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The WFP’s Humanitarian Partnership with Uber

WFP’s Humanitarian Partnership with Uber
On June 8, 2022, Uber donated a customized version of its “Uber Direct” software app to the U.N.’s World Food Programme (WFP) to help distribute food in Ukraine. Some urban areas in Ukraine are hard to reach with conventional large delivery trucks because the areas are densely populated. Therefore, the WFP’s humanitarian partnership with Uber allows the WFP to use a customized version of the Uber Direct app so the WFP can easily reach food insecure Ukrainians in urban areas. In addition, with the Uber Direct app, the WFP will be able to “coordinate a fleet of vehicles and track deliveries in real time.”

Innovative Approaches to Delivering Aid

The WFP’s partnership with Uber highlights the potential of modern technology to solve modern-day global humanitarian issues. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia makes it difficult for international humanitarian organizations to deliver food and other essential items due to ongoing military operations.

Russia is blockading Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, which are important for the transportation of food to developing countries struggling with food insecurity. However, innovative approaches to delivering aid, such as the customized version of the Uber Direct software app, give humanitarian organizations opportunities to efficiently tackle food insecurity in war-torn countries. Thus, WFP’s partnership with Uber in Ukraine illustrates how technology can stand as an important tool in the reduction of global poverty.

The Food Insecurity Situation in Ukraine

As of May 21, 2022, one in three Ukrainian households faced food insecurity due to the war, according to the WFP. Furthermore, these Ukrainians have lost their jobs, which means they have no income to support themselves and many have had to abandon their homes.

Russian forces are destroying farms and croplands in Ukraine. Additionally, the Guardian reported on June 13, 2022, that “Ukraine’s national seed bank has been partly destroyed amid fighting in Kharkiv in the north-east, where almost 2,000 crop samples rest in underground vaults.” The situation further exacerbates food insecurity in Ukraine. Therefore, the WFP’s humanitarian partnership with Uber is necessary in order to easily deliver emergency food to Ukrainians at risk of food insecurity.

How Uber Can Assist in Tackling Food Insecurity in Ukraine

The WFP “is already using the [Uber Direct] app in Dnipro,” but because food insecurity is widespread in Ukraine, the WFP intends to also send deliveries of food aid to Lviv, Vinnytsia, Kyiv and Chernivtsi. The customized Uber Direct app allows the WFP  to “schedule, dispatch, track and manage deliveries by a network of cars and small vans to final distribution points within a 100km radius of WFP warehouses across the country.” Additionally, the WFP’s humanitarian partnership with Uber also includes a $250,000 donation from Uber to the WFP USA “to support the emergency response in Ukraine.”

Private Sector Support

Although the WFP’s humanitarian partnership with Uber is innovative and transformative, Uber is not the only private company providing support to the WFP to help Ukrainians. The John Deere Foundation, the charitable arm of John Deere, announced on May 18, 2022, a donation of $1 million to the WFP U.S.A so it can “combat global food insecurity” and tackle rising hunger in Ukraine. The John Deere Foundation also said that 50% of the donation will go to the WFP’s Innovation Accelerator, which “sources, supports and scales high-impact innovations to achieve zero hunger.” The support from Uber and the John Deere Foundation to the WFP illustrates the commitment of the private sector to humanitarian work, which is instrumental to ending global poverty.

Looking Ahead

International organizations have been documenting the steady decline in global poverty over the past decades before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. However, some may wonder how global poverty can be declining, given the wars and conflicts ongoing in many countries around the world. To find the answer is to look at how humanitarian organizations are leveraging their relationships with the private sector to discover creative ways to solve poverty and hunger. The WFP’s use of the customized Uber Direct app in Ukraine to deliver food to densely populated areas is a shining and, perhaps, enduring example.

– Abdullah Dowaihy
Photo: Flickr

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Startup Zomato Opens New Opportunities in India

New opportunities in IndiaZomato is a food technology startup out of India. The startup’s stock just hit the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and is already wildly successful. The company’s success and growth open opportunities in the food delivery industry, which has the major selling point of schedule self-determination. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is estimated that an additional 75 million people in India have been plunged into poverty. Zomato provides new opportunities in India and has the potential to stir up the economy and create jobs for those living in poverty.

Zomato as a Poverty Fighting Agent

Founded in 2010, Zomato challenges poverty in India from multiple angles. The platform connects potential customers with restaurants they might be interested in, and it also allows customers to review restaurants, reserve tables and order delivery through third-party services. Third-party food delivery serves as a new job market in India and is the most crucial aspect in terms of economic growth. Companies like DoorDash, Uber Eats and Seamless entice potential drivers with the appeal of creating their own schedule. They also allow a variety of delivery methods, from cars to bicycles. This can be a great aid in lifting people out of poverty because of the inherently accessible and flexible job opportunities.

