Abstract
This report assesses the effectiveness of the 2007–13 USAID/DELIVER project in Malawi and identifies strengths, weakness, and lessons learned. It also draws conclusions about the most significant achievements of the project in terms of the objectives of USAID/Malawi and the Government of Malawi for supply chain reinforcement and commodity security (CS). A secondary objective of the evaluation was to assess gaps in supply chain management (SCM) in terms of the project's current program and approach and to identify potential future programming approaches. The evaluation methodology relied on proven approaches for performance evaluations: document and literature review, drafting of open-ended key informant questionnaires, interviews with implementing and development partners, and site visits. The performance evaluation sought to answer three questions: (1) what were the strengths and weaknesses of the program in Malawi in achieving project objectives; (2) to what extent has the program contributed to improved national capacity for commodity and SCM; and (3) what are options for addressing identified gaps in strengthening Malawian capacity to assure commodity security. This report presents findings, challenges, gaps, and recommendations for each of these questions. Though the performance of the project has been mixed, USAID/DELIVER has successfully operated PSCs and made procurements on behalf of the United States Government (USG) and has institutionalized a logistics management information system (LMIS) in Malawi. (Excerpt, modified)