EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
[1.1]This document is an evaluation report for the Building Resilient Pastoralist Communities (BRPC) project co-financed by European Union (90%) under the Food Facility Financing Instrument, Trόcaire (7%) and Cordaid (3%), and jointly implemented by Trόcaire (lead agency) in consortium with Cordaid; Action for Development (AFD); Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD); Community Initiatives, Facilitation and Assistance (CIFA); Gayo Pastoral Development Initiative (GPDI); SOS Sahel Ethiopia and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) an associate partner. The project was implemented between December 23, 2009 and December 31, 2011 (including the two month start up phase) in eight pastoral districts of Borana Zone in Oromia Region, with a total budget of €2,495,923.
[1.4.1]Overall objective of the final evaluation was to make an overall independent assessment of project performance, paying particular attention to the impact of the project.
[1.4.2]This report is based on firsthand information collected from seven of the project districts and on other pertinent primary and secondary data collected from different sources by employing qualitative approach during the second decade of December 2011.
[1.2]The project districts are characterized, among the others, by chronic food insecurity that is principally instigated by recurring drought, degraded natural resource bases, severe scarcity of water, etc. The project life had coincided with severe drought that claimed lives of more than 300 thousand heads of livestock and necessitated relief intervention (food, water, etc.) for more than 439 thousand people in the Zone.
[1.3.2]The overall objective of BRPC was to enable the pastoralist communities in Borana Zone develop increased productive and income generating capacity which reduces their vulnerability to volatile food prices. It was envisaged to attain this through three specific objectives under which six results were identified.
[2.1]The project had contextualized the global food facility initiative to circumstances of the project area in a way that it could contribute to sustainable solution of the chronic problems of the target community that, among the others, are manifested in high food prices. The project and its different activities were also in line with policies, strategies and priorities of the Government and the UN Millennium Development Goals. The Evaluation Team (ET) has learned that the consortium approach had added value, and also observed a mismatch between duration of the project and the time required for successful accomplishment of some of the project activities, which was due to ambitious planning.