World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The second in a series of four, this evaluation found that the overall contribution of food assistance for Congolese refugees living in camps in Rwanda to achieving intended outcomes was mixed. Food insecurity remained problematic. Global acute malnutrition rates were below alert levels, however chronic malnutrition rates were beyond the humanitarian threshold for ‘critical’. Significant changes to programme approaches to avoid chronic food insecurity and chronic malnutrition and to develop a way forward to achieve durable solutions were recommended. 

 The Annual Evaluation Report for 2011 focuses on lessons arising from implementation to date of WFP’s Strategic Plan 2008-2013. It covers 16 evaluations on: strategic themes in the transition from ‘food aid to food assistance’, such as partnerships and how Country Offices adapt to change; school feeding and WFP support to agricultural small holders and markets; and WFP’s strategic positioning and performance in Haiti, Kenya, Rwanda and Yemen; and others.

The evaluation took a retrospective view of WFP’s portfolio of activities between 1999 and 2003, in particular the emergency–recovery–development linkages. It found that the built-in flexibility of the Great Lakes regional protracted relief and recovery operations facilitated the shift from emergency relief to recovery activities.

In the mission team’s view, the quantity and quality of the informal cooperation and formal coordination were generally high. A number of signed formal agreements were concluded in the form of: a) regional, country-level and local Memoranda of Understanding and operational plans; b) separate agreements on cooperation in specific sectors such as logistics and telecommunications; and c) countrylevel and local joint work plans.