The Dowa Emergency Cash Transfer (DECT) was an innovative project that provided monthly cash transfers to beneficiary households banded according to the size of the household, and adjusted every month to accommodate fluctuations in the price of basic foodstuffs. The international NGO Concern Worldwide linked up with a commercial bank, the Opportunity International Bank Malawi, to trial the delivery of cash transfers through smartcards, utilising mobile ATMs to visit rural areas at predetermined times and places. The DECT was designed to address a localised, temporary food deficit identified in the northern part of Dowa District in Malawi in the lean season of 2006-07. The project sought to cover the 'missing food entitlement' of vulnerable families with a cash transfer. Cash was chosen in preference to food since overall Malawi had plentiful food availability in that period.