External End of Project Evaluation of the Food Security Project Supported by the Japanese Government and Implemented by IFRC & ZRCS

The food security situation remains a critical challenge as the country is affected by droughts, pro-longed dry spells, limited access to inputs, as well as urban poverty. Other assessments have also shown that access to clean and safe water remains limited, while most schools have a lower number of toilets compared to the minimum standard. In an effort to alleviate and address the challenges facing rural and urban households the ZRCS with technical support from the IFRC and financial support from the Japanese government implemented a food security project. The project was designed to address urban food insecurity through food voucher distribution, rural food insecurity through capacity building and inputs support as well as increasing water and sanitation coverage through borehole rehabilitations in communities and latrine construction targeting schools. The project reached 7,000 rural households, 4,960 urban households and supported a number of institutions and communities in 13 districts across 5 provinces in Zimbabwe. This end-of-project evaluation seeks to assess the performance of the project based on five key evaluation criteria viz: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability.