Evaluation Learnings Search

Learning Description

Social protection access strengthening activities such as linking community leadership with social protection service providers and development of a referral booklet listing available services and contacts for communities to use.

Learning Description

An additional good practice that the evaluator identified was the focus on teacher involvement in many project activities. While it is common to do so in child labor projects, in the ARCH project there was special emphasis on including teachers in community monitoring. Teachers proved to be effective monitors at community level and have been especially stimulated in the project to participate in the CLMC and other project activities. The project found that, at community level, the teachers are the most appropriate monitors and are passionate “to see that the children attend school regularly”.54 The teachers, which the government pays, are formally integrated in the education system.55 Furthermore, they live in the communities and the project has trained them on how to monitor the children. Since the teachers are frequently part of the child labor monitoring committee and the PTA, so it makes good sense to include them in monitoring activities.

Learning Description

In countries with low levels of decentralization, strong focus is needed from an early stage on coordinating actions on child labor and related educational interventions among local authorities, private sector, and civil society at local administrative levels (lowest government administrative levels).

Learning Description

Involving school principals in accelerated learning needs special focus to ensure sustainability over the long term. It is also important for teacher training in general education and accelerated learning courses to include more focus on learning content as opposed to pedagogy. While pedagogy is important, especially for older grades, teachers need more support to learn about subject matter content as it can too frequently be assumed that teachers have the necessary knowledge.

Learning Description

To ensure replicability of projects such as ARCH, emphasis needs to be placed on the enabling environment at national level with regard to legal and policy frameworks as well as the allocation of financial and other resources. This is especially true for countries where the enabling environment is inadequate. It should also be clear that it is the project’s holistic approach that has contributed to its overall success. _x000D_

Learning Description

Adaptation of the Spaces for Growth (EpC in Spanish) Methodology: The EpC methodology is proving to be an effective means of engaging children outside of their traditional schooling to reduce and prevent child labor, while improving academic performance and imparting new teaching methods to teachers and school directors. As described in the interim evaluation, there is significant support for the EpC methodology from schools, parents, government representatives, and the facilitators and students themselves. While challenges exist in maintaining the quality of each EpC, stakeholders agree that EducaFuturo’s implementation of this methodology and efforts to adapt the curricula to the distinct country contexts in Panama and Ecuador are essential to the project’s ongoing success, and represent a valuable tool for future child labor prevention programming.

Learning Description

Recruitment of High-Quality Spaces for Growth (EpC) Facilitators: The EpC facilitator largely determines the quality of the EpC, and EducaFuturo has done an admirable job of engaging and training dynamic individuals for this role. The project has a mix of schoolteachers and community members as facilitators, and each provides unique advantages; schoolteachers learn new teaching methods to replicate in the classroom and strengthen the link between the EpC and the school, while community members strengthen the link between the EpC and the community and are well placed to build community support for the project. While not all facilitators observed by the evaluator appeared to implement the methodology in the same way, the project is cognizant of the critical role of each facilitator and is committed to ongoing monitoring and training.

Learning Description

Regional Coordination: Coordination staff in each target region strengthens the management of EducaFuturo. These coordinators, hired mostly through the project’s implementing agencies, provide oversight and quality control of project activities within their geographic area. Coordinators also serve as a liaison with beneficiary families and local officials in beneficiary communities, often visiting families to ensure active participation in the project and meeting with local officials to request support for the project. The regional coordinators will play a critical role in providing oversight and quality control as the youth and livelihoods activities ramp up and the project reaches its full implementation.

Learning Description

Parental Involvement: EducaFuturo has successfully engaged parents in project activities, achieving support for participation and raising awareness regarding the importance of education and the risks of child labor. EducaFuturo regularly convenes groups of parents to discuss participation in the EpC, conducts home visits to meet one-on-one, organizes family committees to raise awareness in local communities and has trained parents and other community members as Spaces for Growth (EpC) facilitators.

Learning Description

Monitoring by Project Staff: EducaFuturo has demonstrated a strong commitment to monitoring project activities. According to Annex H of the April 2015 TPR report, EducaFuturo staff conducted a total of 26 monitoring visits in Panama and Ecuador during the October 2014-March 2015 reporting period. This has allowed the project to strengthen data collection and reporting processes with implementing agencies, more accurately track project performance and identify incomplete beneficiary records for completion. Given the difficulties faced in specific project areas, it will be critical that EducaFuturo maintain this level of monitoring as the project moves forward.