Evaluation of the Impact of Food for Assets on Livelihood Resilience in Uganda (2005-2010)

Part of a series that assessed outcomes and impacts of WFP's food-for-assets (FFA) programming on livelihoods resilience, the evaluation identified lessons for enhancing impacts and alignment with WFP's 2011 Food for Assets Guidance Manual and Disaster Risk Reduction Policy, covering WFP’s FFA components implemented in Uganda between 2005-2010 within four Country Programmes and Protracted Relief and Rehabilitation Operations. Participants received up to 90 days of food entitlements for asset construction. Using a theory-based approach and mixed methods of document review, household surveys, asset assessments, focus groups, and interviews, the evaluation found that FFA achieved significant short-term benefits in the conflict-transition context. WFP is acknowledged to have operated at scale in remote dangerous parts of northern Uganda, and as one of the first organisation to shift to recovery programming. Assets, designed appropriately to address immediate needs, were constructed in isolation and dependent on scarce technical partners, contributing only to marginal livelihood gains. The evaluation recommended a corporate roll-out of the FFA guidance, follow-up actions for knowledge-transfer, the development of comprehensive FFA plans, and the inclusion of lessons learned from transitional contexts such as vulnerability-based targeting.