CHAPTER 1
What 2021
meant for the
people we serve
Nigeria: Salamatu, 25, at home with her daughters. © WFP/Arete/Damilola Onafuwa
We’ve gone from having a lot of aspirations and bright ideas, to offering open solutions that concretely support WFP’s programmatic needs.
Communication
flows in both
directions
In emergency responses, WFP is making it easier for the people we serve to express their needs to humanitarians and get the assistance they are entitled to.
A machine learning enriched chatbot developed by the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) evolved from a growing demand for health and safety information, and as of 2021, is being field tested in Libya and Iraq where it will offer around-the-clock service to beneficiaries in Arabic and English. Communities in Iraq began interacting with English and Arabic versions of the ETC Chatbot in 2021.
“Humanitarians are increasingly adopting digital transformation tools to modernize communication with affected communities, get feedback and promote accountability. This is critical to ensure better programme adjustments (specifically) aligned with the population’s needs.”
Fathi Enneji,
Common Feedback Mechanism project manager WFP Libya
A woman named Audrey calls her uncle from an ETC phone booth in the internally displaced persons camp in Bria, Central African Republic. ©WFP / Elizabeth Millership
The ETC opened telephone hotlines for communities in Iraq, Libya, Ecuador, and the Central African Republic to broker two-way communication between people affected by crises and the humanitarian agencies that serve them. People’s concerns are channelled through the Common Feedback Mechanism and to the appropriate humanitarian agency, allowing for faster and more efficient responses.
When the Emergency Telecommunications Sector (ETS) hotline (called Tawasul, meaning “communicate” in Arabic) opened in Libya in 2020, it was available in just three languages: Arabic, English, and French. Service is now offered in Hausa Tigrinya, Amharaic, Somali, and Oromo.
“When we develop a product, which is constantly interacting with people, there is a real need to localise it to ensure that people can resonate with it,”
ARIUNTUYA TSEND-AYUSH,
Inter-Agency Common Feedback Mechanism lead for WFP Libya
The Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) is a global network of organizations, under the global leadership of WFP, that works together to provide shared communications services in humanitarian emergencies.
Making lives
easier with seamless
access to entitlements
Building Blocks is the world’s largest humanitarian implementation of blockchain technology.
Operational since 2017, the blockchain platform is currently serving 1 million Syrian and Rohingya refugees.
In 2021, it processed USD $325 million worth of transfers through 15 million transactions and saved USD $2.5 million in bank fees.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought major challenges to the humanitarian context and highlights the importance of technology to assist those furthest behind. The digital nature of Building Blocks has helped deliver uninterrupted beneficiary access to food assistance in emergencies and ongoing operations.
In 2021 Building scaled-up in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh to serve WFP's entire caseload of Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMN). Through Building Blocks, WFP provides people digital assistance that is redeemable in camp supermarkets.
Because of humanitarian blockchain technology, people were able to collect food rations and feed their families after losing documentation in Kutupalong Balukali Rohingya Refugee Camp. © WFP/Sayed Asif Mahmud
Instead of requiring people to visit multiple outlets in the camps to collect various types of assistance using different modalities, Building Blocks has brought things together. Now, people can seamlessly redeem their aid for various products – provided by different agencies or programs – in a single transaction. This minimizes the complexity of accessing entitlements and strengthens COVID-19 safety and prevention by reducing the time people spend in shops.
Building Blocks also aided recovery in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in March 2021, when a massive fire displaced 45,000 people in the world’s largest refugee camp. Even though many people lost their identity papers in the fire, with Building Blocks, humanitarian organizations coordinated effectively, rapidly restoring assistance to those affected by the fire.
“With Building Blocks, the humanitarian and development communities can more closely mirror the autonomy people exercise when they do not depend on assistance, so the system supports increased dignity and choice for beneficiaries.”
Houman Haddad,
WFP Head of Emerging Technologies
WFP served more people than ever before in 2021 with its flagship beneficiary information and transfer management platform, SCOPE, delivering over USD $1.7 billion worth of transfers in cash, vouchers and in-kind food across 52 countries.
Zambia: Naomi visits a mobile money kiosk to withdraw her WFP cash assistance. © WFP/Andy Higgins
In addition, using the agile development method, TEC rolled out over 22 solution updates to the SCOPE platform and related products in 2021 and moved SCOPE services to the cloud.
Social safety
in Iraq
Working closely with Iraq’s Ministry of Trade in its effort to digitize Iraq’s Public Distribution System, WFP developed a smartphone app called Tawmini, which allows people to update their family’s information.
