ACF International's Response to the West African Sahel Food Crisis
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EXTERNAL EVALUATION JANUARY 2013 ACF International’s Response to the West African Sahel Food Crisis 2012 Funded by ACF By John Wiater and Jean le Bloas This report was commissioned by Action Against Hunger | ACF International. The comments contained herein reflect the opinions of the Evaluators only. Table of Contents Acronyms ........................................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................4 Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................5 Background ....................................................................................................................................8 Evaluation Methodology ...............................................................................................................9 Findings ...........................................................................................................................................9 Overall Emergency Response ......................................................................................................9 Timeliness ............................................................................................................................9 Appropriateness of the Strategy .........................................................................................10 Appropriateness of the Technical Response ......................................................................12 Scope and Sequence ...........................................................................................................14 Effectiveness of the Technical Response ...........................................................................21 Monitoring Tools, Feedback Loops and Data Sharing ......................................................34 Effectiveness of ACF’s Regional Strategy in Responding to Recurrent Crises ................37 Advocacy ...........................................................................................................................38 Integration of Lessons Learned ..........................................................................................39 Emergency Response Systems ...................................................................................................40 Human Resources ..............................................................................................................40 Logistics .............................................................................................................................44 Coordination ......................................................................................................................45 Communication ..................................................................................................................46 Administration, Finance and Fundraising ..........................................................................47 Capacity-building within an overall project strategy of sustainability ..............................48 Future Programming Considerations .........................................................................................49 Summary of Key Conclusions .....................................................................................................51 Summary of Recommendations ..................................................................................................53 Annexes Annex 1: 2012 Sahel Drought Affected Countries ...................................................................56 1 Annex 2: Best Practice Reporting Table ...................................................................................57 Annex 3: Rating of Project Achievements In Terms of DAC Criteria .....................................58 Annex 4: Terms of Reference ...................................................................................................69 Annex 5: Evaluation Schedule/Itinerary ..................................................................................76 Annex 6: Resource Materials/Bibliography .............................................................................81 Annex 7: Persons Interviewed ..................................................................................................84 Annex 8: Increase in Net Financial Gain to Beneficiaries from Warrant Credit .....................89 Annex 9: Surge Support Missions Conducted .........................................................................90 Annex 10: Funding Raised ........................................................................................................92 Tables Table 1: ECHO Mitigation CT coverage of total food deficit households ...............................14 Table 2: Cash transfer beneficiary target achievement (ECHO Mitigation) .............................22 Table 3: Average CT disbursements per household per month by country and project ..... 22-23 Table 4: Nutrition Treatment Achievements for SAM against Sphere Standards ...................28 Table 5: Health Gardens ...........................................................................................................31 2 Acronyms ACF Action Contre La Faim APR Activity Progress Report BF Blanket Feeding CASEC Conseil d’Administration de Sections Communautaires (Community Administrative Council) CaLP The Cash Learning Project CAP Consolidated Annual Appeal CD Country Director CFW Cash For Work CIDA Canadian International Development Agency CP Country Program CT Cash Transfer DAC Development Assistance Committee (OECD) DCD Deputy Country Director ECHO European Commission Humanitarian Office EPRP Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan FFW Food for Work FSC Food Security Coordinator HDDS Household Dietary Diversity Score HIP (ECHO) Humanitarian Implementation Plan KAP Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices OFDA (U.S.) Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance PC Program Coordinator PDM Post Distribution Monitoring PEC Pris en Charge PLW Pregnant and Lactating Women PM Program Manager SDC Swiss Development Cooperation SIDA Swedish International Development Agency SITREP Situation Report TA Technical Assistance WARO (ACF) West Africa Regional Office WASH Water, Sanitation and Hygiene WFP World Food Programme (U.N.) 3 Acknowledgements The evaluators were able to carry out their review of an extensive relief operation carried out in five countries over a wide geographic area thanks to the cooperation and support from numerous ACF colleagues in London, Paris, Madrid, Dakar, and the five country program (CP) offices in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mauritania. An overwhelming (for two evaluators over a short period of time) amount of background, program planning and monitoring documents were made available for review by the evaluators. Complicated logistical arrangements were adroitly made for movement among the five countries of the region as well as within each country so that the evaluators could get to as many project sites and to visit as many stakeholders as possible in a very limited amount of time. Ends of calendar years – with their year-end reporting requirements, proposal preparations for donors’ new fiscal humanitarian planning and closing international conferences - are never easy times for encountering persons with sufficient time to meet and respond to the inquiries put forth by the evaluators. Nevertheless countless ACF colleagues and those representing host governments, local community leaders and beneficiaries, and informed international organizations generously gave their time to meet with the evaluators – sometimes on short notice. Though we are grateful to so many, we feel a special need to acknowledge the support received from focal points at ACF headquarters (HQs) and WARO, as well as the Country Directors (CD) in the four countries visited who mobilized their staff and logistical means to provide us with the access we needed to many persons and resources. Scarlett Barclay of the Evaluation, Learning and Accountability Office of ACF/UK demonstrated skill and patience in arranging air transportation to move us around the world and within West Africa according to a tight schedule. Segolen Guillaumat, Program Manager in ACF/France and Lucia Prieto, Project Officer in ACF/Spain pulled together many useful documents for review and initiated arrangements with WARO and the four CP offices for our arrivals and briefings. Barbara Frattaruolo, WARO Program Coordinator provided similar facilitation once the team arrived in Dakar. The four CDs: Jacques Terrenoire (Chad), Anne Bichard (Burkina Faso), Thierry Metais (Niger) and Franck Vannetelle (Mali), were gracious hosts, informed professional contacts, and objectively critical sounding boards for the evolving observations of the evaluators during the course of the inquiries in their countries. Too many other international and national colleagues provided valuable support and assistance to be singles out at this time. Nevertheless, we, the evaluators are sincerely impressed with your dedication to making the evaluation a fruitful exercise and grateful for your efforts on our behalf. 4 Executive Summary The 2011/2012 Sahel Drought Emergency was large in scale and geographic scope. It affected a broad region of Africa that, under normal conditions, presents aid organizations with