I heard about this on today’s edition of the Food Programme on BBC Radio 4. The World Food Programme (WFP) is changing the way it sources the raw food it uses for its aid programme - gone are the days of shipping western agricultural surplus half way around the world to those in need. The WFP now try and source closer to the disaster area, to reduce costs and environmental impact.

Through the Purchase for Progress scheme, they aim to go one better - to make the WFP procurement system a means for helping farmers increase their output and income by giving them access to wider markets and putting them in touch with NGOs who can help them raise their yields. It hopes to help half a million farmers by 2013 - and that’s just the pilot scheme.

This is an excellent example of using aid programmes to their fullest potential - not only is the WFP relieving the short-term suffering of the 90 million people the programme currently feeds around the world, but it is laying the foundations to prevent this happening in other places, as well as building the prosperous foundations for future economic and social success. This is how you use the market to grow - not as a shock tactic, but as a reward to be trained up for and helped into. Bravo, WFP!