Zimbabwe Food Security - Emergency Appeal Evaluation

Following a hyper-arid condition throughout the 2012/13 season, greater parts of southern Africa, including Zimbabwe, became food insecure. This situation saw the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society (ZRCS) and International Federation for the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launching an emergency appeal, MDRZW008, in December 2013. This was to assist food insecure households in Gwanda District in the Matebeleland South province of Zimbabwe. During the operation, most of the affected households (10,500 people from 2,100 households) received support over a seven month period which included emergency food aid for 3 months, borehole rehabilitation and nutritional gardening support.

In the final stages of the Emergency Appeal operation, a field visit was conducted from 20 to 22 July by an evaluation team consisting of IFRC and ZRCS PMER officers to evaluate the operation and document the lessons learnt from the implementation process. The team conducted key informant interviews (KII) with relevant stakeholders and focus group discussions with beneficiaries and volunteers to assess the entire operation.