Evaluating BHA/Office of Africa’s Regional Rapid Response Fund

This report provides an evaluation of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) Office of Africa's 2019 pilot of three multi-year regional Rapid Response Fund (RRF) mechanisms. The pilots aimed to:

• Facilitate an immediate response within 72 hours of a Declaration of Humanitarian Need, particularly in countries where BHA does not have an active presence; and
• Strengthen the capacity of local organizations to be able to better respond to disasters.

Through these RRFs, international as well as local organizations were supported to provide short-term, effective, and quick-impact interventions within a maximum of 90 days from the start of the response to meet acute emergency humanitarian needs. In 2022/23, BHA’s Office of Technical Program Quality conducted this review of the RRF pilot to assess its efficiency and appropriateness in deploying an emergency response and to inform decisions on whether BHA should continue with a regional RRF model.