UNICEF digitises to tackle theft of food aid
The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is leveraging technology to curb the leakage of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) into the illegal market in Somalia.
The agency has put in place an integrated digital stock-management system for tracking nutrition commodities, replacing manual stock registers.
UNICEF has also designed a system to manage its RUTF commodities supply chain, including recording, reporting and resupply processes.
It has also digitised the beneficiary registration process and ration cards, including unique identification numbers for beneficiaries and distribution scheduling.
The new system streamlines stock management and data flow and enables granular data collection including inventory batch numbers and expiry dates, quantity of RUTF to be dispensed for each child and stockouts among others.
Somalia faces numerous crises, including terror attacks by the Islamist al-Shabaab. Millions reply on food aid.
UNICEF reports that every state in Somalia is affected by diversion of RUTF to the illicit market.
“Major discrepancies were observed at warehouse and facility levels,” it noted.