The Fund’s Digital Certificate of Entitlement (DCE) app has won the United Nations Secretary-General Award in the innovation and sustainability category.

“This is wonderful news for the Fund and a recognition of our modernization efforts,” said Rosemarie McClean, Chief Executive of Pension Administration.

The Fund, with the support of the United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC), launched the DCE in February 2021 to modernize the process related to the retirees and beneficiaries’ yearly obligation to send a proof-of-life and residence to the Fund. They now have the option to issue their Certificate of Entitlement in a biometric format, using their phone or tablet, instead of sending the Fund a paper form.

The DCE is a state-of-the-art mobile and web-based authentication solution, which can verify the identity and location of retirees and beneficiaries using new biometric/facial recognition, blockchain, and global positioning technologies.

A pilot project was tested in 2020 with retirees from the World Food Programme and the Food and Agricultural Organization, and the DCE deployment was then fast-tracked in 2021 as a response to the worldwide disruption of postal services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The DCE is environmentally friendly and secure and delivers organizational efficiencies to the Fund.

In 2022, 20 per cent of eligible retirees and beneficiaries have already sought to enroll in the DCE and more than 10,000 retirees and beneficiaries have successfully issued their Certificate of Entitlement via the app.

In March 2022, the DCE project was selected as a finalist of the Secretary-General Award in the category of innovation and sustainability. The project was a collaborative effort between the Fund’s Pension Administration and UNICC.

To learn more about the Digital CE app, please visit the dedicated page.