Evaluation Learnings Search

Learning Description

Undertaking a baseline survey provides good information for targeted interventions and upstream measures

Learning Description

Baseline studies provide a good tool for measuring impact after some years of implementation

Learning Description

Building the capacity of a local institution to undertake such studies regularly increases capacity of local institutions to undertake studies in the area of CL

Learning Description

Linking provision of health services to elimination of child labour is innovative but needs to be further explored

Learning Description

Increasing the understanding of child labor in the context of women's economic empowerment initiatives is most effective and relevant to stakeholders when framed through the lens of “harmful child work.” Replacing the term “child labor” with “harmful child work” distinguished the difference from legal child work, enabling coherence in concepts, definitions, and measures at global and country levels and promotes applicability across different stakeholder groups and contexts. The concept of harmful child work is less controversial and avoids negative portrayals of women entrepreneurs and households at risk of conducting harmful practices because of poverty, lack of knowledge, and other marginalizing circumstances, and so increases the likely uptake of the concepts.

Learning Description

The flexibility of the toolkit to align with women's economic empowerment financing organizations’ capacities and needs encourages their buy-in and use of the tools. The toolkit’s flexibility was exercised by identifying a ‘minimum package’ for implementation, phasing the tools according to intended types of users (management, staff, and women participants), and emboldening organizations to choose which tools, supplementary materials (videos, briefers), and engagement modalities (such as the safe spaces in El Salvador) are most relevant to use for their respective contexts. The implementation flexibility also maintained the project’s momentum despite the significant challenges raised by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learning Description

Aspiring for the toolkit’s adaptability at a global scale inevitably creates the expectation that the toolkit continually be adapted to be responsive to all contexts to meet stakeholders’ expectations. The goal to develop a globally adaptable toolkit influenced a remarkable pre-situational analysis that accounts for various legal, programmatic, and experiential nuances to child labor/harmful child work and acceptable conditions of work in the women's economic empowerment sector at global, country, community, and household levels. The pre-situational analysis served as the foundation for the child labor/harmful child work framing and “Do No Harm” approach, which is the defining feature of the toolkit. However, as the specific tools and supplementary materials are implemented, stakeholders expect a continuing need for contextspecific nuances (e.g., explanation of harmful child work risks among women entrepreneurs in communities with peace and security issues and modalities for low-literacy women to learn from the tools). This reality promotes a review of the toolkit’s readiness to be communicated as a globally adaptable tool and the strategic post-project actions that must be deployed to realize the high-level goal.

Learning Description

The project’s successes were enabled by the interconnected, dynamic efforts of experts and implementers providing direct support, networks advocating for the toolkit’s relevance, and organizations delivering the last-mile implementation. This networked mechanism nourished by the project to design, develop and implement the tools, with all the resources that each stakeholder brings, is seen as an important driver of the pilot organizations’ successes in implementing the toolkit. As such, these dynamic support mechanisms are an important consideration for project sustainability as new organizations implement the toolkit.

Learning Description

Coherent articulation of learning inputs, assessments, and concrete mitigating action and responses to harmful child work by stakeholder type to increase awareness and inspire concrete action toward achieving the project-level objective (integration of child labor issues into women's economic empowerment). This promising practice has two components that were effectively employed in the project to increase awareness and inspire concrete action. First, the pre-situational analysis and the toolkit coherently and comprehensively cover context analysis, assessment indicators, and appropriate responses, weaving the ‘why,’ ‘how,’ and ‘so what’ on addressing risks of harmful child work. Second, the insights and recommended action(s) are organized according to stakeholder types (management, staff, and women entrepreneurs) to reflect their respective scale of actionable change and capacities.

Learning Description

Diversification of the types and modes of delivery of the toolkit to enhance project efficiency and effectiveness. The practice entails a deep understanding of the priorities, needs, and challenges faced by organizations and women entrepreneurs, and the technical and direct support from the project team and experts. The toolkit is made available online via the Grameen website in customizable open-access formats, with sets of supplementary translations, short videos on YouTube, digitized (mobile app-based) tool versions, printable briefers, and integrations with open-access data gathering software. The diversification of the toolkit modalities (e.g., paper/printable, digitized, app-based) was also central to the project’s efficiency and overcoming of challenges from the pandemic.