy, to strengthening exchange through the UN Blockchain Community of Practice, to developing a pipeline of use cases through the SDG Blockchain Accelerator, and now to supporting implementation and scale-up. Participants have entered this pathway through practical assignments that help translate the portfolio into usable knowledge and more grounded programme design with stronger country-office links.
The same direction is reflected in New Tech, New Partners, which shows how UNDP’s blockchain practice is moving closer to public systems where payments, records, finance, trust and evidence need to work across many actors.
This is why VDAP is becoming an important channel for strengthening blockchain capacity within UNDP. Participants contribute directly to live work while developing a sharper understanding of how blockchain can be assessed in relation to operations, partnerships, safeguards and country-level delivery. In return, UNDP gains colleagues who can bring knowledge of local systems, institutional constraints and programme realities into portfolio discussions.
For upcoming cohorts, the strongest argument may be the kind of work alumni were able to enter, and the value of this model is visible through the people who have passed through it. Some worked on learning systems; others moved closer to digital payments and pilots, AI, operations, credentials or regional digital work.
Earlier VDAP participants helped shape parts of the foundation that AltFinLab’s blockchain work still draws on. Dzenan Buzadzic, Digital Governance and AI Specialist, brought a digital perspective into early mapping and knowledge work, helping review the Tadamon Web3.0 platform and Blockchain Academy content, and developing an opportunity analysis for blockchain-based certification. Jenny Ensi, then Head of Experimentation at UNDP Accelerator Labs, connected her experience in innovation, acceleration and STEM education to early thinking on blockchain education for girls and women in the RBEC region, while also supporting engagement with learning platforms.
McDonald Nyoni, AI Policy Analyst, brought a strategic and implementation-focused perspective to the VDAP work, helping shape tokenization use cases, explore partnerships, and connect alternative finance with emerging opportunities in artificial intelligence. From UNCDF Tanzania, Country Coordinator Tian Zhang, added a UNCDF perspective to the Academy’s content review and beta testing, which shows us how blockchain learning benefits when it draws on experience beyond one office or function.
These contributions show how VDAP can turn internal expertise into institutional assets that others can build on.
The value also appears in what participants were able to carry into later work. For Ana M. Grijalva, then Innovation and Digital Lead with UNDP Ecuador, VDAP created a route into AltFinLab’s blockchain portfolio that later developed into direct coordination of digital payments work. As Coordinator of Blockchain Digital Payments and Digital Institutional Strengthening, Ana coordinated a global team across three regions to support five blockchain-based digital payment pilots.
Her work also included developing an engagement strategy with eight government counterparts, helping position blockchain-based payment approaches around financial inclusion and security in government-to-person transfers. Her story shows how VDAP can move colleagues closer to live portfolio work, where country-office experience, cross-regional coordination and government engagement become part of implementation.
“One of the aspects I appreciated most about the VDAP was how the Innovation Team truly made us feel like part of their team. They fostered a collaborative environment by maintaining a well-structured working routine, actively engaging with us, and transparently sharing ongoing initiatives.”
Ana M. Grijalva
Another form of value came through colleagues who connected the assignment to wider digital strategy. Enrique Crespo, Regional Digital Specialist for Latin America and the Caribbean, saw value in connecting blockchain with broader digital transformation and regional digital strategies. For him, working in an environment of AI and blockchain learning opened space to think about how these technologies could inform regional strategies and practical applications.
DAP also helped bring blockchain closer to the systems and operations that make development work possible. Muhammad Hanana, Head of Experimentation in UNDP Syria, brought country-office experience into digital payments work, where the real questions are not limited to the payment rail itself, but include liquidity, regulation, cash-out options, reporting and user trust. Additionally, Sanja Crvenica, a Legal Specialist working with financial institutions at UNDP Montenegro on the development of an EU-ready financial sector, has been involved in knowledge infrastructure work, including repository development, mapping and blockchain reporting, helping turn scattered experience into something the wider system can use.
Marina Storgaard, Human Resources Associate, brought an operational lens to the VDAP experience. Her reflections connected blockchain learning to internal systems, including smart contracts, HR processes, credential verification and tokenization as possible ways to improve transparency and efficiency inside institutional workflows.
“Participating in this VDAP project has significantly enhanced both my technical and interpersonal skills. I developed stronger project management skills, particularly in collaborating across diverse teams and regions, navigating complex decision-making processes, and ensuring smooth communication.”
Marina Storgaard
What links them all is the ability to bring their own professional setting into the assignment, and then carry new questions, contacts and practical judgement back into their work.
For Country Offices, this kind of internal capacity changes the starting point of a blockchain conversation. Instead of receiving a proposal and reacting to the technology, colleagues who have worked through VDAP can help ask the earlier questions: what problem is being solved, who needs to be involved, what risks need to be managed, and whether blockchain is actually the right tool.
This is the network effect UNDP AltFinLab is trying to build. VDAP alumni can become connectors inside their offices and teams, linking programme needs with the right expertise and keeping blockchain discussions close to delivery. They can also help maintain relationships between Country Offices and the wider UNDP innovation ecosystem, so emerging ideas are assessed with institutional memory, technical support and a clearer view of public value.
The fifth cohort arrives at a time when UNDP is engaging more systematically with the blockchain ecosystem, as evidenced by the recent establishment of the Blockchain Advisory Group in Paris, which is exploring the potential of this technology to support public-purpose digital transformation and financial inclusion.
In light of this, Cohort 5 will adopt a more intentional approach, seeking out colleagues already close to the right ecosystems, countries, functions and thematic areas, and who can help unlock meaningful opportunities for UNDP’s innovation pipeline.
Participants do not need to arrive as emerging tech experts. What matters is curiosity, judgement, initiative and a close understanding of how development work is designed and delivered. The strongest candidates will be those who can bring practical experience into live workstreams, engage with specialists and partners, and return to their offices with sharper questions about where blockchain and AI belong in development practice.
Opportunity title
Scaling Blockchain & AI for Development – SDG Accelerator, Digital Payments & Government Engagement
Available roles
6 positions across 4 roles
Eligibility
UNDP, UNCDF and UNV colleagues
Application channel
Fuel50 >>> search for the opportunity title and indicate which role you are applying for
Deadline
24 July 2026
Contact
Teodor Petricevic, teodor.petricevic@undp.org
