An Evaluation of WFP’s L3 Response to the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Crisis in West Africa (2014– 2015)

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.