Evaluation Learnings Search

Learning Description

The importance of school feeding when planning the accelerated education program. As indicated several times in this report, the accelerated education program is considered the most acclaimed intervention of the project by nearly all participants who provided data for the interim evaluation. This was also reiterated in the stakeholders’ workshop, and some even went further and suggested that the success of the accelerated education program be shared with others through publication in reputable journals and other forms of documentation. Along with the success, it is important to note that the accelerated education program’s success was recorded not without challenges. One of the program's challenges was resistance from parents at the beginning, who suggested that their children stay in school for a half day only, just like other children in regular schools. The second challenge pertains to school feeding. Initially, there was no school feeding in the project’s plan. However, recognizing the fact that the program cannot proceed as planned without feeding the children, the project management, after some arrangements, started feeding the children, and the program went well. The main lesson learned from this challenge is that an accelerated education program is unlikely to be successful without school feeding, particularly in areas where child labor is prevalent. Future programming should, therefore, include a school feeding program when planning to implement an accelerated education program in similar contexts.

Learning Description

The marketing of projects in government agencies, civil society organizations, and target communities is important in terms of helping to push ongoing commitment to the project outcomes. However, the CACAO project provided less marketing compared with other projects with similar outcomes which were more prominently represented with posters, signposts, and pamphlets throughout the zone of intervention.

Learning Description

Challenges in early project implementation: insights from the Vision Zero Fund project initiatives. An important lesson learned is that implementing core project activities for US Department of Labor-funded and Vision Zero Fund-implemented projects in the first year can be challenging due to extensive preparatory requirements. These requirements include developing a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation plan and conducting Vision Zero Fund's occupational safety and health drivers and constraints study. Although projects may begin implementation with an approved results framework and activity mapping, activities requiring baseline data collection must wait until indicators are developed and data collection instruments are approved. US Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs made several attempts to accelerate progress by requesting a specific/actionable activity mapping and results framework, with the understanding that changes might occur based on stakeholder feedback. However, specifics were only available near the conclusion of the occupational safety and health drivers and constraints study. The International Labor Organization and Vision Zero Fund project teams must streamline these preparatory processes to reduce delays and enable a timelier start to project activities. The International Labor Organization and Vision Zero Fund project teams must streamline these preparatory processes in order reduce delays and enable a timelier start to project activities.

Learning Description

Village Savings and Loan Associations exist in rural, low-income communities all over the world where community members have difficulty accessing conventional banking institutions. They existed in CACAO project communities before the project arrived, typically lasting for a brief period before disbanding. The Village Savings and Loan Associations associated with the CACAO project operate on a different, more professional, and vastly more successful plane. The beneficial outcomes for women, households, and communities are tangible. The key to the success of the Village Savings and Loan Associations under the CACAO project, in the view of the evaluation team, is that they provide paid facilitators who oversee and guide the functioning of the groups. They wear red vests, so they are distinguished in their roles, and they receive training and support from the prime grantee’s local partner. They are paid a stipend through the project’s period of performance, and the stipend will eventually to zero as the project matures. This commitment ensures that the Village Savings and Loan Associations function professionally like mini banks: meetings occur with regularity, contributions are tracked carefully, and the system for identifying and rotating individual loan recipients is well-organized. The value to members is apparent, so Village Savings and Loan Associations will likely continue to support a facilitator out of their own funds once the project ends.

Learning Description

Civil servants who work in fields associated with a challenging issue like child labor, from social workers to law enforcement agents to labor representatives, have a thirst for advanced trainings and capacity building to improve their individual and agency-level impact. Capacity building training has been very well received, and agents show demonstrable improvement in knowledge and remediation strategies, as evidenced by their familiarity with Save the Children Federation-supported guidelines for working with children, addressing gender-based violence, and other themes critical to their work. Yet, if they are unable to effectively reach communities, their impact will face hard limits. Unfortunately, the communities most in need of social workers and other assistance from social service agencies are often the most remote and difficult to reach. Local governments have limited resources to provide adequate means of transportation and mobility, so many of the capacity building benefits remain stuck in departmental capitals while critical needs persist in target communities.

Learning Description

Community members can be deeply motivated to help resolve issues that plague their communities, particularly when they receive information and training that underscores the consequences. The evaluation team saw evidence of this motivation among members of the Committees for Child Protection who are charged with monitoring and raising awareness around child labor in their communities. It is unfair, however, to rely on that motivation alone to expect community members to carry out taxing and costly work on a persistent basis. Even those with the motivation to make their communities better typically need, and deserve, incentives to carry on the effort. Committees for Child Protection members receive vests and materials to facilitate the awareness campaigns they lead, but they take on costs in time, effort, transportation, and other expenses. For the important work of community groups like Committees for Child Protection to continue in a sustainable manner, it is important to build in mechanisms for revenue generation at the group level that can provide the incentive for ongoing commitment among their members.

Learning Description

The selection of supply chains is a technical process that is institutionally and politically sensitive. In the course of this evaluation, it became evident that the process of selecting the project's target supply chains was not a mere technical exercise, but also institutionally and politically sensitive and time-consuming. The key takeaway from this experience is the paramountcy of engaging in a tripartite social dialogue process, which is informed by solid factual evidence about the supply chains as well as occupational safety and health deficiencies and opportunities. Such a process facilitates building trust among all stakeholders involved while securing their buy-in and ownership of the project. This collaborative approach ensures the alignment of the project with the evolving needs of the constituents and its adaptation to contextual challenges.

Learning Description

Staff turnover at the implementing partner level can undermine all the profoundly important objectives of a project. It is therefore critical that the work conditions and demands placed on implementing partner personnel be prioritized as a key to success in the development of activity plans. The evaluation team noticed that the prime grantee’s local implementing partner has the skills and desire at the field level to fulfill its obligations and make a real difference in the fight against child labor. Yet, it is limited in its capacity to do so. Staff members are overstretched, which causes them to seek opportunities elsewhere, which means recruiting replacements and taking steps backward to train new agents.

Learning Description

Cultural and economic norms that perpetuate social ills, such as child labor exploitation, can change with consistent and persistent messaging. The CACAO project effectively encouraged this practice through locally embedded Committees for Child Protection agents, staff members, and social workers. For example, community members were able to echo with precision the messaging from the CACAO project (and others combating child labor) related to the worst forms of child labor. Although more complete adoption of new norms may take more time, such messaging helps to establish collective views encouraging a gradual shift toward a new paradigm of child protection.

Learning Description

The CACAO project uses visual tools to build awareness in communities where literacy rates are low. Trainers responsible for raising awareness carry image booklets that are attractive, colorful, and easy to follow, and the practice appears to be the singular most effective way of teaching new best practices to an audience accustomed to a different set of norms. The reliance on images for awareness raising and instruction has been applied in numerous other contexts, from combatting HIV/AIDS to raising awareness during Ebola outbreaks. Similarly, the CACAO project has used the strategy with much success.