WFP Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM)
Tool for food security monitoring and analyses
Description
The World Food Programme Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) information and analytical tool supports stakeholders in the conducting of geospatial and economic analyses, crop and food security monitoring and assessments, post-shock assessments and thematic analyses, among others. The primary goal of VAM is to provide timely, accurate and relevant information in support of World Food Programme (WFP) operations, and details of the food insecurity and vulnerability faced by the hungry poor. 100 percent of WFP project documents are based on VAM analyses. VAM also provides more easily digestible data visualizations online at dataviz.vam@wfp.org.
Technology
The VAM application can be accessed openly and freely online, and is laid out with such general features as a Reports Explorer, Emergency Dashboards, a Resource Centre and several thematic tabs. These include the Climate Explorer, providing details of Rainfall and Vegetation and River Basins, and related Reports; the Economic Explorer, providing Prices, Price Forecasts and Alerts; Macro Economics, detailing Currencies and Reports; and the Hunger Explorer providing Insights and Key Trends, as well as a live Hunger Map. WFP makes use of mobile technologies, artificial intelligence and data analytics in its analyses and assessments, facilitating the establishment of remote, near real-time food and hunger monitoring systems in different countries. Predictive machine learning-based food security models support the monitoring of daily food security, allowing problems to be monitored in real time in the event of a crisis by WFP, governments, partners and the broader humanitarian community, while also providing the necessary information for early action. WFP also collects climate and remote sensing data across the full range of resolutions and time steps to understand how climate patterns and natural hazards affect vulnerable populations. The processing of global satellite data sets in the cloud allows growing seasons to be monitored in real time, and allows access to 40 years of climate data. All of the food security data is open source and freely available online at the VAM One Stop Shop (vam.wfp.org), where the latest food security data, publications and analytical tools can be accessed together with anonymized aggregated data, all hosted in an open databank. Anyone can access the data through an API and use it for their own analyses.
Target
The primary users are WFP, governments and the broader humanitarian community. As of November 2018, 200 food security analyses have been conducted in more than 80 countries making use of VAM.
Business model
Maintained by WFP, the app is free and openly available to all users.
Impact
VAM serves as a source of credible, relevant and timely food security analyses, providing evidence supporting the design of WFP operations, as well as those of other humanitarian bodies. Assessing the degree of food security in specific geographic areas can help in the determination of priority areas for assessment and response. The tools also reveal the probable causes of food insecurity and vulnerability, thus aiding in the determination of affected populations, while identifying whether food assistance will improve their status. Ultimately, the tool facilitates the dispersal of food aid.
Partners
Governments; United Nations agencies; local and international non-governmental organizations; academic institutions, and others.
Four Betters
Better nutrition
Better life
