In 2016, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched a joint project to rebuild livelihoods shattered by conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), by empowering women, supporting farmers and helping build peace between communities. This was funded by the German Cooperation through KfW with a grant of 35 million EUR.
Working hand-in-hand in using their collective expertise, WFP and FAO have set out efforts to assist rural farming communities returning home after forced displacement. The support includes a short-term safety net for people in urgent need, as well as micro-financing, numeracy and literacy training, economic empowerment training for women, and conflict prevention tools.
The aim is to bridge the gap between humanitarian assistance and development work, by improving value chains and livelihood development for smallholder farmers, thus supporting the emergence of more resilient and peaceful communities. Families will benefit from better access to markets, training in sustainable agricultural production, including post-harvest management, adequate agro-processing and marketing of their produce to boost their income and improve their food and nutrition security.
The overall task of the consultancy was to support WFP and FAO in the monitoring and reporting of the project “Stabilization of Priority Post-Conflict Areas of DRC”. This included support in a review of the operational management and coordination of the project,identifying improvements in data collection and analysis, updating / finalizing the effects matrix, and drafting an evaluation report.