Innovation Archives - World Food Program USA

ROME: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is working with Uber Technologies Inc, a global mobility and delivery platform, to transport emergency assistance to people in need in urban areas across Ukraine through the use of a custom-built version of Uber’s platform.

With larger vehicles facing issues reaching those in need in built-up areas, collaboration with Uber allows the U.N. World Food Programme to better coordinate, dispatch and track a fleet of smaller vehicles delivering relief items from warehouses to people in need in densely populated areas of Ukraine.

Through this platform, the U.N. World Food Programme can get its food closer to those people needing its support, dispatching deliveries in various sizes of vehicle, tracking each trip to its destination and confirming deliveries have been made safely.

Through this collaboration, the U.N. World Food Programme has already delivered food from its warehouse in Dnipro to other parts of the city, ready for distribution. Further deliveries are also ongoing in other parts of the country, including Lviv, Vinnytsia, Kyiv and Chernivtsi. The progress of deliveries can be tracked in real-time through the platform.

“The U.N. World Food Programme is playing a critical role in providing food and cash assistance to those most affected by the war in Ukraine. This technology helps the U.N. World Food Programme facilitate its response and improves how we serve communities in Ukraine that rely on us,” said Matthew Hollingworth, the U.N. World Food Programme’s emergency coordinator in Ukraine. “It enhances our access to Ukrainian businesses within Uber’s network, making our operations more efficient while also harnessing local capacities.”

“Uber is thrilled to be working with the U.N. World Food Programme to help them more efficiently distribute emergency food relief across Ukraine, by providing free access to a customized version of the Uber platform,” said CEO of Uber Dara Khosrowshahi. “Using our technology, the U.N. World Food Programme can now schedule, dispatch, track and manage deliveries by a network of cars and small vans to final distribution points within a 60 mile radius of U.N. World Food Programme warehouses across the country.”

This work is in addition to a $250,000 donation made by Uber to World Food Program USA to support the emergency response in Ukraine. “We thank Uber for helping us deliver critical humanitarian assistance in Ukraine. Private sector collaborations like this are critical in helping us deploy innovative, custom solutions to address complex challenges,” said President and CEO of World Food Program USA Barron Segar.

The U.N. World Food Programme has rapidly scaled up its operations in and around Ukraine over the past three months. By the end of June, the U.N. World Food Programme will be providing food and cash to more than 3 million people per month in the country.

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About WFP: The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

About Uber: Uber’s mission is to create opportunity through movement. We started in 2010 to solve a simple problem: how do you get access to a ride at the touch of a button? More than 30 billion trips later, we’re building products to get people closer to where they want to be. By changing how people, food, and things move through cities, Uber is a platform that opens up the world to new possibilities.

“The $7 Billion F-Word” examines innovation’s role in saving 45 million people from the brink of famine

Washington, DC (February 22, 2022) – On March 16^th at 10am CT, World Food Program USA will host a live panel session, “The $7 Billion F-Word,” at South by Southwest^® to examine the role of technology and innovation in combating global hunger. Moderated by journalist Femi Oke, the panel will feature Bernhard Kowatsch, Head of the United Nations World Food Programme’s Innovation Accelerator; author of I Am a Girl from Africa, humanitarian and U.N. World Food Programme Special Advisor, Elizabeth Nyamayaro; and Skye Fitzgerald, director of Oscar-nominated documentary, Hunger Ward.

“As hunger crises become more complex, cutting-edge innovation and technology are essential to not only saving lives from hunger, but also building the long-term resilience of those we serve,” said Barron Segar, President and CEO at World Food Program USA. “We are looking forward to bringing this critical issue to the forefront at SXSW, and hope to inspire and engage more Americans to support our efforts to eradicate hunger.”

The global hunger crisis —fueled by conflict, COVID-19, the climate crisis, and rising costs— has created unprecedented need with more than 45 million people on the edge of starvation and more than 280 million people facing severe hunger. While the global needs for humanitarian assistance are higher than ever, funding is chronically insufficient to meet the unprecedented demands. Our panelists will examine this issue and how the U.N. World Food Programme’s innovations in mobile technology, artificial intelligence, and blockchain are transforming how we save lives and fight famine.