Effect on Job Market

Forbes cited what it deemed a “well-founded argument” when it said, “[A]s the restaurants go, so goes the economy.” This goes far beyond the direct effects of job losses on the service industry. Forbes points to interconnected impacts, including impacts on delivery services, agricultural workers and various goods producers and refiners. In addition, restaurant failures also have a technological impact. The systems that uphold everything from sales to reservations become far more irrelevant if a restaurant cannot function properly. The scope of the service industry is much wider than many realize, and its success plays an imperative role in the economic success of an area. When restaurants are succeeding, job opportunities in multiple sectors become available and help to propel economic growth.

IPO Success and Economic Implications

When shares of Zomato hit the market at the end of July 2021, the initial public offering price was 91 rupees. However, the stock opened even higher at 116 rupees per share. At this price per share, the company’s valuation comes to approximately 910 billion rupees, equivalent to roughly $12.2 billion. Stock prices rose throughout the day on all trading markets where Zomato was available. Large-scale investors have held a stake in Zomato since as early as last year with Uber selling its food delivery business in India to Zomato in exchange for a stake in the company. Additionally, Ant Financial has also backed Zomato with a hefty agreement to invest upwards of $150 million.

These powerhouse corporations are fanning the flames of the food industry, creating opportunity in this new market in India and jump-starting economic growth. The predicted and continued success of this tech startup shows promise for cross-sectional economic development and subsequent poverty reduction.

– Michelle M. Schwab
Photo: Unsplash

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Rideshare in Africa May Be the Future of Transportation

Rideshare in Africa
Many African countries are moving toward urbanization. Residents are discovering that mobility is being limited by the overcrowding of roads and the lack of public transit. However, rideshare in Africa has quickly gained footing, bringing with it a new set of possibilities for the economies of the cities they serve.

Benefits For the People

Despite many countries in Africa boasting some of the fastest growing economies in the world, it is still home to 11 of the 20 countries with the highest unemployment rates. With the rapid growth of rideshare, there is an equally rapid need for drivers, providing jobs to tens of thousands of Africans in many of the continent’s major cities. Uber, an American-based company that has been servicing Africa since 2013, providing hundreds of thousands of people with rides.

Rideshare in Africa also alleviates some of the biggest transportation hindrances people in dense cities face. While Africa has quickly seen a surge of residents owning and regularly using technology such as smartphones, many still do not own personal vehicles. For those who do, the underdeveloped infrastructures of many African cities, most of which were not designed to hold the numbers they now contain, make driving difficult and impractical. Companies like SafeBoda, which started in Uganda but hopes to service various regions throughout Africa, are deploying “boda-bodas” (motorcycle taxies) instead of cars, allowing citizens to move about the city centers more easily and work in places previously out of reach.

Benefits For the Economy

Currently, almost 40 percent of Africans live in cities, and this number is expected to grow to 50 percent by 2030 and 60 percent by 2050. With this increase in population, there is a corresponding increase in demand for transportation that does not require a personal vehicle. Rideshare companies have set out to fill this demand, bringing with them foreign and domestic investors who see rideshare as growing in popularity among the people, bringing economic potential.

While Uber remains the top rideshare service throughout Africa due to its worldwide brand recognition and its ability to keep rates low, many African-based companies have been able to use their local knowledge to compete with the larger foreign companies. Kenyan-based rideshare company Mondo Ride, for example, understands that overcrowding in the city streets means that passengers taking rideshare cars would only add to the problem. Therefore, they offer the option for boda-bodas or tuk-tuks (three-wheeled motorbikes) in many of the cities they serve. This allows them to compete with giants like Uber, thereby bringing more investment into their city as they grow in popularity.

The Future of Rideshare in Africa

As rideshare in Africa takes off, it faces two battles that will shape the futures of both rideshare itself and the cities in which they operate: market competition and government regulation.

While local rideshare companies have the advantage of regional familiarity over the giants like Uber, the larger companies’ ability to lower prices threatens to make smaller African-based companies obsolete. In many African cities, there have been protests by these smaller companies, claiming that Uber is creating a monopoly over the industry, mitigating the positive economic effects of healthy competition.

 As rideshare continues to grow in Africa, local governments are struggling to regulate the industry. Ghana became the first to create formal documentation detailing Uber’s presence in its cities, but other countries have not been able to keep up with the high rate of growth this industry has seen.

Regardless of any frustrations with market competition or difficulties in regulation, rideshare in Africa is quickly becoming the norm. It is a sign not only that Africa is embracing technology but also that it is excelling in doing so. As rideshare companies and local governments begin to understand their local markets, residents will be better able to enjoy the benefits and the economic opportunities will continue to grow.

