Syria Crisis Corporate Response December 2012 - December 2014: Lessons Learned Exercise

This report sets out the findings of the Lessons Learned Exercise commissioned by WFP in July 2014 and is the seventh corporate response LLE. It is the first to take place while an L3 activation is still in place.

On 14 December 2012 WFP’s Executive Director declared a Level 3 Corporate Emergency (L3) to step up WFP’s response to the rapidly escalating events in the Syrian Arab Republic. The L3 Syria Crisis Corporate Response (SCCR) was the first under the revised Activation Protocol and was initially declared for three months. Since then it has been extended eight times. At the time of this Lessons Learned Exercise (LLE) the SCCR was set to be deactivated on 31 January 2015.

This Lessons Learned Exercise (LLE) focuses predominantly on the period just prior to the declaration of the L3 up until the end of July 2014. Normally LLEs are undertaken after the deactivation of an L3; but, given the protracted nature of the SCCR L3, the REC and DoE felt the need to draw lessons from the ongoing operation. Taking stock at this stage would benefit not only the current operation but also future L3s, which would gain useful insights from the lessons and best practices identified.

A five-person team, consisting of three staff members of the Emergency Preparedness Division and two external consultants, carried out the LLE. Team members undertook a thorough desk review of over 80 documents. They also conducted eight focus group discussions and more than 50 one- on-one interviews in Headquarters, the Regional Emergency Coordinator’s (REC) Office in Jordan and the Emergency Coordinator’s (EC) Office in Lebanon. Telephone interviews were carried out with the RB, COs and ECs in the region. Interviewees included staff currently involved in the response, as well as some who were deployed in earlier phases of the emergency.