Evaluation Learnings Search

Learning Description

The criteria for the selection of subcontractors should include significant experience in the area of child labor. Having more in-depth knowledge in this work could have resulted in prior understanding that most working children in Peru attend school in addition to working. This knowledge could have been anticipated and taken into account in the project’s design and strategies

Learning Description

The channels of communication should be clearer and used more effectively between USDOL, grantees, and subcontractors. Many interviewees sought to explain miscommunication by identifying only one party as the cause of challenges. This miscommunication resulted in moments of tension, like the revision of contracts after the audit, which have long-lasting effects. The project could have sought out more positive avenues for addressing the challenges associated with implementation and resolving audit findings.

Learning Description

The relationship between grantees and subcontractors should be one with a clear division of labor but also one of close collaboration. This project could have been more than the sum of its parts had the constituent teams and beneficiaries seen themselves as one consolidated and coordinated project, rather than having disjointed (though often effective) efforts.

Learning Description

The highly effective strategies of home visits and referral centers highlighted the importance of finding multiple points of contact between education systems, children, and their families. Working with children, as all the local teams know, means working with adults (such as fathers, mothers, and grandmothers).

Learning Description

Parents in general and mothers in particular become increasingly involved and spend considerable time at referral centers. Therefore, strategies should be designed to integrate parents more fully into educational activities, which can benefit them and their children.

Learning Description

The local success of the teams contrasts with the lack of coordination in putting together a national-level awareness campaign and policy network. While the most important work of the project occurs in the engagement with beneficiaries, the lack of coordination among the leadership of the various organizations resulted in some missed opportunities to be more effective.

Learning Description

Allowing non-project teachers in participating schools to take part in teacher training sessions is a good practice. This expands the reach of new methodologies, and works toward raising awareness of child labor issues.

Learning Description

The main lesson that emerges with regard to efficiency relates to the already stated problem of coordination; the project often seemed like several projects rather than one coordinated effort. Better communication, coordination, and planning would have helped generate a common monitoring process from the outset that could have resulted in gains in efficiency and sustainability.

Learning Description

A second lesson relates to the larger tension that emerges when there is more focus on effective monitoring than the educational strategies and work with beneficiaries, which the teams see as their primary goal.

Learning Description

Education and educators should expand the horizons and hopes of children. As development practitioners think more in terms of fostering capacities, the capacity to aspire for a better life should continue to be nurtured.