Rahat

Rahat is a collection of open source blockchain-based digital relief distribution management projects for humanitarian agencies to support marginalized communities.

Website: https://www.rahat.io/

Type of Digital Public Good

  • Open content
  • Open data
  • ✅  Open software
  • Open standard
  • Open AI model

1. Is it relevant to one of the Sustainable Development Goals?

  • 1. No Poverty

    Evidence: Rahat has been supporting vulnerable communities affected by natural disasters (Target 1.5) through cash and voucher assistance programs - making the community financially resilient. It ensures people, especially the unbanked have the freedom, dignity and independence to decide on their own recovery.

    Link to Evidence: https://www.unicefinnovationfund.org/broadcast/updates/rahat-tokenized-aid-distribution-platform-support-vulnerable-communities

  • 2. Zero Hunger

    Evidence: Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Rahat has been using its decentralized platform to distribute food supplies to vulnerable communities with small children, single women, elderly citizens in an effective and efficient manner. One of its first projects involved assisting Dhana Yoga Foundation, a US based NGO, to provide food packets to the marginalized community in Chitwan who could only harvest enough for six months. It thus aims to achieve Target 2.1 i.e. to end hunger and provide access to nutritious food all year around. In addition, Rahat has been working with local partners on pilots to support women in maternity by providing nutritious food packages in the remote mountainous regions of Humla and Jumla (on-going) with the overall aim of reducing child mortality and supporting child development (Target 2.2).

    Link to Evidence: https://assets.rumsan.com/rumsan-group/rahat-pilot-8.0-case-study-report.pdf

  • 5. Gender Equality

    Evidence: Local female partners are strongly encouraged to participate and facilitate the pilot projects of Rahat. This increases digital literacy, and female users become well-versed with the system and using mobile phones (Target 5.b).

    Link to Evidence: https://assets.rumsan.com/rumsan-group/rahat-pilot-7.0-case-study-report.pdf

  • 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities

    Evidence: Rahat is a cash and voucher assistance system which utilizes local traders and institutions to distribute cash and in-kind relief packages during disaster recovery. This means that the local businesses can continue to supply available products and earn income simultaneously. This thus reduces economic burden on poor people and creates a multiplier effect on the local economy.

    Link to Evidence: https://assets.rumsan.com/rumsan-group/-rahat-pilot-5.0-case-study-report.pdf

2. Does it use an appropriate open license?

3. Is ownership clearly defined?

Is the ownership of the project and everything that the project produces clearly defined and documented?

Yes

If yes - please link to the relevant copyright, trademarks, or ownership documentation for the project.

https://www.github.com/esatya

4. Does the license of libraries/dependencies undermine the openess of the project?

Does this open project have mandatory dependencies (i.e. libraries, hardware) that create more restrictions than the original license?

Yes

If yes - are the open source components able to demonstrate independence from the closed component(s) and/or are there functional, open alternatives?

Yes

If yes - please describe how the open source components are independent and/or list the open alternatives for the closed component:

Yes, currently we are dependent on the local SMS service provider. The other instances of Rahat need to connect to the local SMS service provider of that region. Rahat is also compatible with Twilio APIs and can be integratable with the Open Source cloud communication platform such as somleng (https://www.somleng.org) for SMS services.

5. Is there documentation?

Does some documentation exist of the source code, use cases, and/or functional requirements. For software projects, this should be present as technical documentation that would allow a technical person unfamiliar with the project to launch and run the software. For datasets and data projects, this should be present as documentation that describes all the fields in the set, and provides context on how the data was collected and how it should be interpreted. For content collections, this should indicate any relevant compatible apps, software, hardware required to access the content and any instructions about how to use it.

Yes

If yes - please link to the relevant documentation:

6. Is non PII data and/or content accessible?

Does this project collect or use non-personally identifiable information (non-PII) data and/or content?

Yes

If yes - is there a mechanism for extracting or importing non-personally identifiable information (non-PII) from the system in a non-proprietary format?

Yes

If yes - describe the mechanism for extracting or importing non-personally identifiable information from the system in a non-proprietary format:

All the non-PII data is accessible through the REST API (https://docs.rahat.io/api/) in JSON format. Each Agency of Rahat has its own REST API and can choose to make it public or not.

