The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Innovation Accelerator ‘nurtures and scales bold solutions to hunger globally’.
It supports the development of game-changing tech designed to tackle UN Sustainable Development Goal 2: zero hunger. And we featured four of these, including Mano, in the launch spring edition of Impact Innovators.
Maano: Virtual Farmers Market (VFM)
Lower smartphone prices are driving a digital revolution in Africa, allowing phone users to access the internet at unprecedented levels. More than half a billion people across Africa now subscribe to mobile services, with the number expected to grow to 725 million by 2020.
At the same time, millions of rural smallholder farmers struggle for access to local and national markets that could lift them out of hunger and poverty. Enter Maano: Virtual Farmers Market (VFM). VFM is a bold WFP innovation project that leverages the digital communications boom to increase market access and improve livelihoods for smallholder farmers for good.
An app-based e-commerce platform where farmers’ surplus and buyers’ demand for crops are advertised and traded, Maano provides a transparent, open and trustworthy space for smallholder farmers and buyers to negotiate fair prices and deals.
Read about other solutions supported by the WFP Accelerator in the spring launch edition of Impact Innovators.
