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ILO Technical Assistance Component – Skills for Employment Program (FCDO-SEP Project) - Final evaluation

eval_number:

3359

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/3359

lessons_learned:

themes:

theme:

Planning and programme design

category:

Organizational issues

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comments:

ILO project leadership and managers, expert advisors supporting the project, implementing partners, tripartite counterparts, the funder, other agencies working within the same consortium.

challenges:

Without a ToC the project became largely reactive to immediate felt needs of government leadership, which changed multiple times over the course of the project. Individual experts and project managers lacked a shared framework for considering requests and reprioritizing resource investments at key decision points. Further since the ILO was one of a number of implementing agencies operating under the umbrella of a larger program, the absence of a ToC limited a shared point of reference for project implementation. Reports suggest the FCDO asked for such a broader framework, and that the annual reframing of priorities would have benefited from a ToC.

success:

Government focus on the domestic economy and enhancing the economic safety net for workers, plus newly promulgated policies and national programs provided the starting point for project initiatives. The early development of a Political Economy Analysis provided a vision with specific long term recommendations for transforming employment and the Nepali economy. In tandem government policies and national programs and the PEA could have been a suitable starting point for crafting a ToC.

context:

The project aimed to support policy development and implementation in the context of a newly federalized system of government and frequent cabinet reshuffles. There were multiple experts, and implementing partners, and work took place at national, provincial and municipality levels. A Political Economy Analysis offered a far reaching vision for employment and labour migration in Nepal, but a project-specific framework that posited a strategic implementation logic was lacking.

description:

A Theory of Change (ToC) is essential for a complex policy project like the SEP-TA project in Nepal. Without it, it is possible that competing, immediate issues may have distracted from a consistent focus on strategic outcomes (this finding is based largely on annual reports and could not be triangulated with key stakeholders). A ToC also offers the opportunity to articulate assumptions underpinning key project approaches, consider contextual risks, and be explicit about intervention linkages. A ToC offers a conceptual roadmap that can inform work across a broad spectrum of stakeholders and sites. It can be adjusted as contextual factors or priorities change, implementation assumptions are validated (or not), and learning about what is working and what is not comes to light.

administrative_issues:

Development of a Theory of Change should be part of project design and inform project management and monitoring frameworks, indicators, and strategic implementation decisions. It should be a living document, reviewed at key reflection points in the project. It should be included in ToRs for consultants and implementing partners so that they can situate themselves in the overall logic of the policy initiative.

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/232309

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location:

country:

Nepal

region:

Asia and the Pacific

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eval_title:

ILO Technical Assistance Component – Skills for Employment Program (FCDO-SEP Project) - Final evaluation