Evaluation Learnings Search

Learning Description

Some factors have proven to be crucial in creating an enabling environment for the successful implementation of the GAP project. These factors include the social and political context; the political commitment to fight against child labor/forced labor; the national stakeholders’ motivation and engagement; and national capacities

Learning Description

Flexibility to adapt the budget and the activities is essential to address the actual needs in countries. In this sense, the “output<based budget” and the possibility to adapt activities to concrete contexts has been a key asset to project implementation. On the other hand, changes that are more significant require a project revision, which is a long and difficult process that can take up to a year. This makes it difficult to adapt the original project concept to local situations and needs.

Learning Description

The enabling environment is challenging in some countries. Activities in some countries are stalled due to lack of political commitment. In others, low capacity of the labor ministries is hindering the execution of some activities. The security situation in other countries prevented the project from beginning activities.

Learning Description

The child labor and forced labor situation varies substantially among countries. Prior experience addressing child labor and forced labor, national structures, legislation, and previous projects varies considerably from country to country. Accordingly, the pace of implementation, the outputs produced, and the probability of achieving the project’s objectives can differ greatly from country to country.

Learning Description

The project identified and built the capacity of “champions” - people with strong personal commitments to fighting child labor. One example that stands out from field visits was a senator from Cameroon who benefited from training in Turin for Parliamentarians from West Africa and an exchange visit in Ghana (funded by another project). She came back from these experiences very committed to working with the ILO and was using what she learned first at the level of her constituency (changing mindsets and policy implementation at the regional and local levels through dialogue with governors and local authorities) in addition to sharing information with her peers in the legislature. She contributed to GAP11 work on the NAP with an action plan for the senate. A key lesson learned from this experience is that building the capacity of well-selected individuals can have an outsized effect on levels of national ownership for child labor initiatives in a given country. It also showed the relevance of working with legislators and the value of regional exchanges between Parliamentarians when the right participants are selected for these programs.

Learning Description

GAP11 impact evaluation work was both innovative and relevant and constitutes a good practice. UCW researchers either introduced questions or developed modules on child labor (analysis of existing datasets) to planned or ongoing impact evaluations of programs with a direct or indirect bearing on child labor. One of the key lessons learned from the approach was that it is possible to generate knowledge on policy impact without having to undertake full impact evaluations looking specifically at child labor. One of the positive outcomes of UCW research is a better understanding of the role of social protection in explaining observed global child labor trends. Building the capacity of national universities and nonprofit research organizations to collect and analyze data on child labor was also a good practice developed by UCW within GAP11. Support for capacity building is accompanied by small research grants designed to enable university researchers to apply their training by conducting actual field research on child labor. The sub component was highly appreciated by the institutions that took part in its activities and resulted in a wide range of new national-level research partnerships. One interesting aspect of the approach, according to one UCW researcher, was that it facilitated research in countries where approaching the government statistics office for collaboration on issues related to child labor would be otherwise difficult or impossible, such as in India.

Learning Description

The MAP 16 project has enabled the development of the Hazardous Child Labour List for the first time in Montenegro. It has been developed in consultation with 25 members of the technical working group, with a high level of agreement among the members. As a member of the technical working group, the representative of the Ombudsman initiated the consultative process with the child advisers to get their opinions on the draft of the Hazardous Child Labour List. Namely, the Golden Advisors’ Network, which consists of twelve members 11–17 years old, was established in 2014 to enable children’s participation in the Ombudsman’s work. The draft of the Hazardous Child Labour List was shared with the child advisors, and the representative of the Ombudsman presented opinions of child advisors at the meeting of the TWG. The document review and stakeholder interviews confirmed that most of the children’s recommendations were adopted, such as the request to eliminate fisheries, cultivation of aromatic and spicy herbs, cosmetics and body care from the list of hazardous labor. Children also supported the need to add child begging to the list. This presented a good practice for children’s voices to be heard during the development of legislation relevant to protect children.

Learning Description

There has been a good practice of visible regional collaboration and exchange among International Labour Organization offices in Montenegro and Serbia. The project team in Serbia supported colleagues in Montenegro by sharing experiences from the CLEAR (Country Level Engagement and Assistance to Reduce Child Labor) project, as similar activities are planned under the MAP 16 project in Montenegro. An interviewee said, “Each of the ILO offices is good and supporting itself to avoid duplication, and has even engaged the same consultants, as these are already well-skilled.”

Learning Description

GAP11 interventions featured many good practices that merit highlighting. These include cost effective capacity building approaches, strategic choices of target beneficiaries, innovative methods for conducting child labor research, promoting greater coordination among national stakeholders, and sharing national staff with other ILO projects.

Learning Description

To date, GAP11 has developed or is in the process of developing a number of global capacity building tools: the child labor in domestic work report and World Day Against Child Labor awareness raising materials,39 a toolkit for NAP development and implementation, an e-learning tool for labor inspectors, guidelines for conducting surveys on child labor in domestic work and the guidelines for education and child labor in fragile states. These tools have the potential to be cost effective in as much as they may be used to build capacity or guide capacity building activities by stakeholders inside and outside the ILO over and over again, beyond the life of the project. Although by their nature they are standardized tools, they capture what has been learned by various stakeholders on a variety of issues in multiple contexts and likely, over time, will be translated into multiple languages. They will likely contribute to sharing knowledge created through GAP11 work. For example the CLEAR40 project manager indicated that he plans to use the e-learning tool to train labor inspectors in his project.