LMMS Profiled By the WEF
The World Economic Forum has recently included a profile of LMMS in action in Haiti. The report references the work we have been doing today in Haiti. While a little short on the extensive design, software development and roll out from the LMMS teams, it is still a good reflection of the work to date in Haiti and the power of partnerships. Take a read:
Case Study: World Vision and Automated Food Distribution
World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization founded in 1950, committed several years ago to improving the efficiency of its food aid provision. In 2006, it began working with a Canadian technology firm, FieldWorker, to reduce cumbersome paperwork processes for logging and processing food distribution. After several months of developing software and vetting systems internally, it launched a one-year pilot programme to test mobile technology involving hand-held scanners and bar-coded identification cards.
This system combined hardware from Intermec, a US-based company specializing in mobile computing systems, and FieldWorker’s software, which World Vision licensed at a reduced rate.
The result was a system that drew on best practices from the private sector and was customized to meet the needs of humanitarian agencies: food aid recipients were issued barcoded identification cards, and aid workers could scan these cards with hand-held, wireless computers.
The device would automatically calculate rations and log food distribution at the particular site. World Vision determined that the pilot study – which covered 20,000 recipients in Kenya and Lesotho in 2009 – was a vast improvement over the time-consuming paperwork: it reduced registration time from approximately three minutes to less than one minute. It also reduced errors in accounting for food distribution and decreased insensitivity towards illiterate beneficiaries.
Based on these promising early results, World Vision leaders wanted to implement the automated solution in Haiti. Intermec donated dozens of devices, and staff members were deployed for implementation. A limited number have been put into use in two resettlement areas. “The initial feedback from the ground is very positive,” says
Otto Farkas, World Vision’s Director of Humanitarian & Emergency Affairs, Resource Development and Collaborative Innovation. “The field workers love the
ease of the technology, and the beneficiaries are also very receptive of the new technology and the biometric ration cards that will allow real-time identification and data use.”
Despite the improved efficiency, deployment of the programme in Haiti was significantly delayed due to backlogs at customs and the inability to clear the equipment at the port. However, World Vision hopes that its experience drawing on the private
sector for best practices in information processing can be used to help other NGOs. According to Farkas, World Vision plans to offer this technology to other humanitarian agencies as a way of standardizing and automating many aid services.
The opportunity to use the technology in Haiti, where it is expected to improve service to over 500,000 beneficiaries, will prove invaluable in refining and demonstrating the benefits of such technology.
“Humanitarian actors shouldn’t wait for the next disaster,” says Craig Tyndall, FieldWorker General Manager. “Disaster is the worst time for innovation because people simply don’t have time.”
Guiding Principle: Foresight in experimenting with technology and testing collaborative development paid off in responding to the crisis in Haiti. While the disaster left little time for radical new ideas, humanitarian agencies and private companies that were nimble and had prior records of adapting to new ideas were able to roll out new solutions that improved efficiency of operations.
The full report can be found at here.