Jamila is a refugee from the Central African Republic (CAR). She lives in a refugee camp in the east of Cameroon with her 3 year old twin girls.
Once a month the World Food Program (WFP) provides her with food- through a mobile phone. Through the Cash Based Transfer (CBT) she gets a credit on a phone which WFP provided her with to feed her family.
When she wants to purchase her groceries, the WFP staff double checks Jamila's phone and ID and compiles with her a shopping list.
Jamila hands the shopping list over to a vendor. This system helps Jamila to choose her own groceries and have greater variety in her diet. It also empowers the local economy, seeing the refugees not as intruders but as clients.
At the end of the transaction Jamila signed that she has indeed received the goods and the amount will be transferred directly from her phone to the vendor.
Before the CBT was introduced, refugees had no choice over the food which was distributed, and had for years and years only a limited variety of ingredients at their disposal.