CEO Library

This report defines and describes strategies for funders to reach underserved and marginalized communities, as well as incorporate diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) principles in international grantmaking. The report provides emerging practices that increase the incorporation of underserved and marginalized communities throughout the grantmaking process, including the preaward and application stages, project design and implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

In 2023, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), in partnership with the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), contracted with Westat Insight to explore approaches to measure and increase program provision to underserved and marginalized communities through ILAB’s discretionary grantmaking programs under the Administrative Data Research and Analysis portfolio of studies.

In early 2023, The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with DOL’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) to fund contractor The Manhattan Strategy Group (MSG), LLC to help DOL understand available information regarding the fundamental labor rights, working conditions, and access to employment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) individuals in Latin America. MSG produced a literature scan and provided an accompanying briefing for DOL.

In 2017 the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), in close collaboration with the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), contracted Mathematica to evaluate the effect of the Increasing Economic and Social Empowerment for Adolescent Girls and Vulnerable Women Project, (EMPOWER). EMPOWER aimed to reduce child labor in Eastern Province, Zambia by addressing skills gaps that constrain adolescent girls’ and women’s work and livelihood opportunities and facilitating pathways to employment that aligned with participants’ improved skills.

The report features findings from an evaluation of EMPOWER that used quantitative pre-post and descriptive analyses to measure changes in the outcomes for adolescent girls and women and qualitative analysis to contextualize findings. The evaluation’s primary objectives were to determine whether EMPOWER increased participants’ skill levels and, in turn, increased adolescent girls’ access to acceptable work and adolescent girls’ and women’s involvement in self-employment and paid work.

In 2016, the Chief Evaluation Office partnered with the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) to fund researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston to understand the prevalence, nature, and possible consequences of working conditions on employment and health status of the Central American workforce, with a particular focus on work-related violence.

The report discusses and presents the outputs of a Cooperative Agreement between The University of Texas School Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health and the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) and the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).

Paper that presents a study of consumer learning in the context of payroll accounts, a simple financial technology that is currently being rolled out to millions of workers worldwide in response to demands for increased supply chain transparency and as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The researchers conducted a field experiment with a population of salaried factory workers in Bangladesh who, prior to the study, received their wages entirely in cash.

Paper that presents results of a randomized controlled trial with 3,136 salaried factory workers in Bangladesh employed at two large garment factories which, at the beginning of the study, paid all wages in cash. The researchers randomly and individually assign workers within the same factory to either continue receiving their wages in cash or receive electronic wage payments through either a bank or mobile account.

In 2015, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) and funded contractor IMPAQ International to conduct the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT) Livelihoods Services Evaluation. The mixed methods evaluation aims to assess whether evidence supports the OCFT theory of change and gather evidence on the outcomes of four different types of livelihoods services projects, particularly with respect to reducing child and/or forced labor, to inform future project design.

The report focuses on the results of the evaluation phase of the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT) Livelihoods Services Evaluation study and is organized to highlight the key findings across projects. Section 2 provides background on OCFT’s efforts to combat child and forced labor and an overview of the research questions addressed in this study. Section 3 provides details on the mixed-methods research methodology used for this evaluation.

The objective of the report is to summarize the development and field testing of a new module on survey questions and focus group protocols on the topic of work related violence (WRV), for use in Central America.

In December 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) awarded a $1.5 million grant to Colombia’s Escuela Nacional Sindical (ENS) to implement the project Strengthening Protections of Internationally Recognized Labor Rights in Colombia (Workers’ Rights Centers) over three years. In 2015, ENS received a one-year extension with an additional $600,000 in funding for a total of $2.1 million.

In December 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) awarded a $1.5 million grant to Colombia’s Escuela Nacional Sindical (ENS) to implement the project Strengthening Protections of Internationally Recognized Labor Rights in Colombia (Workers’ Rights Centers) over three years. In 2015, ENS received a one-year extension with an additional $600,000 in funding for a total of $2.1 million.

The paper studies the effects of the prevalence and high returns to working long hours on female labor market outcomes, particularly for highly educated women. The researchers' empirical strategy uses cross-country data from 18 developed countries and exploits time-series and cross-industry variation. The results suggest that an increase in the prevalence of overwork in an industry (defined as working 50+ hours a week) reduces the share of married educated women aged 23 to 42 working in that industry, even after controlling for the industry distribution of single women of the same age.