This USAID funded impact evaluation was implemented through the LASER-PULSE consortium over a period of four-years. The evaluation was conducted by a consortium of the following institutions: University of Notre Dame, AidData, Purdue University, Makerere University RAN, and University of Juba.

It assessed the effectiveness of Multi-Year Emergency (MYE) Activities in South Sudan as a critical link between humanitarian and development programming. The evaluation addressed the humanitarian-development nexus hypothesis: that longer-term, more predictable emergency assistance could better build resilience at household and community  levels rather than traditional short-term humanitarian responses.

The evaluation used a quasi-experimental design to examine multiple impact dimensions: household food and nutrition security using standardized measures adapted for South Sudanese contexts; households’ ability to mitigate and recover from shocks through analysis of coping strategies, asset accumulation, and livelihood diversification; community resilience; and the added value of multi-year programming compared to traditional emergency responses.

The Cost-effectiveness analysis compared MYE approaches with conventional humanitarian programming. Data collection employed multiple methods: household surveys adapted for mobile populations, participatory resilience assessments with communities, key informant interviews with implementing partners and local authorities, and conflict incident tracking. The evaluation faced significant implementation challenges including population displacement, access restrictions, and data quality concerns in conflict-affected areas, and requiring continuous adaptation of methodologies.