Evaluation Learnings Search

Learning Description

Country selection is a critical stage in project design that needs adequate time and resources: Due to political and bureaucratic factors, the process of identifying and agreeing on project target countries takes a considerable amount of time. In most countries, a scoping mission that includes face-to-face discussions with a variety of national stakeholders is needed prior to country selection and the development of a results framework. This is particularly true for grantees like the CLEAR II consortium that may be entering countries where the grantee has no permanent presence and limited or no prior relevant in-country experience.

Learning Description

The need to complete and approve a regulatory process before moving forward with related project activities created a domino effect and compromised the once-feasible goal of completing the ECMS rollout and follow-up processes within the project timeline.

Learning Description

Implementing a large number of educational and livelihood activities during the relatively short implementation period made it more difficult to ensure proper follow-up for each intervention. Reducing the number of activities and/or speeding up the CMEP development and approval process could provide the additional time and resources needed to provide closer follow-up of project activities and participants. This, in turn, could strengthen project outcomes and sustainability._x000D_

Learning Description

Young leaders forming Youth Banks had high expectations that the selected community development proposal would be funded. From the initiation of the project, it is important for project implementers to make clear if funding limitations exist and if the project cannot fund all selected proposals. At the same time, youth should receive additional technical assistance to strengthen funding proposals to pursue other funding sources, including municipal funds and private donors.

Learning Description

Income-generation activities might have been more successful by targeting beneficiaries who had already established micro-enterprises, instead of those who were starting new initiatives. In this way, beneficiaries could immediately apply the skills they acquired through the Entrelazos training program, which would increase the likelihood of achieving concrete results and forming model programs for future initiatives.

Learning Description

The legal recognition of the CLCs by the STSS Social Welfare unit (“Previsión Social”) should have been obtained at an earlier stage of the project. This would have enabled project staff to work with STSS to provide follow-up and to document the results of the CLC actions to prevent child labor in their respective communities.

Learning Description

The Honduran-adapted Youth Bank methodology showed effective and sustainable results in developing youth leadership and management skills in youth-led, youth-managed community development initiatives.

Learning Description

The WRC community outreach campaigns successfully raised awareness of worker rights and greatly increased the visibility of the WRC legal services.

Learning Description

Sustained support to TOT trained individuals in the form of coaching, mentoring and/or in-service follow up can aid institutionalization of labor inspector capacity building efforts. CLEAR II provided mentoring and monitoring to ToT trained participants who co-facilitated trainings with other government agencies and the private sector on child labor post ToT. However structured follow-up mentoring or coaching did not happen with regard to their actual inspection work, making it difficult to assess the level of institutionalization. Research shows that peer and supervisory support and follow-up activities results in improved transfer of skills and knowledge in the workspace.

Learning Description

The process for defining workplans in CLEAR II countries involved consultations with different Ministries and Agencies involved in the fight against child labor. However, workplans were agreed with MoL and no agreements for direct activities with other ministries were established except in Jamaica where a signed MOU exists for CPFSA under the Ministry of Education. Although participation of officials from other ministries in trainings, workshops or membership in project-established bodies such as the LRCs, enhanced planning, limiting agreements to MOL alone reduces the effectiveness of capacity building efforts, ultimately limiting the host government’s potential for a comprehensive response to concrete cases of child labor that future projects should avoid.