Dear Editor,
The Civil Defence Commission has shared that it is organising a voucher system to deliver food aid as part of the COVID relief efforts. The CDC it seems will be tasked with managing the places for vouchers to be used, and is suitably concerned that the money is used for food and essential supplies.
What is not in the news, is if the people who are intended to benefit from the aid have participated in the decisions about how the CDC gets the aid to them.
Is this voucher system, operated through selected shops and supermarkets the best way to provide aid? Are there ways to connect this moment of relief to providing direct support to local farmers and other food producers?What if people wanted to spend their money in the neighbourhood markets, or on mobile fresh food vendors – or on vendors who supply cooked meals? Or to pay for counselling or other therapeutic services to cope in these stressful times?
Surely now is also a good time, to test the ideas of direct cash transfers to people, to let people decide how they want to spend the money.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon