The end of the World Food Programme as we know it?

In times of disaster, wars, earthquakes, floods and droughts, theWorld Food Programme aims to be there – saving lives and improving livelihoods by providing food to those most vulnerable at times most critical. It has done so, worldwide, since 1963. Today, according to the most recent tagline, ‘WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. In 2010, WFP aims to feed more than 90 million people in 73 countries.' 'On any given day', FAOSTAT (2008) claims, WFP has an average 5,000 trucks, 70 aircraft and 30 ships delivering food across the globe.' If anything, logistics and transport are indeed inherent to WFP’s work and key to its success.

So is the World Food Programme as many of us know it.

In the wake of rising food prices and the global financial crisis, however, an increasing number of development countries are experiencing a nutritional paradox. Hunger no longer needs to be the result of a lack of food in a country – the difficulties stem from peoples’ inability to access the food. This is especially true for the increasing number of urban poor in the world. It is in a few of such countries that WFP is making an effort in fighting hunger. Zambia, in many ways, is such a country. And it is here at WFP Zambia that I believe to have come across at least a partial solution to hunger in countries like it.

At the end of 2009, I organized the official launch of a system that may well revolutionize the way WFP – and others – fight hunger. This Mobile Delivery and Tracking system (MDT) uses mobile phones and software, involves and stimulates the local market in the process of food distribution and increases the beneficiary’s self-sufficiency. Instead of transporting and storing thousands of tons of food and paying the costs involved, this program allows local retailers to sell their own products – in the form of a specified ration – to beneficiaries.

Allow me to introduce Mr. Banda, one of our beneficiaries based in Kafue, for the purpose of illustrating how the system operates. Mr. Banda will be initially registered together with his National Registration Code (NRC), which is unique to every individual. Substituting paper vouchers, which are in use around the world, beneficiaries are now given scratch cards, the size of a credit card, that are linked to their NRC upon distribution. This unique combination prevents fraud and abuse, as one needs both to redeem the food.

Whereas many beneficiaries like Mr. Banda can easily collect their food from a nearby distribution point, others may have a harder time in doing so. It is for those that suffer from an interchange of weak physique (e.g. as a result of malnutrition of sickness) and distance (when a distribution point is located far away) that this system is a major convenience – yet with a greater degree of freedom and self-sufficiency for all.

 

Because many areas in Zambia already have a market on which food is available, the MDT system is able to involve local retailers. Mr. Banda can now go to any shop that is hooked up to the system: wherever and whenever he likes. Upon arrival and after friendly exchanges, he reads out his NRC and the first of two numbers on his scratch card to the shop owner. The latter then enters both in his mobile phone and sends them to a database. In case of a match, a confirmation message is sent and Mr. Banda is given his food for a month. When he approves of quantity and quality, the second number is read out. In reaction to this approval, a sum of money equivalent to the specified ration is immediately wired to the retailer’s bank account.

It’s a win-win situation: Mr. Banda has the freedom to go shopping for food at his own leisure and pay with his own ‘money’, while the shop owner has a business through selling his products. Accordingly, the local market is stimulated, communities are strengthened and a self-perpetuating cycle of supply and demand is created.

Moreover, all transactions are registered in an online database. This allows program officers in Lusaka to keep a check on Mr. Banda and the location and time of his transactions. Should he fail to show up to collect his monthly scratch card or ration of food for an unusual long time, implementing partners could pay him a visit to inquire about his wellbeing.

The Mobile Delivery and Tracking system is the first of its kind. Similar systems have been advanced, such as an SMS-based version in Syria, but none are as expansive as the MDT system, nor do they allow for such accurate tracking. It is currently being implemented in the Zambian towns of Kafue and Livingstone, with plans of further expansion. Recently, the EU delegation in Zambia donated over 4.6 million Euros in support of the system. Meanwhile, other WFP offices around the world – including headquarters in Rome – are keeping a watchful eye.

In countries hit by disasters, those where people have no access to food simply because there isn’t any – Haiti being the most recent point in case, WFP still needs to be there providing food and logistical support. Unfortunately these are still many. But those countries that have a functioning local market, available food and a mobile phone network have the potential to implement this system. This is true for an increasing number of countries in Africa and elsewhere. And it is in countries like this, indeed like Zambia, that WFP’s traditional focus on transport and logistics may well gradually fade as one box of scratch cards virtually contains a few truckloads worth of food. Should funds and political will continue and gain momentum, and I certainly hope so, this may well be the end of the World Food Programme as we know it.