Evaluation of the 2017 Somalia Humanitarian Cash-Based Response

After several years of poor rainfall, the humanitarian community responded to a famine alert issued in January 2017 with a significant scale-up of funding and programmes. Having originally published a 2017 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) in November 2016, by May 2017, the Somalia Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) revised the HRP upwards to target 5.5 million people needing assistance. The UN, Red Cross, Red Crescent Movement and numerous international and national NGOs delivered a wide variety of life-saving and livelihood support CBA to vulnerable people across the country.

The overarching objective of this evaluation was to review the joint performance and impact of the humanitarian CBA in the response to the 2017 drought in Somalia. It also examines the opportunities inherent in using CBA on a large scale, its sustainability, and informs the on-going 2018 response. The evaluation Terms of Reference (ToR) showing the primary and secondary questions for the evaluation are included in Annex 1.

The three primary questions guiding the evaluation were:
1. How did the CBA perform against the stated objectives, the OECD DAC criteria and Grand Bargain Commitments on cash?
2. How did the CBA impact Somali households and markets, as well as meet the recipients’ needs?
3. To what extent has the CBA built systems and capacity for improved resilience in the future, and which are the
concrete actions that can improve cash programming in Somalia?