Back to index
Way out of informality: Facilitating formalization of informal economy in South Asia - Final Evaluation
- eval_number:
- 1895
- eval_url:
- https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/1895
- lessons_learned:
- themes:
- theme:
- Planning and programme design
- category:
- Organizational issues
- comments:
- ILO DWT, ILO CO (Dhaka, Kathmandu and New Delhi) and the other ILO offices in sub-region, region, and headquarters; Ministry of Labour and Employment; local governments; trade unions; and the workers in the informal economy.
- challenges:
- Lack of focus of work and clear theory of change, an extra he layer of project management at the ILO Bangkok Regional Office, civil disturbances in Bangladesh and Nepal during implementation; project activities start-up delays in India.
- success:
- Willing partners to facilitate formalization process and governments' commitment to address the issue.
- context:
- The informal economy is highly unorganized and workers tend to be mobile. The enterprises including micro, small and medium enterprises view formalization as an added cost of doing business. Administrative hassles and bureaucratic procedure tend to deter formalization process.
- description:
- Project focus need to be clearly defined and manageable within a given timeframe and it should be supported by a clear theory of change, multi-year work plan, and results. The project should have identified target groups a priori during the project design stage and prior to its commencement it should have mapped and identified the scope of formalization. This could have helped in the identification of relevant implementation partners. Since this was not done and in the absence of a clear theory of change the project tried to find its way taking different paths in the three countries resulting in less coordinated project activities and delinked outputs. Part of uncertainty was also created by annual work plan preparation exercise and subsequent approval processes. This could have been avoided with careful background work prior to project design and taking up a pragmatic theory of change with a clear road map in terms of input-output-outcome leading towards intended impact. The project design left the sector choice and geographical coverage to the implementation team. This could have been simplified by taking a realistic view of what can be achieved within the given time and resources available.
- administrative_issues:
- Staff turnover at critical periods, oversight in project design for a national project coordinator based for WOI-India.
- url:
- https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/194781
- location:
- country:
- Asia and the Pacific - regional
- region:
- Asia and the Pacific
- eval_title:
- Way out of informality: Facilitating formalization of informal economy in South Asia - Final Evaluation
Skip to top
