Review of Food for Peace Market-Based Emergency Food Assistance Programs: Democratic Republic of Congo Case Study Report

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) case illustrates the complexity and diversity of contexts within which program design and implementation occurs. It highlights the need for provincial-scale assessments, local market monitoring, and flexibility to pivot to different modalities depending on changing contexts such as influxes of refugees from neighboring countries; sporadic inter-tribal conflict and subsequent internal displacements; seasonally poor road conditions; and insufficient mobile networks. All modalities were useful in at least some of the heterogeneous contexts, especially voucher fairs with in-kind aid (U.S.-sourced and locally and regionally purchased foods). This case also highlights collaborative programming between FFP and the United States Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.