– Rob Lee
Photo: The Africa Report

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There’s an App for That: Middle Eastern Startups

Middle EastIt seems like every year, another company or app comes out that changes our lives and disrupts traditional businesses. Netflix changed movies and TV shows, Uber changed individual transportation and Airbnb changed the hotel industry. These new and innovative companies have allowed more people to access services that may have been out of reach in the past.

Now, this trend has taken hold in an unlikely place: the Middle East.

Currently, the two most prominent Middle Eastern startups in the region are Souq, an online e-commerce retailer and Careem, a ride-hailing service. While these firms are not based around wholly original ideas, the mere fact of their creation shows a desire for citizens in these countries to utilize smart technology to improve their daily lives.

Amazon’s acquisition of Souq in 2017 showed the effectiveness of the firm in the region, considering that Amazon’s modus operandi when entering new regions involves launching its own platform paired with a substantial investment component. The efficiency of Souq, however, allowed Amazon to make a direct buyout instead.

Startups like those seen in other parts of the world are sprouting up in the region regardless of the challenging economic and political circumstances they face. In 2016, the top 100 startups in the region raised over $1.42 billion, with each firm raising at least $500,000. But this does not come easily.

Many Middle Eastern countries do not have a conducive climate for startups compared to western Europe and North America. Bankruptcy laws and overregulation have stifled innovation for decades. However, the increase in startup firms in a variety of sectors shows a young, tech-savvy population that seeks to innovate and reinvigorate the economies of the Arab world.

Jamalon, an online book-selling firm, was started by a Jordanian who grew up in Palestinian refugee camps. Ala’ Alsallal saw a need for greater access to Arabic-language books for people in the region, especially works that are banned by various governments in the region.

“You know what the censors told me? ‘We don’t want any books that can change the way people think,'” Alsallal told Forbes Magazine. “That doesn’t matter,” he says. “We just keep sending them.”

Entrepreneurship with a social mission is common among startups, and it is no different in the Middle East, as shown by Jamalon. Average citizens are destined to benefit immensely from these companies. If this trend continues, the advent of Middle Eastern startups will increase access to services and will improve the quality of life for the people of the region.

– Daniel Cavins
Photo: Flickr

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Uber Data Helps People Obtain Car Loans in Africa

Car loans in Africa

Uber, a popular ride-hailing phone app, is helping people in poverty obtain what is usually out of reach: a car. Drivers, like Michael Muturi in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, have a chance to buy a new car through a bank loan program that uses data from Uber to assess risk. Muturi is one of many drivers who will be able to obtain car loans in Africa, changing the way people affected by poverty finance their cars around the globe.

“I felt like I won a jackpot,” exclaimed Muturi, after receiving an Uber message in June telling him his profile was good enough to apply for a car loan. “With my own car I will be able to afford a good house, take my kids to a good school, and save for the future.”

Kenya’s Sidian Bank has approved over 10 car loans for experienced Uber drivers using a model Uber hopes to expand across Africa, where poor customer data limits lending.

Uber’s mission is very different than that of car companies: the app wants more Ubers on the road by any means necessary, and the newer the car, the better.

Getting car loans in Africa is a major challenge for people and small business owners. Few people have bank accounts or a credit score to go with them so lenders can assess risk.The first credit rating bureau opened in Kenya in 2010. A lack of credit history is one of the reasons why just 4.4 percent of the 45 million population have a personal bank loan.

“Sidian’s financing is focused more on the applicant’s proven Uber experience than on his or her credit history,” says the bank CEO.

Uber’s app is a way for Uber drivers to obtain this data. The app registers customer satisfaction and provides the bank with information it needs to decide whether to offer Uber drivers relatively cheap loans to buy their own cars. To obtain a car loan from Sidian Bank, a driver must accumulate at least 500 trips with Uber and have an average passenger rating score of at least 4.6 points out of five.

Uber created Xchange Leasing last year as wholly-owned Uber subsidiary. For a $250 deposit, drivers in the United States can lease a new midsize or economy car. The car can be returned at any time with two weeks’ notice, and the customer just loses the deposit with no further obligations.

Similar to the ride-sharing business, auto financing also requires country-specific solutions. Uber started Lion City Rentals in Singapore, a subsidiary rental company, while in countries such as Kenya, India, and China it is mostly working with third parties like Sidian Bank.

By the end of 2016, Uber expects that the vehicle solutions programs will have provided 100,000 cars globally.

Uber is just one of many apps that are helping people improve their lives in poverty by making it easier for people to obtain car loans in Africa.

– Alexis Pierce

Photo: Uber