Using SCOPE—WFP’s beneficiary information and transfer management platform – the Ministry has enabled cash distributions for 20,000 households. Planning is in place to scale this up to 200,000 households and to continue working with the General Secretary of the Iraqi Counsels of Minsters and the Ministers of Interior.
“We count on digitizing our ration card, this would reduce the wastage of people assisted, and connect the Ministry with the citizen electronically, contributing to create social value for them without the need to visit the relevant department.”
Alaa Ahmed al-Jubouri,
Iraq Minister of Trade
The technology
of nutrition
Technology can play a critical role in helping people improve their nutrition. Developed through WFP’s Innovation Accelerator in 2018, the Conditional On-Demand Assistance (CODA) solution is cloud-based and allows staff to tailor nutrition services to the unique needs of individuals - in near real-time and even in the deep field.
Kassiabdullatif Tuahir, CODA Focal Point in South Sudan, makes a presentation at a health facility in 2021. © WFP / Eulalia Berlanga
In 2021, TEC worked with WFP’s Nutrition Division to scale up the platform, registering over 100,000 people – over half of whom are women and children – across 237 health facilities in five countries (Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, South Sudan and Tajikistan), allowing WFP to reach more individuals than in all previous years combined.
At the same time, WFP continued its scale-up of School Connect - a digital application that helps schools monitor food stocks and student attendance on a phone or tablet. The tool also mitigates supply problems by automatically calculating stock availability and food distribution quantities, and helps staff identify issues that could impact childrens’ attendance in class. The application won a WFP Innovation Challenge Award in 2019 and is used in over 500 schools in Burundi in eastern Africa. Pilot projects are underway in Niger and South Sudan.
“I upload the number of children attending school and the app helps me to calculate how much food to prepare for them”
SANDRINE KEZA,
Canteen manager at Budahunga primary school in Burundi
Democratic Republic of the Congo: children eat their lunch which was made using resources provided by WFP. © WFP/Sadeq Naseri
Providing secure,
nutritious meals
for children
School meal programs are critical for millions of children, providing a safety net for food-insecure households and giving children proper nutrients so they are able to learn. This year, WFP continued its scale-up of School Connect - a digital app that helps schools monitor food stocks and student attendance on a phone or tablet. The app also mitigates supply problems by automatically calculating stock availability and food distribution quantities, and helps staff identify issues that could impact childrens’ attendance in class.
Children eat lunch at Cumva primary school which is supported by WFP’s school feeding programme in Burundi.
Photo: WFP/Hugh Rutherford
School meal programs are critical for millions of children, providing a safety net for The application, which won a 2019 WFP Innovation Challenge Award, is now being used in over 500 schools in Burundi in eastern Africa and pilot projects are underway in Niger and South Sudan.
“I upload the number of children attending school and the app helps me to calculate how much food to prepare for them”
SANDRINE KEZA,
Canteen manager at Budahunga primary school in Burundi
“Digitizing school feeding related data ensures maximum efficiency in WFP’s home-grown school feeding programme”
Séverine Giroud,
WFP’s Head of Programme in Burundi
More notable moments
Empowering local teams is critical to emergency preparedness and response. Technology solutions like drones - and the communities of practice facilitated by platforms like drones.wfp.org - make that possible. Mozambique national emergency responders, trained with drones by WFP in 2017, put their skills to use in the aftermath of tropical storm Eloise in January 2021. Taking aerial photos with drones, government authorities and responders assessed installations for more than 5,000 people who were expected to arrive at a displacement camp in Guara-Guara after losing their homes.
Antonio Beleza, National Institute for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction (INGD) (left) and Domingos Reane, World Food Programme, conduct a drone assessment in the wake of tropical storm Eloise.
© Mercy Air/Matthias Reuter.
In collaboration with its partners, the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster launched its ETC2025 strategy to steer the Cluster through the next four years. Emergency preparedness and response localization and empowering communities are essential aspects of the strategy.
In 2021, the ETC responded to 8 emergencies and conducted preparedness activities in 4 countries and 1 region
CHAPTER 2
What 2021
meant for the
WFP workforce
A WFP staff member carries Aisha in Kano, Nigeria. © WFP/Arete/Adetona Omokanye
In the field, TEC co-created solutions with Country Offices, applying technologies to solve problems in context. We were there, at the right time, ready to empower operations and put the field first with updated tools and connectivity.
TEC kept day-to-day operations at WFP cybersecure, streamlined and simplified so that field personnel could focus more of their time on the people we serve.
Making the
connections
that matter
By December 2021, 94% (292 out of 310) of WFP locations have migrated or upgraded to the Marlink satellite network. This translates to more flexible connectivity options enabling WFP to quickly adapt bandwidth in case of an increase in staff, or during emergencies and political instability. Field staff enjoy smoother use of corporate digital tools for calls, meetings and messaging apps and stable access to cloud-based documents and platforms.
