A New Start for Asma: A Story of Hope through UK Assistance for Food and Livelihoods in Conflict-Affected Darfur

Asma Mohamed Omar Korsi is a businesswoman in Darfur. She proudly smiles as she overlooks her growing business. Years of hard work have paid off and enabled her to expand her small millet enterprise to include an array of different food items in the bustling central market of Geneina town.

Asma, 50, has raised her three children in West Darfur in Sudan. Since 2003, escalated conflict throughout Darfur has resulted in over two million displaced people across all Darfur states, leaving millions in search of food and livelihoods. Despite ongoing efforts by national and international humanitarian actors, Darfur continues to face significant and complex humanitarian needs, and is one of the world’s most protracted crises.

Since 2011, Asma has participated in a joint UK and World Food Programme (WFP) voucher scheme as one of the few women traders in her town. The scheme provides support to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people in Sudan, by giving them vouchers to spend on vital food items from local traders.  This provides critical food assistance for those in need, as well as giving them choice over what they decide to buy rather than direct food assistance. The voucher scheme also stimulates the local economy, supporting local traders to sell their food products in the camps.

Women traders such as Asma who are part of the scheme now feel empowered, as the scheme has provided them with greater opportunities to increase their livelihoods.  Through the voucher scheme, Asma has been able to double her start-up capital and is now a well-recognized trader in her town. Asma has been able to successfully run mobile shops in eight displaced people’s camps during voucher distributions, and has started employing others in her business, providing jobs for those in her local area.

In 2015/2016 the Department for International Development (DFID) provided UK aid to enable WFP to run the voucher scheme in locations across Darfur, helping nearly 500,000 people to access vital food supplies in 2016 alone. Evidence from multiple contexts has shown that vouchers are cheaper to deliver than direct food assistance, especially in long term responses, such as in Darfur. This has enabled DFID to reach the same number of people at lower costs.

DFID is proud to support people like Asma to make a difference in their local area.