Evaluation of the Level 3 Response to the Cholera Epidemic in Yemen: A Crisis within a Crisis

This evaluation, requested by the UNICEF Middle East and North Africa Regional Office (MENARO), was commissioned and managed by the Evaluation Office in New York. It was conducted between December 2017 and March 2018 by an experienced senior evaluator and an epidemiologist with cholera expertise, with the support and direct involvement of staff from the Evaluation Office. Its main purpose was (a) to help inform the organization’s approach to further potential cholera epidemics in Yemen, based on an analysis of lessons from the response to the 2016-2017 outbreak; (b) to provide some basis of accountability for that response; and (c) to add to the organization’s global learning on cholera prevention and response. Due to security restrictions, the evaluation team was unable to visit Yemen, but it did have face-to-face meetings in Amman with many of the staff from the Yemen Country Office who were evacuated to Jordan in December 2017, as well as remote conversations with others inside and outside UNICEF. A limited number of local partner interviews and focus group discussions with volunteers and beneficiaries were held through consultants based in Yemen. A visit was also made by the team to Geneva to consult some of those involved from the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the global water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and health clusters.