External Evaluation of the Rapid Response to Population Movements (RRMP) Program in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Nearly a decade ago, UNICEF, OCHA, DFID and a handful of international Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) decided to collectively improve their emergency response capacities, which was eventually launched as the Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM). In 2010 the RRM was merged with another UNICEF-led project, the Programme of Expanded Assistance to Returns (PEAR) that targeted returned Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to assume its current form as the Rapid Response to Population Movements (RRMP). The RRMP has been supported by a range of donors over the years and is currently the largest single humanitarian response programme in DRC after food aid, with a budget of over $37 million during 2012.

This is an independent assessment on how the RRMP is delivering on its stated objectives (effectiveness), achieving its stated goal (appropriateness), whether it is an efficient model for humanitarian aid delivery (efficiency), and identify how it could be improved to have greater impact. This evaluation also hoped to provide a systematic and independent assessment of RRMP’s performance and outcomes to date, and identify areas for improvement along with relevant recommendations to address both immediate and longer-term strategic issues. Quantitative and qualitative data was gathered from various sources and team members also undertook field visits to provinces and districts in Province Orientale, North and South Kivu.