Evaluation Learnings Search

Learning Description

Offering free lunches in schools serving vulnerable children. The ENHANCE project provided support to a humanitarian school in Ho Chi Minh City serving migrant children. Through project support, the school offered school lunches, a strategy both project managers and Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs officials reported to be effective at keeping migrant children in school for longer hours. According to the school’s director, “Before ENHANCE support, children went to school for a half day and left before lunch time… some children were met by their parents at the school gate with lottery tickets in hand—they went sell those on the street. Since we started providing lunch, many of these children stay in school, had a good meal, a good rest, and time to study in the afternoon.”

Learning Description

South/South knowledge-sharing activities. The ENHANCE project featured several activities aimed at fostering knowledge sharing between countries in the region on ways to effectively prevent and reduce child labor. For example, the ENHANCE project sponsored a study trip by a Vietnamese tripartite delegation to learn about the Philippines’ experiences combatting child labor. Vietnam hosted a knowledge sharing and training workshop for stakeholders from Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Philippines. Vietnam's Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs officials underscored the high value they placed on learning from other countries’ experiences to guide the development of Vietnam’s own child labor policies and programs.

Learning Description

Collaboration with the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance. The ENHANCE project collaborated with the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance on awareness raising and livelihood support activities. The ENHANCE project trained Vietnam Cooperative Alliance educators and officers on the prevention and reduction of child labor and on the SCREAM (Supporting Children's Rights through Education, the Arts, and the Media) package. Several International Labor Organization and Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs officials highlighted the strategic value of working with Vietnam Cooperative Alliance, given its strong presence in agricultural zones and focus on improving livelihood activities in family enterprises and small holder farms where child labor is most prevalent.

Learning Description

To increase positive outcomes, project livelihood assistance needed to be provided over a longer period. Within the project’s livelihood component, implementing partners reported that services needed to be extended for a longer time to cement learning, improve practices, and increase livelihoods sustainably.

Learning Description

Country governments valued the ATLAS project as a government-to-government exchange of expertise. They appreciated exchanging information with U.S. counterparts and learning about how specific issues are handled in the United States. An example is the Prosecution Unit for Combating Human Trafficking and Exploitation workshop on reparations for victims held in Argentina with participation from the U.S. Embassy.

Learning Description

Conducting and disseminating research to refine project intervention strategies, mobilize stakeholders, and influence the government of Vietnam and other partner policies and practices. The ENHANCE project reported collecting and using baseline data, Know About Business surveys, value chain assessments, and other assessments to refine its intervention strategies. One ENHANCE program manager highlighted that project needs assessments were a key to successful capacity building activities, explaining that “we needed to analyze the functions of the stakeholders, their capacity as well as their needs in terms of support. From that we developed an action plan or training materials.” Similarly, project and implementing partner personnel reported that the ENHANCE project’s value chain assessments formed the basis for developing livelihood models tailored to local market demand and the needs and capacities of families within the livelihood component of the project. Finally, the International Labor Organization and Vietnam's Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs officials and other implementing partners highlighted that the National Child Labor Survey provided needed evidence to convince national stakeholders of the need to address child labor and to guide the development of related policies and programs.

Learning Description

The Better Work Ethiopia project’s planned sustainability activities like establishing an alumni network to encourage peer to peer learning and a three-month mentoring program. Though a “buddy system” exists informally, the Better Work Ethiopia project plans to formalize this initiative. The new structure would include training of trainers to build expertise with human resources personnel and other internal capacity efforts to support workers.

Learning Description

The Better Work Ethiopia project established a call center to handle grievances such as unlawful termination, harassment, and violation of rights. Issues are coordinated via the workers’ union, and further addressed by the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association and Hawassa University, which provide pro bono legal aid services to workers. These resources provide workers with the necessary means to raise issues and be treated more fairly in the workplace.

Learning Description

The COVID-19 pandemic, Ethiopia’s removal from the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and the conflict in Tigray contributed to project delays but the Better Work Ethiopia project’s adaptive management techniques worked well. Project staff pivoted to identify suitable factories and establish COVID-19 prevention and work safety measures.

Learning Description

Factory management needs to be consulted and made aware of the importance of allocating time and resources so that women’s committees can conduct meetings at work sites. An important constraint is that time allocation for women’s committees has to be designed in an equitable way such that male employees also have time allocated for analogous activities.