World Food Programme in digital push Rather than physically importing and then donating food in areas that need it most, the WFP aims to use mobile phones, smart cards, electronic vouchers and text messages to extend and improve its existing programmes that give cash to enable hungry people to buy food. You can know details of how expenditure went far more than you ever can with cash. The WFP faces some of its greatest challenges in areas where food is available but large swathes of the population cannot afford to buy it, as has happened in countries such as Zimbabwe when inflation runs out of control. A third of its existing programmes now therefore distribute money or vouchers for food, with recent examples including Burkina Faso. The WFP will work with banks and mobile phone companies, as well as Mastercard, to build on trials that have already taken place in countries including Zambia using mobile phones. The WFP also hopes that consumers in wealthy countries will be able to engage more directly with the way that brands they already use contribute to the developing world. It envisages Western consumers being shown and subsequently influencing where major brands donate money.