August 7, 2015

DARA recently conducted a Regional Evaluation of the World Food Programme (WFP) Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO) in Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The evaluation analyzed the extent to which WFP’s programme responded to the sudden and slow-onset emergencies and the operation’s coherence and complementarity with existing resilience building activities in the four countries. It also examined WFP’s supporting role to the national response efforts when the disasters exceeded the capacity of the national governments.

The four countries have been affected by two major slow-onset disasters, drought and coffee rust, in addition to isolated rapid-onset disasters such as earthquakes and floods. Drought and coffee rust have had a significant impact on the food security and livelihoods in the region, which already had extreme poverty rates in rural areas. The PRRO was designed to respond effectively to sudden and slow onset emergencies and aims to protect the livelihoods of vulnerable groups in emergency situations.

The regional nature of the operation, in which the WFP Regional Office supported the four country offices, offered the advantages of relationships with regional organizations, higher levels of funding, better positioning of the PRRO and a higher level of accountability. However, it also proved to be a challenge, as each country had different political contexts and processes, which are fundamental aspects in terms of the intervention and policies.

The evaluation took place between July 2015 and February 2016 and included a three week field mission in September and October to visit communities and WFP Country Offices in the four countries. The team met with multiple stakeholders and partners and conducted a number of focus group discussions with community members.

Read the full report.