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Economic empowerment and HIV vulnerability reduction along transport corridors in Southern Africa - Final Evaluation

eval_number:

1566

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/1566

lessons_learned:

themes:

theme:

Informal economy

category:

Employment

---

comments:

Ultimate target beneficiaries comprising young women and men workers in the target countries infected and affected by the impact of the HIV and AIDS epidemic including mobile workers, women and men workers in the formal and informal economic activities in corridor areas; intermediate beneficiaries (BSSs); donor as the financing agency from the point of view of effective impact on reduction of HIV vulnerability; and ILO as the implementing agency from the point of view of effectiveness of socio-economic impact.

challenges:

Key challenges which were also acted upon by the project included: (i) General lack and weak capacity of Business Support Structures (BSSs) in some countries; (ii) Weak business and financial skills capacity of ultimate beneficiaries – necessitating more time and financial for capacity building than was originally anticipated; (iii) General lack and weak capacity of MFIs and failure by a significant number of them to meet the requirements under the CEEIF component - thereby causing delay in the startup of its planned activities; and (iv) Misconception as ILO funding under CEEIF as grants due to inadequate sensitization – resulting in low repayment in some countries.

success:

Capacity activities of the project including sensitization; training in business management and financial skills; as well as proposal writing resulted in 582 or about 57% of the target business proposals being approved and funded.

context:

While the bulk of beneficiaries were informal entrepreneurs, this did not deter the project from successfully implementing its planned interventions in relation to the CEEIF component; and it was therefore clear that informality of enterprises is not a precondition for “bankability”. Existence of strong and cohesive business groups with which to work with is an important precondition for successful group-based loans as demonstrated by the higher repayment rate among group borrowers compared to individual borrowers.

description:

The so called “unbankable” informal sector entrepreneurs are actually “bankable” and basing financial provision on group loans works much better than on individual loans.

administrative_issues:

Limited financial resources towards capacity activities was a major constraining factor on the part of the ILO project implementation team.

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/168884

---

location:

country:

Africa - regional

region:

Africa

---

eval_title:

Economic empowerment and HIV vulnerability reduction along transport corridors in Southern Africa - Final Evaluation