Email 
Print 
Food agency cuts paperwork in the bush
Written by: Liesbeth Renders
WFP staff conducting a survey using a PDA. Photo by George Mu'ammar/WFP
A small palm-held computer is transforming life in a displacement camp in Goma town, northeast Congo. The crucial task of finding out what people need in this fast-changing environment - where surges in the local fighting can displace thousands at a time - is being computerised for the first time. The World Food Programme is trialling so-called personal digital assistants (PDA's), to replace the laborious process of collecting the data needed to plan and predict how much food is required in the camp. Traditionally the process involves field teams collecting information on paper using questionnaires, which are then sent to a WFP office where the data is verified and entered manually into a database. But with these PDAs, teams can complete the questionnaires in the field. The computers are also GPS enabled, so all the information collected is geographically located or 'tagged'. This means the information can be mapped and combined with other sources such as meteorological data to provide a more complete view of the situation. In Goma displacement camp, the benefits have been huge. Data that would have taken weeks to collect and process can now be put together in a fraction of the time. So far, more than 40 surveys have been completed in ten countries in 3 languages using the PDAs. WFP provides food aid to about 100 million people in some 80 countries, so it faces a huge challenge of assessing appropriate responses for the most vulnerable people in any given situation. This new initiative will not only help with day-to-day planning in places like Goma, it will also help the WFP prepare for potential spikes in malnutrition worldwide. And the new technology may help WFP cut costs - all the more important in the current climate of budget cuts.
Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.
We welcome argument but AlertNet will not publish comments that are racist, abusive or libellous.
Leave a Reply
When you submit a comment to us we request your name, e-mail address and optionally a link to a website. Please note where you submit a website address, we may link to it via your name. By sending us a comment, you accept that we have the right to show the comment and your name to users. Although we require your email address, this will not be published on the site, and is only required to enable us to check facts with you, e.g. if you are making a claim we can not confirm easily. Additionally, if you would like your comment removed at anytime, you'll have to use this e-mail address when you contact us. To remove a comment at any time please e-mail us at blogs-(at)-reuters-(dot)-com (address obscured to avoid spam) specifying who you are and what you would like removed. We moderate all comments and will publish everything that advances the post directly or with relevant tangential information. We reserve the right to edit comments in order to maintain the quality of the comments, and may not include links to irrelevant material. We try not to publish comments that we think are offensive or appear to pass you off as another person, and we will be conservative if comments may be considered libelous. Reuters will use your data in accordance with Reuters privacy policy. Reuters Group is primarily responsible for managing your data. As Reuters is a global company your data will be transferred and available internationally, including in countries which do not have privacy laws but Reuters seeks to comply with its privacy policy.
Unlike some other content on this website, the written content in this article may be republished or redistributed by any means free of charge. Any use of photographs and graphics on this website is expressly prohibited. You must check whether written content contained in other articles on this website may be republished or redistributed without the express permission of Reuters or the relevant third party provider.
