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ILO/Korea Partnership Programme Towards the Realization of the Asian Decent Work Decade - Final Evaluation

eval_number:

2285

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/2285

lessons_learned:

themes:

theme:

Planning and programme design

category:

Organizational issues

---

comments:

Different assumptions hold at different levels and usually affect the stakeholders participating at the respective levels, and contributing to the respective activities, results, or outcome levels.

challenges:

Assumptions are made by all of us when we plan for development. Our assumptions are usually based on our previous experience. However, experiences may vary from place to place, time to time, person to person. Sometimes, our projects also venture into new territories for which there is no previous experience. Therefore, every effort needs to be made to reveal our different assumptions and discuss how they may affect implementation.

success:

N/A

context:

Specifying assumptions is not always straightforward and therefore requires some effort. Assumptions essentially explain what needs to be given outside the influence of the project in order for the activities to lead to results and for results to lead to outcomes. It is important to agree assumptions made with all stakeholders prior to implementation.

description:

Specifying and monitoring assumptions is an important task, no less important than specifying results and activities. For any project or program, careful thought not only needs to be given to the sequencing of activities and results, but also to the assumptions which go with the respective activities and results. They are inseparable elements of the same equation in a strategy designed to achieve outcomes. The logframe of the project or programme cannot go without assumptions. In our case, experts occasionally assumed that lectures and fellowships would be sufficient to trigger specific developments in the partner countries. Had these assumptions been spelled out from the start, stakeholders in partner countries and specialists could have signaled early on that this may not be sufficient in the cases concerned.

administrative_issues:

ILO, as a specialized agency, needs to ensure that all assumptions are properly specified and discussed early during project and program design. Resources need to be made available not only for monitoring indicators, but also for monitoring assumptions. Difficulties in properly specifying assumptions can be overcome by providing decision trees regarding what types of assumptions to include, what type of assumptions not to include, and under which circumstances assumptions will entail a redesign of the intervention logic ("killer assumptions").

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/206846

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location:

country:

Asia and the Pacific - regional

region:

Asia and the Pacific

---

eval_title:

ILO/Korea Partnership Programme Towards the Realization of the Asian Decent Work Decade - Final Evaluation