WFP-X:

WFP’s first ever exploration of moonshot innovation for urban food security in 2030 megacities.

© WFP/k-15 photo

Moonshot thinking is the process of translating huge societal problems into tangible, future-ready solutions that can improve life for the many and the few.

Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, is expected to become one of the world’s largest megacities by 2030. The meteoric growth of Dar Es Salaam is surfacing challenging living conditions due to food insecurity, overabundance and misuse of waste, and increases in pollution.
The WFP Innovation Accelerator and the WFP Tanzania Innovation Hub decided to take these challenges head on and launched WFP-X.

Discover the five-stage WFP-X Moonshot Launchpad Programme designed to support the creation of grassroots innovations built by Tanzanian innovators for Tanzanian citizens by leveraging inspiration from systems thinking, and the amazing work of others working in the food-innovation space.

01

Preparing to Launch

In 2020, WFP-X was launched with the aim of creating 100 moonshot ideas in 100 days.

The first cohort took place in Dar es Salam, Tanzania. Nine local innovators embarked on an intensive nine-month moonshot creation journey. They mapped out the local food system and identified key problem areas, ideated solutions, and developed prototypes.

02

Huge Problems

As part of the WFP-X process, the task was to identify critical food security challenges and explore how Tanzanian innovators can design novel solutions and breakthrough approaches to boost urban food security in Dar Es Salaam.

Through extensive research and multiple stakeholder interviews, the WFP-X teams identified the following 7 challenges or “Huge Problems”.

  1. What you reap is not what you sow. Food yields need to grow over the next decade to keep up with population growth.

  2. Gone too soon: post harvest losses. To create a food secure future, the amount of food lost post-harvest must be reduced.

  3. Long journey to a short shelf-life. Food is transported over long distances in hot climates, leading to lots of waste.

  4. Diets that fail to nourish the body or planet. Meats and grains need to be replaced with healthy alternatives to save people and the planet.

  5. The high cost of eating right. The average Tanzanian can’t afford the high cost of a healthy, planet-friendly diet.

  6. Cooking your food and the planet. For a healthier city, we need sources of cooking fuel that are more planet-friendly.

  7. Wasted waste. Waste needs to be repurposed to make Dar Es Salaam a healthier city.

03

Breakthrough Approaches

Grounded on the Huge Problems, and designing a future vision for Dar Es Salaam, the innovators articulated and generated 100 moonshot ideas that could feasibly bend the trend toward a healthier and more prosperous future.

04

Tethered to the Possible

The difference between science fiction and innovation is the act of building workable solutions. The WFP-X programme produced 5 prototypes that could, if scaled, support a food secure future for Dar Es Salaam.

05

Landing

The WFP-X Final Innovation Showcase brought the second installment of the WFP-X programme to an end on 30 April 2021, where 5 innovators presented their moonshot ideas that aimed to transform the food system in Dar Es Salaam to a group of investors, government officials, and NGOs.

In 2021, given the potential for impact and promising results, two of the prototypes, Forever Food and Mr Bins Gas, received funding from the Embassy of Switzerland for further development.

WFP-X Recap

Explore the WFP-X Moonshot Toolkit and use these design-thinking inspired methods to design solutions that can change the world.