e-Vouchers for Mozambican women in distress

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​NEC subsidiary, NEC XON, is working with UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women, to run a women’s support program through e-vouchers in the conflict-torn northern Mozambique.
As conflict continues in various parts of Mozambique, especially in Cabo Delgado province in the north-eastern part of the country, many people have been forced to leave their homes and live as internally displaced persons.

​UN Women – a global advocacy agency for women and girls – is providing support by promoting “equal access for women to services, goods, and resources.” Equitable access for women is essential to achieving gender equality and sustainable development. The aim, therefore, is to remove barriers to access to public services and humanitarian assistance for women, who are the most marginalised among the displaced.

In a nutshell, the project involves an electronic voucher system for emerging countries from NEC subsidiary NEC XON. This system uses contactless IC cards (the same size as credit cards) given free of charge to women further left behind who need relief supplies. These women can use the cashless cards to purchase supplies at smartphone terminals located in mobile supply sales trucks in resettlement centres. NEC XON, which is contracted to UN Women in Mozambique, provides the contactless IC cards and smartphone terminals.

The greatest advantage of this support service is that relief supplies reach internally displaced persons reliably. Conventional paper-based management of supplies often meant supplies did not actually reach evacuees after they were channeled through intermediary humanitarian agents or authorities.
In addition, since the internally displaced women themselves can choose and purchase the supplies they need, the aim (to provide what displaced persons actually need) is more effectively met and enhances their dignity and freedom of choice – a key element of a gender-responsive humanitarian aid.
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The biggest bottleneck in deploying IT solutions in these regions is the poor power and Internet infrastructure. However, the problem of charging the smartphone sales devices was solved by distributing them to mobile sales trucks instead of stores with poor power infrastructure.

Women and adolescent girls are disproportionately affected by conflict, bearing the burden of food security and unpaid domestic work. Through this project, UN Women and its frontline partners, with the financial assistance from the Government of Japan’s Supplementary Budget better respond to their specific needs.