The evaluation was commissioned by the WFP independent Office of Evaluation to provide evaluative evidence for accountability and learning to inform the design of the next WFP CSP in Lebanon
Conducted between January 2020 and April 2021, the evaluation assessed WFP’s strategic positioning and role and the extent to which WFP has made the strategic shift expected by the CSP; WFP’s contributions to strategic outcomes; efficiency and factors that explain WFP performance.
The evaluation concluded that:
- The CSP introduced an integrated and coherent approach to addressing the root causes of vulnerability; and was designed to strengthen the links between humanitarian and development interventions. WFP made a strategic shift to national capacity strengthening through support for the development of social safety nets, mainly the national poverty targeting programme. However, there was limited progress in transformative gender mainstreaming at operational level.
- WFP has established effective and efficient response mechanisms and was well placed to continue its dual role as a humanitarian and development actor. Its core comparative advantage was demonstrated through its swift ability to adapt programming in a timely and effective way. WFP achieved strong results in a challenging context, responding at scale to changing needs by targeting the most vulnerable Lebanese and refugees. Its interventions mitigated the long-term impact of the protracted refugee crisis and the deepening economic crisis on the most vulnerable.
- There was a need to work with partners to achieve better integration and coordination of emergency cash assistance with livelihood interventions. Despite WFP efforts, the CSP did not increase flexible or non-earmarked funding. Major strengths of WFP’s in-country capacity were its vulnerability analysis and mapping, monitoring and evaluation. But, more progress was needed at the level of outcome analysis to allow for assessments of the CSP strategic objectives.
