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Fair migration in the Middle East (FAIRWAY) - Final Evaluation

eval_number:

2523

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/2523

lessons_learned:

themes:

theme:

Programme implementation

category:

Organizational issues

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comments:

The users of this lesson are all ILO Technical Cooperation Projects, which routinely employ pilots as ways to try new solutions to difficult problems. Donors and other stakeholders such as CSOs/TUs could also use the lesson.

challenges:

As stated above, the negative lessons were: • In Lebanon, many MDWs, whose cases were in court/MoL, could not find a way to pursue these, as FENASOL could not provide to them anymore the legal services that had been offered in the duration of the pilot. • In Jordan, the youth were disappointed, and those who had initially been mobilized as potential change agents were not supported to complete this transition. Although this was partially corrected by assigning their mentoring to a CSO, the lack of ILO engagement with them had already reduced their learning and motivation. A key lesson is about better communicated by the Fairway team to the youth themselves throughout the pilot project. • Another key lesson relates to improve planning and communication among stakeholders, and employment of mitigation measures employed in the period of assessment/change between the phases.

success:

The pilots quoted above have had several positive impacts. The legal services that the pilot enabled improved services for vulnerable migrants, increased capacities of trade unions and other workers’ organizations. The promotion of youth networks has engaged the youth in social reform, building their capacities to become change agents.

context:

Fairway focuses on migrant workers in construction and domestic work, who are mostly low skilled and prone to a variety of decent work deficits and abuse in the recruitment and migration process that precedes it. The decent work deficits these migrants experience include flawed recruitment and placement practices; unacceptable working conditions akin to forced labour; practices in violation of the existing work contracts; ineffective dispute resolution and lack of access to justice; limits on voice, representation, and social dialogue; and discrimination of migrant workers at the employer’s homes and among state institutions such as police, General Security and government departments. These issues largely remain invisible, are largely interlinked and mutually reinforce each other, and they all feature to varying degrees and in slightly different contexts in the four project target countries Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, and Lebanon. In this situation, the two pilots were very well intentioned. The first sought to provide a service needed by MDWs, as they have no recourse to legal support. The second intended to employ the potential of youth to change social norms, attitudes and behaviour.

description:

Pilots are a potentially useful component of innovative projects, and Fairway has tried some pilots to good effect. Although these have had positive impacts and represent potential good practices, they also provide critical lessons. These include: Legal clinics for Migrant Domestic Workers were set up in Fédération nationale des syndicats des ouvriers au Liban (FENASOL), Lebanon. The Project appointed a consultant lawyer, who provided counselling and services to Migrant Domestic Workers. She also trained lawyer volunteers to provide similar services. The lawyer filed several cases for the MDWs. When the contract came to an end after 5 months, there were ongoing cases in court/MoL. Although the cases were temporarily taken over by the lawyer in FENASOL, the TU did not have the financial resources to bear the expenses of the cases that had already been filed in the court during the pilot. However, discussion is ongoing for further support from Fairway to address this gap. • In Jordan, a youth network was promoted for conducting campaigns to change employer mindsets. The Project appointed a consultant to mentor the youth, who were given clear directions about the activities and timelines for the campaign, which they completed well. The youth were highly motivated but felt that as the project came to an end in 6 months, they had been left without any future planning, their agency had not been respected, and their organisation was not yet well formed. They had not received guidance directly from any ILO official. Their ambition was to reach out to MDWs beyond Amman to other regions of Jordan, which was not taken on board. These pilots had a duration of 5-6 months, which was too small to have the possibility of mainstreaming or achieving sustainability.

administrative_issues:

ILO could integrate this lesson in the way its projects design pilot interventions. A guide-book would help the ILO’s Technical Cooperation Projects to plan the pilots in a way that the positive impacts can be maximized, and the negative, unintended impacts can be minimized.

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/216349

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location:

country:

Arab States - regional

region:

Arab States

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eval_title:

Fair migration in the Middle East (FAIRWAY) - Final Evaluation