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World Food Programme
SCOPE
In Five Minutes
What is SCOPE?
Existing beneficiary information from cooperating
partners, UN or the government can be used by SCOPE,
SCOPE is WFP’s digital beneficiary and transfer
subject to data sharing and protection agreements. If
management platform that supports the WFP programme appropriate, beneficiary information can be enhanced in
intervention cycle from beginning to end. It is a
SCOPE with supplementary data like photos, fingerprints
cloud-based solution used for beneficiary registration,
or government id card references. Source information can
intervention setup, distribution planning, entitlement
come from paper lists, excel files or technically imported
transfers and distribution reporting. SCOPE currently
from our partner’s solutions. Updated information can be
supports all WFP transfer modalities be it in-kind or
shared back to the partner.
cash-based transfers (CBT ), for a variety of project
activities. The digital platform can be used in many ways Personal data protection and privacy are extremely
important when managing beneficiary information.
depending on the specific needs of the country and the
SCOPE is hosted on WFP’s private cloud to ensure the
type of delivery mechanism required.
data is safe in accordance with UN information security
Beneficiary Information Management
standards, with access limited by appropriate controls.
SCOPE is the central repository for WFP beneficiary
Supporting Interventions and Distributions
identity information. Registrations powered by SCOPE
SCOPE is a single place to manage all interventions
can be customized to meet the needs of a particular
simultaneously for a country. Once beneficiaries are
intervention. Specific targeting criteria, anthropometric
registered, individuals or households are enrolled in one
data, languages, locations and biometric data such as
or more interventions, and included in the relevant
photos or fingerprints can be captured.
distribution lists. Distributed entitlements can be
Registrations, typically done by WFP’s cooperating
specified in terms of cash value, commodity value or
partners, are conducted using inexpensive laptops in the commodity quantity. These entitlements can either be
field in offline mode, and synced to the platform through uniformly fixed for all beneficiaries in the distribution, or
the Internet at a later time. Alternatively, for online
can vary for each beneficiary according to criteria
locations, registrations can be made directly in SCOPE.
established for the intervention.
World Food Programme
SCOPE
In Five Minutes
A variety of project activities are currently powered by
SCOPE, such as Nutritional Interventions, Food
Assistance for Assets, Food for Training and General
Food Distributions, among others. Depending on needs,
targeting criteria can be used to determine intervention
eligibility. Locations and other information captured can
also help identify target groups to include in an
intervention.
Compliance with WFP’s internal controls, segregation of
duties and standard operating procedures following the
standard CBT Business Process Model are enabled by
SCOPE.
Managing and Monitoring Transfers
SCOPE was originally created to be the WFP system for
cash operations. Since then, it has evolved into a digital
platform that now applies to both cash-based and inkind interventions.
Cash Cash distributions typically rely on financial
service providers (FSP) such as micro-finance
institutions, banks or remittance agents. SCOPE-based
distributions automate the generation and transmission
of payment instructions to the FSP, who then distributes
the cash directly to beneficiaries, either directly or by
making it available to them through bank accounts.
FSPs provide actual distribution information back to
SCOPE, enabling managers to compare between planned
and actual distributions. SCOPE supports transfers
using beneficiary bank accounts and cash-in-transit
mechanisms.
Digital Cash Cash distributions through digital means
are made via card or mobile mechanisms. SCOPE
creates digital entitlement instructions based on
distribution lists to the service providers, and retrieves
redemption transaction activity from the service
provider. SCOPE’s flexible architecture allows it to
support multiple mobile and card-based services, giving
a range of options to allow countries to use what fits in
their context, and allows for specification of restricted or
un-restricted cash modes.
Given the environments where WFP’s beneficiaries are
located, commercial service coverage is sometimes not
available. In this case, SCOPE can be complemented by
SCOPECARD, WFP’s digital card service. With
SCOPECARD, WFP issues smartcards to beneficiaries
for use in WFP-registered agents or retailers. These
agents or retailers use a point-of-service (POS) terminal
customized by WFP to enable redemptions even without
connectivity. Beneficiaries use the cards to obtain
assistance or commodities according to their need, going
once or more times during the distribution period.
Beneficiary identities are verified during redemption
through security measures such as fingerprints or pin,
ensuring that targeted beneficiaries are the ones
collecting assistance. The POS connects to SCOPE on a
cellular data link from time to time so that beneficiary
activity is integrated into SCOPE, allowing WFP to
monitor the distribution, reconcile and settle
outstanding agent or retailer charges. SCOPECARD
supports all types of assistance, including cash value,
food and non-food items.
In kind In-kind interventions typically rely on
cooperating partners to perform food distribution to
beneficiaries. SCOPE supports in-kind distribution
through a WFP SCOPE Household Card or SCOPECARD
provided to beneficiaries. WFP SCOPE Household Cards
contain barcodes cooperating partners scan at final
distribution points. This information, when
synchronized back to SCOPE, allows WFP to track
participation of beneficiaries in the intervention, and
monitor the availability level of commodities in the
hands of cooperating partners.
SCOPE Services
SCOPE has enabled WFP countries to complement
general food distribution with digital cash or other
appropriate delivery mechanisms by providing an
automated tool for beneficiary and transfer management
available, and being flexible enough to adapt to multiple
interventions. As each country has specific needs, each
operation relies on country and regional IT experts to
provide technical backstopping within the country. The
IT Division however has made a dedicated SCOPE team
available providing technical advisory and project design
services to help countries conceptualize and plan the
transition of their CBT and in-kind operations from
manual to digital, to augment local and regional IT
capacities in case of need. Implementation support
services, end-user training, retailer training, cooperating
partner training and beneficiary training, and
communications support services are provided by the
team.
For more information:
WFP.SCOPE@wfp.org
June 2015