United Nations and Uber unite to help deliver food in Ukraine

Uber has created a “private-label” version of its platform to help the United Nations deliver food and water supplies to parts of Ukraine.

According to a release from the delivery platform, larger vehicles are facing issues reaching those in need in built-up areas, and this collaboration allows the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to dispatch and track smaller vehicles delivering relief items from warehouses to people in need in populated areas of Ukraine.

Through this platform, WFP can get its food closer to people needing its support, dispatching deliveries, tracking each trip to its destination, and confirming deliveries have been made safely.

As a result of this collaboration, WFP has already delivered food from its warehouse in Dnipro to other parts of the city, ready for distribution. Further deliveries are also ongoing in other parts of the country, including Lviv, Vinnytsia, Kyiv and Chernivtsi. The progress of deliveries can be tracked in real-time through the platform.

“WFP is playing a critical role in providing food and cash assistance to those most affected by the war in Ukraine. This technology helps WFP facilitate its response and improves how we serve communities in Ukraine that rely on us,” said Matthew Hollingworth, WFP’s Emergency Coordinator in Ukraine. 

“It enhances our access to Ukrainian businesses within Uber’s network, making our operations more efficient while also harnessing local capacities.”

WFP has rapidly scaled up its operations in and around Ukraine over the past three months. By the end of June, WFP will be providing food and cash to more than three million people per month in the country.

“Uber is thrilled to be working with WFP to help them more efficiently distribute emergency food relief across Ukraine, by providing free access to a customised version of the Uber platform,” added Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber. “Using our technology, WFP can now schedule, dispatch, track, and manage deliveries by a network of cars and small vans to final distribution points within a 100km radius of WFP warehouses across the country.”

This work is in addition to a US $250,000 donation made by Uber to World Food Program USA to support the emergency response in Ukraine.