DARTs

In 2023, WFP distributed a historic US$2.9 billion in cash assistance across 76 countries. However, challenges persist in ensuring all recipients receive funds. Such obstacles include limited digital infrastructure, low data literacy, and the diversity of systems and data used by partners. In many programs, when a person does not receive their assistance, they contact field staff who then manually search through Excel files or even paper records to identify the issue, often leading to delays and increasing the risk of the person losing their assistance.

DARTs (Data Assurance and Reconciliation Tool Simplified) is a web application that standardizes and automates complex data analysis and transformations, making it easy to verify that a person received the right assistance. Darts enables WFP to implement controls on large cash transfer data by easily analysing transactions, which is vital to guarantee WFP’s accountability to its donors, increase programme efficiency and build trust across WFP operations.

So far, DARTs has reached more than 1.1 million people, increased operational efficiency sevenfold and assured over US$1 million. It also has scaled to ten countries — The Gambia, Guinea, Iran, Senegal, Benin, Honduras, Côte d’Ivoire, and Sierra Leone — in less than two years, and will be used in 20 countries by the end of 2024.

The solution is in the process of being developed into a global corporate tool, intending to be implemented in approximately 50% of our global CBT operations, spanning around 40 countries.