The U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP) and the mobile telecommunications company Vodafone are piloting a project that will allow shopkeepers in Burkina Faso to manage food vouchers by text message.

The World Food Program and The Vodafone Foundation, a division of the British mobile phone company, have started to bring technology to the food voucher program in place in Burkina Faso.

The partnership will allow shopkeepers in two towns in Burkina Faso to manage food vouchers through text messaging, or SMS. Paul McCann is Vodafone's Program Delivery Manager in West Africa.

"We're keen here to try this SMS solution out. It's fairly simple, it uses standard technology and it doesn't rely on supplying that technology to the beneficiary, only to the shopkeeper," McCann explained. "It's currently at the planning stage, the program itself is currently being planned and that's scheduled to start in February."