How Stablecoins can Accelerate Localisation

Despite the development sector’s efforts to advance localisation, there is a wide disparity between the stringent operational and compliance requirements of INGOs, and the informal, community-based movements that operate in lean, contextually-adapted and often loose structure. This mismatch poses significant hurdles in accessing funds for grassroots movements.

In response to this, Coala Pay partnered with Save the Children and youth-led Shift Power Organization (SPO) in early 2025 to explore payments using stablecoins to fund grassroots initiatives. This pilot leveraged smart contracts and milestone-based funding via USDC, providing a fast, transparent, and compliant alternative to traditional grant models in low-infrastructure environments.

Quick stats

1. 1 youth-led partner onboarded

2. $2,000 disbursed via two milestone-based payments

3. 160 students reached directly, 4,000+ indirectly

4. Settlement within minutes; offramping in increments allowed for 80%+ in local currency

5. Youth group trained in MetaMask and Yellow Card wallet use

Pilot framework

Shift Power Organisation (SPO) are a group of young climate activists from Malawi dedicated to a cleaner Lilongwe. Since 2022, they have used drones for data-driven waste management and pushed for systemic change – eventually securing city-wide partnership from the Mayor and various Ministries.

In line with SHIFT’s graduation approach to youth-led movements as they mature, an initial feasibility study was conducted to transfer small sums as direct funding under SCI’s system. However, the analysis revealed a uniform standard for partnership assessment, vetting tools, procurement and due diligence requirements for disbursements up to $80,000; stringent standards for which child and youth-led groups have neither the capacity, interest, nor the time.

These findings catalysed the pilot between Coala Pay, SHIFT and SPO to explore direct funding mechanisms by leveraging stablecoins, smart contracts and milestone-based payments as follows:

Two milestone-based payments of $1,000 each:

• Milestone 1: Submission of campaign plan & budget

• Milestone 2: Submission of results, photos, & videos

Funding flow

1. Funds sent from SCI HQ to Coala Pay

2. Coala Pay converted to USDC and released to SPO’s MetaMask wallet

3. SPO off-ramped to MWK using Yellow Card, constrained by Tier 1 daily limits

Key outcomes

• Wallet setup: Completed with support; 2 custodians trained

• Disbursement speed: Blockchain payments settled in under 2 minutes

• Exchange protection: 1 USDC ≈ MWK 3,700 preserved against devaluation. Representing an 80%+ increase in currency gained

• Transaction cost: Avg. $0.70 gas fee; 0.5% conversion fee; 500 MWK per offramp

• Final offramp: Took 2–3 days per batch due to Tier 1 cap and weekend delays

• Youth group and SHIFT satisfaction with overall process: 100%

Summary of Activities of Findings

Wallet Opening

Each partner was individually guided through the process of opening a MetaMask digital wallet, with Coala Pay providing hands-on support. This session also included education on wallet management, security, and usage. During the call, Coala Pay and partners identified the team members responsible for managing the digital wallet, ensuring that at least two individuals had access for accountability. This information was documented in the Letter of Authorization, a required component of Coala Pay’s due diligence process.

Following wallet creation, Coala Pay sent a small test payment in USDC stablecoins to each partner, allowing them to familiarise themselves with receiving digital currency payments.

Due Diligence

With wallets established, partners advanced to due diligence to access the marketplace. At the time of Coala Pay’s engagement, the group had already passed through a pre-award assessment and had an established relationship with Save the Children. They had been working with SCI for over three years and were funded by two separate programs—Sponsorship and FUTURE-M. Because of this established partnership, a formal vetting process was not deemed necessary.

The process followed involved filling out a single comprehensive form to provide essential information, including registration documents, and identity verification for leadership staff. ID verification, AML and sanctions checks were conducted on key leadership staff. The entire process took approximately two weeks, with the delay largely due to unclear ID photos of leadership- in other instances, this process has taken only 24 hours.

Partner Proposals

Once SPO were approved on the marketplace, they logged in using their digital wallets to propose a project aligned with their current activities, as discussed with the Save the Children's SHIFT team and the local country office. Proposal were uploaded to Coala Pay marketplace, and converted onto blockchain, which coded key proposal information into smart contracts—digital contracts stored on blockchain that are remotely auditable, transparent, and tamperproof.

For this pilot, the smart contract was programmed to indicate Save the Children was sending the payment for the implementation of the proposed activities in the partner proposal, on a two-milestone basis. Funds were released in increments once Save the Children approved each milestone manually, however this can also be automated.

Additionally, Coala Pay designed unique algorithmic art representing each proposed project, which, once funded, serves as a ‘proof of payment’ token. These proof of payment tokens enable Save the Children to automatically visualise programme spend by type, location, and partner, streamlining reporting.

Payments

For the payment to SPO, the process for on ramping involved advising Save the Children on a suite of feasible options, which involved ultimately a card based payment through traditional banking charge card, which incurred a fee of 1.7% While using a card based payment for onramp is not typical, it was the simplest way to send and convert the needed stablecoins immediately, utilizing the Coala Pay platform, and funding the partners digital wallet the swiftest in USDC.

