Phones But No Food

We’ve blogged before about the growing role of mobile phones in economic development; now the phones will be used to deliver food aid as well. The World Food Program (WFP) recently announced that it will begin texting food vouchers to 1,000 Iraqi refugee families in Syria. The vouchers can be exchanged for rice, wheat flour, lentils, chickpeas, oil, canned fish, cheese, and eggs at certain stores. Emilia Casella, the WFP spokesperson, told reporters that all of the 130,000 Iraqi refugees in Syria receiving food aid already have mobile phones: “We’re currently providing news about distributions on mobile phone messages to the 130,000 caseload right now.” (HT: F.P. Passport)[%comments]