The evaluation of WFP’s response to the Ebola Virus Disease crisis in West Africa assessed three key inquiry areas: partnerships and coordination; learning, adaptation and innovation; and, performance and results of 3 country-specific Immediate Response Emergency Operations, a regional EMOP (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone) and 3 regional Special Operations implemented in 2014-2015, which represented USD 442 million in requirements and reached some 5 million beneficiaries in total. WFP demonstrated flexibility, diversity and agility in responding to this complex health crisis, engaging in new non-traditional partnerships in the health, private, logistics and communications sectors.
The evaluation concluded that WFP’s two-pronged response of food assistance and common service support, was appropriate and relevant, efficiently scaling-up amidst rapidly evolving needs. WFP successfully filled a logistics capacity gap of the humanitarian community, and its food assistance contributed to the containment efforts. The evaluation makes recommendations geared to:
- improve performance by strengthening internal policies, guidelines and systems in emergency preparedness and response, human resources, and monitoring;
- capture and promote WFP’s best practices; sustain engagement in global supply chain initiatives;
- adopt a comprehensive and collaborative approach to national stakeholders’ health crisis response capacity strengthening; and reinforce accountability to beneficiaries.