The one on ramp involved funding the smart contract with the full amount at the beginning of the program and releasing the funds whenever the milestones were met – this was manually confirmed with the Malawi Save the Children team, ensuring they were satisfied with the content SPO provided. Upon authorization of funding the smart contract, this triggered a 5% fee payment to Coala Pay and released the grant to SPOs wallet. Both approval and payment steps generated blockchain gas fees, which vary throughout the day based on network activity. These fees maxed at $.80.

Coala Pay then confirmed the payment for each milestone and supported them in offramping USDT to their bank accounts. Partners used Yellow Card, a global cryptocurrency payments platform covering many countries in Africa, which facilitates low to no fee digital currency conversion to Malawian bank accounts. Coala Pay is now fully integrated with the Yellow Card platform in countries where it operates. Detailed time and cost data related to partner offramps are presented in the table below.

While stablecoin transfers provided speed and transparency, off-ramping in Malawi revealed important limitations. Due to daily withdrawal limits associated with Tier 1 vetting requirements of Yellow Card wallets, payments to local partners often had to be split into multiple smaller transactions, stretching disbursement over several days.

Additionally, the absence of a local crypto onramp meant that Coala Pay facilitated wallet setup and onboarding externally, requiring close coordination and a less seamless process. Settlement delays over weekends further complicated timing—highlighting the need to avoid end-of-week disbursements to ensure timely fund access. These insights will inform future offramping and help optimize scheduling, partner support, and wallet tiering from the outset.

Completed Activities and Impact

In a bold effort to make sustainability a lived reality through SPO activities, children across four Malawian primary schools—Chidzingwe, Mgwerambavi, Mvunguti, and Kakule—stepped into the role of environmental stewards. Through "Children Shift Groups," these young leaders helped co-create waste management manuals tailored to their communities, ensuring learning was both practical and locally rooted.

Together, students and facilitators turned theory into action: producing charcoal briquettes, liquid fertilizer, compost, and even biogas using school and community waste. Their initiatives weren't confined to the classroom and joint market visits paired with structured learning sessions gave children firsthand insight into real-world waste cycles and sustainable alternatives.

At the heart of every activity was the principle of the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. These simple, powerful ideas became rallying cries for change. Whether shaping classroom policy or influencing household habits, the children led by example, proving that environmental action can start small, scale quickly, and inspire an entire community.

This initiative not only equipped students with tangible skills and tools but redefined what environmental education looks like when children are given the space to lead. SPO was able to reach 160 students trained directly; peer-cascaded to 4,000+. SPO and the Save the Children Malawi team provided a qualitative survey on use of the Coala Pay platform and how stable coin transfers demonstrated greater enablement of their programming compared to traditional banking mechanisms. Respondents evaluated overall ease of use, the adaptation to blockchain technology, and specific operational steps such a wallet creation and platform connectivity.

• Ease of Use (Platform): 5/5

• Confidence in Using Stablecoins Again:100% 'Yes'

• What Helped Most: Coala Pay availability during offramping

• What Was Hard: Understanding first steps of wallet linking and daily offramp limits

• Perception of Transparency: Rated 'Excellent'

Conclusion

The Malawi pilot proves that milestone-based blockchain payments via Coala Pay are not only viable but preferable in contexts where youth-led and unregistered groups often face stringent operational and compliance standards, as well as barriers to funding. Coala Pay enabled fast, traceable, and devaluation-resistant grant disbursement to a grassroots group that delivered measurable environmental education. Institutionalizing youth access to crypto-based microgrants through schools and community structures will embed financial inclusion into local systems for the long run and enhance impact. SPO’s success makes a strong case for scaling similar models, with a few considerations for enhancing the support provided and improvements.

Save the Children, through using the Coala Pay platform could streamline due diligence processes for youth groups, which would facilitate this verification. Coala Pay’s streamlined vetting process is designed to quickly and securely onboard local youth groups, even in low-bandwidth or fragile contexts. Coala Pay uses a single digital due diligence form and software that performs real-time and continuous checks against global sanctions lists, AML databases, and KYC requirements, as long as the participants remain in our system and are receiving funds. This reduces the typical vetting time from weeks to just a few days, while ensuring all partners meet regulatory thresholds. This complies with XYZ, and maintains the compliance standards expected by institutional donors.

To support broader adoption and increased learning among the youth groups and demonstrate consistency among Save the Children and Coala Pay partnership, a multimedia onboarding toolkit—including videos, infographics, and translated guides —should be developed alongside Save the Children to simplify wallet setup and platform use, which follows the recommended standard approved by both organizations, and provides onboarding support to the local country offices. Finally, a standardized offramp guide provided by Coala Pay will equip partners and youth groups with practical, country specific instructions for safely and efficiently converting digital currency into local funds.