94%
WFP locations have migrated
or upgraded to the Marlink satellite network
Ms Consolata Muriuki, Logistics Cluster Consultant in Juba, South Sudan. © WFP/Giulio d'Adamo
SO, HOW DO YOU CONNECT ALL THESE LOCATIONS?
If you’re WFP, you send hardware and personnel to upgrade satellite connectivity, guaranteeing independent bandwidth, then roll out a more versatile cloud-based approach which comes in handy with people using more online tools to do their jobs. And finally, every remote office network is standardized, making them more stable and secure and easier to support. The impact in the field is huge: Bandwidth can adjust dynamically to changes, connections are more reliable and easier to manage while providing better security. Boosting connectivity may sound like a simple task when you’re enjoying strong WI-FI or fibre optic service. And even though 60% of the world’s population have access to the Internet, WFP operates in many of the places where the other 40% live.
“Thanks to the new connectivity I’m able to talk with my wife and kids in Rome in a more reliable way, without so many interruptions. Sometimes they put me on the table to ‘have dinner’ with them, or I can actually help with my kids’ homework for school. It helps me feel them closer, and more ‘connected’ in times where travelling back can’t be taken for granted and stay within the day to day life of my family.”
DAVID THOMAS,
Head of Innovation in the South Sudan country office
The precious
gift of time
The powerful solution DOTS gives WFP a single, clear, and consistent picture of what is happening across operations.
A man carries WFP food assistance out of a distribution site in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
WFP keeps track of how many tons of food it has in transit using DOTS. © WFP/Alessio Romenzi
In 2021, DOTS and Tableau (data visualization software) have both had a 50% and 45% increase respectively in average weekly users. In 2021, 909 transporter evaluations were completed using DOTS - saving people time while enabling decision-making with data. WFP’s abilities won it the Franz Edelman Award for excellence in advanced analytics, operations research, and management science in early 2021, putting it among the ranks of IBM, Intel and UPS.
Thinking field-first, we have taken stock of all the routine, laborious, repetitive and manual processes over the past two years. These processes are now digital, freeing up our most valuable asset: human capital. Automation has saved WFP staff an average of 10 minutes of personnel administration time per request, translating to a cumulative saving of 20,833 days since the start of 2019.
Another way of supporting the field stems from the Federated Software Development Network (FSDN) which helps country offices create technology solutions tailored to their specific needs and goals. This means stepping away from independently developed, costly and time-consuming solutions that are neither interoperable nor cybersecure. In the past year, FSDN supported about 50 country offices with advice on locally developed applications, identified gaps and overlapping functions, and reviewed 74 applications distributed over the six regional bureaux.
Keeping WFP
cybersecure wherever
our colleagues are
Photo: Mohamed Ibrahim Maiga, Food Air Monitor at WFP Kayes Sub Office.
© WFP/Benoit Lognone
WFP has people working all around the globe in almost every context and situation. Be it in an office or in the deep field, with a laptop or a smartphone, cybersecurity requires a strong effort and shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Something as simple as clicking on a phishing link can jeopardize entire WFP operations and put the people we serve at risk. Therefore, TEC needs to be ever-present, improving protective and detective controls to swiftly address security risks in corporate devices and digital assets globally, contributing to greater stability and safer systems.
We have standardised and formalised processes that advise staff globally in line with existing policies, frameworks and best practices.
TEC is also reimagining WFP’s enterprise architecture by moving systems to the cloud, thereby reducing the need to use the Virtual Private Network (VPN). And no matter where they are working, staff can access a full WFP desktop operating environment while enjoying the security and convenience of single sign-on.
More notable moments
Piloting Wi-Fi in the sky: For humanitarians responding to an emergency, connectivity helps underpin coordination efforts. For someone who’s lost it all, staying in touch with family brings hope, and knowing what local support is available is often a first step towards recovery. The Rapid Response Connectivity Carrier (R2C2) is a tethered drone solution flying 24 hours a day covering a three square kilometre area and providing potentially thousands of affected people and emergency responders with Internet access. R2C2 could also be powered by solar energy, making it eco-friendly as well as a flexible and efficient solution.
The idea won the attention of the 2021 WFP Innovation Accelerator Bootcamp and secured initial funding. A first field test happened in France in October, followed by a second test at WFP headquarters in December.
The WIFI signal from the R2C2 drone can cover a 3 sq km area.
© WFP/Peyvand Khorsandi
The obligation to protect: The growing reliance on digital tools brings its own challenges, not the least of which is protecting the large volume of sensitive data they generate. WFP has been strengthening its data protection capabilities through policies, tools and training, continuing a journey toward a more consolidated and centralized approach to data that benefits WFP, its beneficiaries and the wider humanitarian community.