Since launching in 2015, the U.N. World Food Programme’s Innovation Accelerator—recent Anthem Award Gold Winner— has supported more than 100 projects across 69 countries, with 16 innovations scaling up to improve life for nearly 9 million people.

For details on the “The $7 Billion F-Word” session, click here; to register for SXSW, visit www.sxsw.com.

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About the United Nations World Food Programme

The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.  We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

About World Food Program USA

World Food Program USA, a 501(c)(3) organization based in Washington, DC, proudly supports the mission of the United Nations World Food Programme by mobilizing American policymakers, businesses and individuals to advance the global movement to end hunger. Our leadership and staff help to bolster an enduring American legacy of feeding families in need around the world. To learn more about World Food Program USA’s mission, please visit  wfpusa.org/mission-history.

Media Contact:

Toula Athas, World Food Program USA, tathas@wfpusa.org

French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur, known as the “father of microbiology,” made a number of surprising and world-changing discoveries throughout his career—namely, the principles behind disease prevention, fermentation and pasteurization.

His research uncovered how microorganisms that cause alcohol and milk to spoil could be eliminated by merely boiling the liquid. This remarkable find helped protect household staples like bread, cheese, yogurt, chocolate, eggs, canned foods and even water, as well as the people who need such foods. Safer food brought better nutrition for millions across the world.

We might think that boiling milk and water only prevents people from getting sick, but it does so much more than that. It prevents long-term and deadly disease, like salmonella and E. coli, and has been directly correlated to reduced child mortality.

In fact, poor sanitation is often one of the leading causes of poor nutrition and stunting among children. That’s why the World Food Programme distributes pre-packaged, sanitary foods such as Plumpy’Doz and High-Energy Biscuits and even provides education on good sanitation practices. Together, pasteurization and sanitation improve the shelf life of nutritious food and help save lives.

Smarter research, better fact-finding and more innovation—especially when it comes to food and agriculture—can have a huge impact on global hunger.

As Pasteur once said, “Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.”

Accra – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has provided the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) with tablets to digitize the monitoring of the school feeding program. The initiative aims to reinforce program efficiency and implementation by enabling real-time tracking of daily attendance and feeding in 260 pilot schools in all 16 regions of the country.

“Real-time data on school attendance and feeding is key to enabling efficient management of the program and its expansion to reach more school children in the country,” said Anna Mukiibi-Bunnya, U.N. World Food Programme Representative ad interim and Officer-in-Charge. “These tablets will enhance the monitoring and reporting capacity of the Ghana School Feeding Programme for better results” she added.

Overall, 300 tablets loaded with Tableau and ONA softwares will provide users with visuals to help them see and understand the data, transforming the way they use it to solve problems and providing real -time information for prompt decision-making. In addition to providing the tablets and purchasing the software and server, the U.N. World Food Programme will train 300 people including Headteachers, Circuit Supervisors, caterers and decision-makers at the Ghana School Feeding Programme and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, to use the tablets for data collection and reporting.

Since the U.N. World Food Programme stopped direct provision of school meals in 2016, it has been providing technical support and helping to improve the overall implementation of the school feeding program which currently reaches over 3.4 million school children in Ghana. The U.N. World Food Programme supports GSFP to train caterers and cooks to be innovative in providing nutritious meals. The food assistance agency is supporting the development of the school feeding bill and the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme Regional Guidelines, in collaboration with NEPAD-African Union Development Agency. Other areas of support are joint-monitoring of the school feeding program and the development of the Cost-Benefit Analysis of School Feeding in Ghana.

Globally, the U.N. World Food Programme has six decades of experience supporting school feeding and health initiatives and working with more than 100 countries to set up sustainable national school feeding programs. Its mission is to ensure that all school aged children have access to school meals and are healthy and ready to learn.

In 2020, the U.N. World Food Programme worked with governments to build capacity, helping to bolster national school feeding programs of 65 countries, benefitting 39 million children. Some 15 million schoolchildren also received nutritious meals and snacks from the U.N. World Food Programme.

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The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.