Cargo on Demand

The Problem & Opportunity

At any given time, the World Food Programme (WFP) has thousands of people on the move; trucks moving tons of food and other essential items; and experts providing high quality services – all in a bid to bring closer a world without hunger.  With more than 50 years’ experience delivering food assistance in some of the planet’s remotest and most insecure regions, WFP is a partner of choice in humanitarian response and also, increasingly, in the effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

We work with governments and NGOs, suppliers and local communities. We engage businesses and smallholder farmers. We invest in local economies, markets and the private sector. By prioritizing local companies and national first responders, for both our emergency assistance and our resilience-building projects, we contribute to more sustainable agricultural systems, more dynamic retail sectors, more robust transport networks. Through our supply chain, we spend more than US$2 billion in the countries where we operate, filling gaps in local supply chains wherever needed.

The Solution

Cargo On Demand (CODe) is a simple and scalable online platform that matches demand for humanitarian and development cargo to local transport companies. This solution will allow to fast track contracting and activation of transport capacities while enabling smaller scale businesses to work with WFP.

CODe will provide WFP with a new way of engaging local transporters that is fast, flexible and leads to cost-efficient but fair agreements between partners. CODe will empower WFP to move its logistics from ‘delivering’ to ‘delivering and enabling’ sustainable local transport ecosystems. A few examples of CODe use:

• WFP helps small and medium transporters grow by allocating a share of business
• WFP engages in targeted capacity strengthening activities with selected transporters
• WFP incentivizes commercial sector to provide transport services in ‘under-served’ areas
• WFP fosters healthy market dynamics by supporting a broader range of smaller carriers