Sira Diarra attends a beneficiary cash transfer registration. © WFP/Benoit Lognone
TEC works with divisions across WFP to make sure the organization adheres to the highest standards of ethics and accountability in all technology and data-related matters. This involves rigorous work in policymaking, risk assessment, consultative processes, and more.
26 governance documents produced and supported by TEC in 2021
- 3 guidelines
- 6 information notes
- 2 memoranda
- 1 oversight tool
- 5 circulars, directives and others
- 9 documents guided by non-TEC including Executive Director circulars and the WFP strategic plan
The aftermath of Typhoon Rai, 16 December 2021. © Ryan Matias
On the MOVE for emergency telecommunications: Typhoons and flooding regularly sweep through the Philippines archipelago, while earthquakes and landslides threaten widespread destruction of lives and infrastructure.
With disaster risk reduction in mind, the Philippine Government’s Department of Information and Communications Technology started working with WFP’s Fast IT and Telecommunications Emergency and Support Team (FITTEST) in 2018 to design and deliver a fleet of 12 Mobile Operations Vehicle for Emergency (MOVE) vehicles.
It was accurate foresight: hours before Typhoon Rai – known locally as “Odette” – made landfall on Siargao Island on 16 December 2021, WFP was ready to reconnect communications connectivity with MOVE vehicles in affected areas. Typhoon Rai killed over 400 people, affected the lives and livelihoods of 1.8 million and displaced 600,000.
FITTEST personnel work on a MOVE vehicle in the Philippines, 2019. © WFP
Each MOVE vehicle has three components: a truck with a central operation room and long-distance connectivity hub; a dispatch four-wheel drive land cruiser: and a motorbike that can be used for reconnaissance missions. All three components offer methods of providing communications connectivity, an indispensable factor for responders on the ground.
The Telecommunications Security Standards project became a full service in January 2021, called {TESS+}, which operates on the belief that clear procedures and standards can stop the humanitarian sector from repeating security communications mistakes and duplicating efforts. In addition to being the definitive source on inter-agency compliance with UN security communications standards, {TESS+} saves WFP USD $1.76M per year on investment. The priceless bottom line, though, are the humanitarian lives protected in operations all over the world by smart security protocols and standardized equipment.
A WFP security staff speaks on his radio, Burkina Faso. © WFP/Esther Ouoba
2021 TEC TALENT and Development in numbers
Bringing the "human" side to processes
36
vacancy announcements advertised
Attracting and acquiring the right talent at the right time
100%
OF 2021
vacancies hired
or in progress
Nurturing a culture of feedback and performance
15
COLLEAGUES
successfully integrated
via Supervisory skills programme.
100%
mandatory training compliance.
Being trusted advisors to the field
NEW ROLES
created in Regional Bureaux as a part of the reassignment process.
15
FIELD TOM
assessments completed.
Reassuring and supporting colleagues in testing times
4
Diversity and Inclusion sessions
2
Staffing Framework sessions
Enabling the evolving TEC landscape
TEC Learning Channel on WeLearn
Phase I launched in August 2021
541 LEARNERS
4,5/5
training satisfaction rating
Pilot of Phase II complete,
official launch in January 2022
45
COLLEAGUES
trained as
Certified SCRUM Product Owners.
54
COLLEAGUES
trained
Certified ITIL4 Practitioners.
26
UX Academy learners
with about
60 certificates awarded.
38
COLLEAGUES
enrolled in TEC Service Desk Customer Service Coaching Programme.
52
COLLEAGUES
successfully integrated via Onboarding programme.
The organizations
that make our work possible
With partners and donors, TEC has brokered enduring relationships based on trust, mutual benefit, and a belief that technology can tangibly change the lives of those furthest behind.
US $54.85 million
worth of partnerships support from governments and the private sector since 2018
US $21.85 MILLION
secured in 2021 – an increase of 19% from 2020
Notable support from governments including:
- Brazil
- Ireland
- Japan
- Luxembourg
- Republic of Korea
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- United States
Notable support from the private sector, including:
- Amazon Web Services
- Cisco
- NEC
- Nielsen
- Palantir technologies
- Tableau
CHAPTER 3
TEC through
the lens of
WFP values
Entisar, 11, receives her daily school meal with her classmates in a WFP supported Al-Shawkani school in Aden. © WFP/Hebatallah Munassar
WFP’s five core values help shape the organization, and these are the principles that guide our approach as the technological and digital engine of the world’s largest humanitarian organization fighting hunger.
TEC management reflect on how their teams
work in the spirit of WFP values:
