Our Model

Our model, a product of our combined experience in humanitarian aid procurement and logistics, supply chain management and IT, is framed in an efficient distribution system, and facilitated through a streamlined organisation. Research, community and NPO engagements, mapping of suppliers and service providers, all underpin our distribution system.

Community and NPO engagements

• Most communities have access to schools and ECDs. Majority attend no-fee schools. Households have to fund registration fees, uniforms, stationery, textbooks, transport.
• Lack of access to adequate water, sanitation, electricity, and housing services. Prevalence of pit latrines, communal toilets, communal taps, informal settlements.
• Public health care facilities are either located at a distance from communities, or they are under-capacitated to handle populations.
• Many community members live below the lower bound poverty line, whilst some live below the food poverty line.
• High levels of unemployment.
• High prevalence of female-headed households.
• Presence of child-headed households.
• Significant number of orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs), relying on state assistance and some NGO intervention.
• Beneficiaries receiving a social grant often cite it as their primary income source due to high unemployment, casual employment, old-age household heads.

Those households receiving the old-age pension or child support grants often note the grants as their sole source of income, making it extremely challenging to meet the needs of the household. Many people diagnosed with HIV and AIDS are not eligible for a disability grant. Without employment, they are left destitute. Communities exhibiting significant levels of HIV and AIDS, teenage pregnancies, drug abuse and violence, point to high unemployment levels as the primary cause of these challenges because unemployment exacerbates poverty. The common sentiment from these communities is that they are grateful for any assistance they receive but that the ad hoc nature of this assistance fails to address the challenge of fulfilling essential household needs for the entire year. Furthermore, not all communities are able to produce their own food. With little to no income, they are unable to meet basic needs (food, energy, transport costs, uniform and stationery costs) and respond to commodity price hikes.

Mapping of Suppliers and Service Providers

Our streamlined distribution system allows us to drastically reduce operational costs, allocate the majority of our budget to aid packs, and maintain consistent coverage of all of our communities.

The value added to Beneficiaries

To ensure that beneficiaries are assisted in a sustainable manner, we deliver packs on a monthly basis. Our packs serve to add value to the finances and health of beneficiaries, thereby enabling beneficiaries to allocate any income for other essential basic services. We conduct site visits and administer an annual survey in each community, in order to analyse the effect of sustained assistance on community development. We acknowledge that household and community dynamics change over time (employment levels, income sources, migration, number of beneficiaries, and infrastructural developments). Our analysis allows us to make necessary changes in conjunction with our beneficiaries and our donors, as we strive to achieve our common goal of sustained community development.

WCMA’s commitment to Accountability and Transparency

WCMA places extreme importance on accountability and transparency. Following this we employ an innovative platform, ‘NGO Port,’ that simplifies collaboration and project management for WCMA, its service providers and its donors, alike. Through the platform supply chain is made simpler. The platform is interactive and works in real time. WCMA is able to manage inventory; proof of delivery is sent in real time by distributors; last mile service providers (rural NGOs) send proof of delivery via the portal; analysis of annual community surveys, narrative reports, and annual financials, are all available for donors to view via the portal.