Evaluation of Oxfam GB’s Food Aid and Food Security Emergency Intervention in Mauritania

This report is an output of an evaluation of Oxfam GB’s food aid distribution and food security emergency programme carried out in the Aftout and Affole areas of the Brakna region of Mauritania in 2002 and 2003. The evaluation was undertaken in January 2004 by two consultants from Acacia Consultants Ltd., a relief and development consultancy firm based in Nairobi, East Africa (with assistance of an experienced local consultant), together with Oxfam GB staff, earlier involved in the implementation of the Programme. The report presents the details of the programme as planned, the progress realized in the implementation of activities and the results and impacts achieved so far.
This report is in 6 chapters. The first chapter is the introduction. It provides the details of the drought emergency programme and the food security emergency project, their objectives and activities, expected outputs and beneficiaries. It also provides background information on the household food security situation prior to intervention. Chapter two outlines the general findings of the evaluation including: analysis of programme preparation, the drought context in the project area, the operating environment, timeliness of the response, appropriateness of programme design, effectiveness of the implementation strategy and the role of other stakeholders in the implementation of the programme. Chapter three presents the assessment of the extent to which expected outputs have been achieved while chapter four details the effects and impacts of the programme. Chapter five gives a summary of the key issues arising from the evaluation and the lessons learned so far. Chapter six contains the recommendations of the Evaluation Team.