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Internal Audit of WFP Operations in Somalia - December 2023

The audit focused on a comprehensive review of six high-risk areas: (i) governance and risk management; (ii) programme design and implementation; (iii) identity management; (iv) non-governmental organization management; (v) monitoring; and (vi) cash-based transfers. In addition, the audit partially tested controls for six areas: (i) donor engagement; (ii) human resource transition; (iii) management services; (iv) supply chain management; (v) digital solutions and automation; and (vi) security and access management. Throughout the audit period, WFP operations were defined by an unprecedented scale-up of relief activities while responding to the threat of famine. The integrated food security phase classification for Somalia projected six million severely food-insecure people by June 2022. It also projected 322,000 people facing catastrophic outcomes by March 2023, triggering the risk of famine in various locations. WFP activated the corporate scale-up emergency phase in August 2022, which lasted for nine months and was deactivated in May 2023. The audit focused on two activities under strategic outcomes 1 and 2, which accounted for 92 percent of the total direct operational costs and 95 percent of beneficiary caseload during the audit period: (i) provide integrated food and nutritional assistance to crisis-affected people (activity 1); (ii) provide conditional and unconditional food and/or cash-based food assistance and nutrition-sensitive messaging to food-insecure people through reliable safety nets (activity 3). Based on the results of the audit, the Office of Internal Audit reached an overall conclusion of major improvement needed.