Final Evaluation Report: Responding to Pakistan’s Internally Displaced (RAPID) Fund (RAPID Fund-II)

Over the last decade, Pakistan experienced several large-scale man-made and natural disasters. This includes displacement and return of millions of people from conflict-affected Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), large-scale floods, prolonged drought situations and three major earthquakes. The vulnerability of the affected population was aggravated by limited access to basic services, protracted instability and access challenges which negatively impacted service delivery. As a result, millions of people, including women and children, were in need of humanitarian assistance in Pakistan.

“Responding to Pakistan’s Internally Displaced Population” (RAPID) Fund (RF) is United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID-OFDA) supported program in Pakistan implemented by Concern Worldwide. The first phase of RF was completed in 2013.The RAPID Fund-II (RF-II) addressed the urgent relief and early recovery needs of disaster-affected populations in Pakistan. RF-II awarded sub-grants to local and international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in coordination with respective authorities and humanitarian clusters. The second phase of RF was launched in 2013 and was completed in March 2019. RF-II responded to four types of emergencies: complex, floods, earthquakes and drought emergencies. Concern has reviewed 538 sub-award applications and approved 126 sub-awards up to December 2018 under RF-II.1 It reached approximately 2.9 million people (1.41 million men and 1.47 women) against the target of 2.8 million in OFDA’s eight thematic sectors in 29 districts of Pakistan.2 Overall, RF-II delivered 25.9% projects in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), 18.2% in Shelter, 16.3% in Health, 11.2% in Agriculture and Food Security, 10.3% in Logistics Support and Relief Commodities (LSRC), 4.3% in Economic Recovery and Market Systems (ERMS, 4.3% in Humanitarian Coordination and Information Management (HCIM) and 9.5% multisectorial projects. The third phase of RF is already approved which makes this evaluation even more important as learning from this exercise will guide the finalization of RF-III design.

This report was commissioned by Concern Worldwide to evaluate RF-II program with a particular emphasis on the program relevance and appropriateness, coverage, coordination, efficiency, effectiveness and capacity building. A mixed method evaluation framework was adopted including both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative methods included 58 Focus Group Discussions (attended by 539 participants including 235 women), 104 Key Informant Interviews (54 government officials), 37 Transect Walks and 651 household survey respondents (including 295 women). Quantitative data was collected from 10 districts covering over one-third of all RF-II program districts and 24 partners.