WFP Innovation Accelerator Award 2020: The Last Mile Ecosystem
Digital solution improving nutrition and dietary diversity among school children in Tunisia
Piloted in Tunisia, the Last Mile Ecosystem is a state-of-the-art digital solution that connects smallholder farmers with school canteens through a network of private transporters.
The digital solution ensures greater dietary diversity among school-aged children, ensuring access to hot meals made with fresh, quality produce.
Lauded as a ‘disruptive innovation’, the World Food Programme has been awarded US$100,000 to develop it further in its bid to achieve zero hunger by 2030.
The winning project, an innovation of the Nutrition team at WFP’s Cairo bureau, will provide real-time, transparent, accountable and sustainable markets to smallholder farmers, additional income to local transporters and, most importantly, diversified fresh food as part of school feeding programme menus to enhance nutrition and health of schoolchildren.
In June, nine innovations teams came together for a live pitch event, with the support of USAID — a longtime WFP Innovation collaborator and first-time WFP Innovation Accelerator Bootcamp partner. The winners of the 28th Bootcamp were announced last month.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, 260 million children across the world skipped school while 73 million went to school hungry. The pandemic is set to make things worse. Smallholder farmers already face major challenges with mechanization, technological advances, transport and unequal access to markets. COVID-related movement restrictions and their effects on local markets pose an unprecedented threat to their livelihoods.
In line with the WFP’s School Feeding Strategy 2020-2030 (‘Partnering to scale up School Health and Nutrition for Human Capital’), the digital solution will connect smallholder farmers to sustainable markets and school kitchens, using trusted transporters to deliver fresh produce, thereby making school meals more nutritious.
Food will be procured locally from smallholder farmers, supporting local food production and economies, and promoting sustainable local markets for diverse, nutritious foods for school children.
The solution is being tested in Tunisia’s Central Kitchen in Nadhour district of Zaghouan province which provides nutritious lunches to seven schools, serving up to 1,500 boys and girls every day. Typical school lunches include couscous, a traditional dish made of wheat semolina, served with vegetables and fresh salad with garden cucumbers and lettuce.