7. Does the project adhere to privacy and other applicable international and domestic laws?

Has this project taken steps to ensure adherence with relevant privacy, domestic, and international laws? For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union or the Supplementary Act A/SA.1/01/10 on Personal Data Protection for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) (yes/no)

Yes

If yes, please list some of relevant laws that the project complies with:

  • The Privacy Act, 2075 (2018) of Government of Nepal

If yes, please describe the steps this project has taken to ensure adherence (include links to terms of service, privacy policy, or other relevant documentation):

  • Rahat uses an Ethereum based private network and non convertible tokens in a closed ecosystem because of the Central Bank of Nepal’s crypto ban. For countries using the Rahat projects in other regions are responsible for complying with local legislation.
  • Privacy policy - https://docs.rahat.io/privacy-policy

8. Does the project adhere to standards and best practices?

Does this project support standards? (i.e. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 or other standards such as those listed on W3C)

Yes

Which standards does this project support (please list)

  • Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
  • Open Web Application Security Project
  • REST API

Can you point to evidence of your support? (i.e. please link to your validator, open test suite, etc.)

Was this project built and developed according to or in adherence with any design, technical and/or sector best practices or principles? i.e. the Principles for Digital Development?

Yes

Which principles and best practices does this project support (please list)

  • We have developed transparent open source software in accordance with the Principles for Digital Development with close collaboration with various humanitarian agencies and with local users.
  • The software development process follows agile methodology for quicker and cheaper iterative development along with best practices for open-source development - contribution guidelines, documentation etc.
  • For new version delivery, Rahat follows Continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline so that incremental development is reliable.
  • AirBNB Coding Standards

9. Does the project do no harm by design?

Has this project taken steps to anticipate, prevent and do no harm by design?

On the whole, does this project take steps to ensure that it anticipates, prevents and does no harm by design?

Yes

Is there any additional information you would like to share about the mechanisms, processes or policies that this project uses to avoid doing harm by design?

Rahat software provides documentation and guidelines to mitigate security and privacy risks. We adhere to best practices for privacy and data security in accordance with Nepali laws and regulations for the relief distribution service that we provide. It is the responsibility of each individual organization that implements the software to adhere to best practices, since each instance of the software is locally owned and maintained, and the Rahat will not have access to individual organization databases.

9.a. Data Privacy & Security

Does this project collect or store personally identifiable information (PII) data and/or content?

Yes

If yes - please list the types of data and/or content collected and/or stored by the project:

  • Agency administrator - Name, Email, Phone
  • Beneficiaries - Name, Phone Number, Address,Email Address, Age, Gender Image: Beneficiary’s profile image and Government identification document
  • Vendors - Name, Phone Number, Email, Address Image: Vendor’s profile image and Government identification document
  • Social mobilizers - Name, Phone Number, Email, Address Image: social mobilizer’s profile image and Government identification document

If yes - does this project share this data and/or content with third parties?

No

Please describe the circumstances with which this project shares data and/or content with third parties. Please add links as relevant.

Not Applicable

If yes - does the project ensure the privacy, security and integrity of this data and/or content collection and has it taken steps to prevent adverse impacts resulting from its collection, storage and distribution.

Yes

If yes - please describe the steps, and include a link to the privacy policy and/or terms of service:

PII data are not publicly available and only be accessed by authorized personnel with specific roles. For example, the vendors won’t be able to access the KYC information/documentation. The user access and privilege restricts access to specific kinds of information and features to particular roles. Rahat has privacy policy in place - https://docs.rahat.io/privacy-policy

9.b. Inappropriate & Illegal Content

Does this project collect, store or distribute content?

No

If yes - what kinds of content does this project, collect, store or distribute? (i.e. childrens books)

Not Applicable

If yes - does this project have policies that describe what is considered innappropriate content? (i.e. child sexual abuse materials)

Not Applicable

If yes - please link to the relevant policy/guidelines/documentation.

Not Applicable

If yes - does this project have policies and processes for detecting and moderating innappropriate/illegal content?

Not Applicable

If yes - please describe the policies and processes for detecting, reporting and removing innapropriate/illegal content (Please include the average response time for assessment and/or action. Link to any policies or descriptions of how inappropriate content is handled):

Not Applicable

9.c. Protection from harassment

Does this project facilitate interactions with or between users or contributors?

Yes

If yes - does the project take steps to address the safety and security of underage users?

Yes

If yes - please describe the steps this project takes to address risk or prevent access by underage users:

If yes - does the project help users and contributors protect themselves against grief, abuse, and harassment?

Yes

If yes - please describe the steps taken to help users protect themselves.

Development & deployment countries

List of countries this project was developed in.

  • Nepal

List of countries this project is actively deployed in.

  • Nepal