In a world-first the World Food Program has launched a food voucher project controlled by mobile phones. 1,000 Iraqi families living as refugees in Syria will benefit from the program which intends to help provide them with a regular, reliable food source.
Dubbed the ‘virtual voucher project’, the system will work with SIM cards in phones acting in a credit card-esque manner, allowing families to buy food with them. Those subject to the program will receive texts containing codes worth the equivalent of $22 worth of vouchers every 2 months. They can then go to certain government shops and use the codes to buy food items.
WFP spokesperson Emilia Cassela said "The advantage of this very much - and we have done this in other locations with paper food vouchers - is that it permits, as I say, people to buy food also when they need it as opposed to having to queue in long lines and go to distribution centers. They can go to the shops when they actually need the food and collect it at that time. And, it also is better for the economies of the communities in which we are able to use food vouchers because, in essence, we are not giving food away, but we are actually providing additional markets to the local shopkeepers".
The WFP have already provided the 130,000 Iraqi refugees in Syria with mobile phones and sends them news about upcoming projects or distributions through text messages. Cassela explained that “this is not a SIM card that they are to use to make phone calls… What this is, is a SIM card specifically with credit for buying food, not for making phone calls".
The virtual voucher project is expected to initially run for four months but may be extended if it proves to be successful.