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Promotion of Decent Work in Southern African Ports (phase II) - Midterm Evaluation

eval_number:

2139

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/2139

lessons_learned:

themes:

theme:

Monitoring and evaluation

category:

Organizational issues

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comments:

PSC members

challenges:

During the discussions with the majority of PSC members, it was suggested numerous times that the project was progressing well particularly with respect to the activities planned for South Africa. Considering the actual evaluation of the progress and the feedback received, it can be argued that PSC members did not have a comprehensive understanding of the actual progress of the project and had limited knowledge of all of the detailed activities planned to be implemented by the midpoint of Phase II. Linked to the above issue is the fact that the indicator framework designed to measure progress on a frequent basis was inefficient. Indicators developed to measure the project’s performance did not allow for assessment of the entire project’s progress on a quarterly basis, which would assist the PSC members at their meetings to understand how well the project is progressing and what aspects are falling behind schedule. In addition to the existing list of process, output, and outcome indicators, a list of milestones for each activity should have been developed. These would have assisted the project team in measuring the achievement of each activity on a regular basis and report on it to the PSC.

success:

Certain limitations of the M&E system developed for the project have been acknowledged by the PMU and in response to the PSC members’ requests, some changes were made to the content of quarterly progress reports.

context:

The M&E reports produced by the PMU and shared with the PSC only included progress on the project for one given quarter. They did not provide sufficient information on the actual progress of the project in terms of all objectives and outputs by indicating activities that are on schedule, behind schedule, or at risk of being delayed. As such, the M&E reports did not provide information necessary for participants to enquire about the reasons behind some of the activities not being implemented on time or being delayed. This limited the ability of the PSC in making a worthwhile contribution towards successful implementation of the project.

description:

A practical and manageable early warning Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework should have been devised for the project. The review of the M&E system devised for the project revealed that it was not sufficiently comprehensive to illustrate a bigger picture and inform the Project Steering Committee (PSC) on the actual progress of the project; importantly, it lacked an early warning system that would encourage parties to act before the problem has exacerbated.

administrative_issues:

Develop a practical and comprehensive early warning M&E system at the start of the project and obtain comments from PSC during the inception stage.

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/203705

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location:

country:

South Africa

region:

Africa

---

eval_title:

Promotion of Decent Work in Southern African Ports (phase II) - Midterm Evaluation