Providing food aid to Iraqi refugees in Syria is about to get a little bit easier, and a little bit more technologically advanced. The UN World Food Programme announced today that they are launching a new initiative that will deliver food vouchers to all 130,000 refugees via text.

The vouchers can be exchanged for food products such as rice, wheat flour, lentils, chickpeas, oil, canned fish, cheese, and eggs at certain stores. The 4-month long test project would provide 1,000 refugee families with $22 (15 euro) vouchers every two months via SMS through a special SIM card.

WFP spokesperson Emilia Casella told reporters that all food aid recipients in the region already have mobile phones: “We’re currently providing news about distributions on mobile phone messages to the 130,000 caseload right now.”

If the mobile distribution of food aid is successful, the organization will consider extending the program into other regions. Casella also pointed out the socio-economic benefits to allowing the refugees to buy food locally as they need it, as opposed to visiting distribution centers or having it delivered.

"It also is better for the economies of the communities in which we're able to use food vouchers because in essence we're not giving food away but we're actually providing an additional market to the local shopkeepers," she said.

We hope the program is successful and that it serves as an effective means to distributing food relief to those in need.

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via Freaknomics Blog