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ILO-UK Prosperity Fund Skills Programme for South East Asia (UKPFSEA) - Midterm evaluation

eval_number:

3126

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/3126

lessons_learned:

themes:

theme:

Planning and programme design

category:

Organizational issues

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comments:

Programme designers, project managers, project officers

challenges:

The Programme worked with a given donor‘s general theory of change that was not submitted to a rigorous logframe analysis that usually would provide a more solid basis for implementation. This has led to numerous gaps between the different levels of program design (activities, outputs, outcomes) which were “bridged“ by assumptions (including even about stakeholder participation) that did not sufficiently hold true and led to deficits during implementation.

success:

Where cooperation was already long established between ILO and the stakeholders, gaps could be informally bridged for a while (Philippines), but not forever -- ultimately proper program design needs to be agreed with the constituents of the respective countries.

context:

Skills and TVET systems are complex and involve multiple stakeholders (including ILO constituents). Even changing specific curricula is a time consuming process which often needs to be negotiated. Where overall changes to the organization of the systems are intended, the processes are not any less complex.

description:

Skills and TVET development take time, and quick impact cannot reaonably be expected during, e.g. during 3-4 year program periods. Programs or ILO as an organization need to either envisage long-term engagement with the respective systems (e.g. one decade in several phases) or focus on very specific tasks which are well aligned with recipient country systems and can be accomplished during such a relatively short period. Where implementation periods are shorter, expectations should be adjusted accordingly and the demand on very specific planning is of paramount importance to success. Only rather meticulous planning will lead to success. The likelihood for achieving “quick wins“ is not very high and there is little guarantee of sustainability where project implementation are of short duration.

administrative_issues:

It will be important to ensure that program managers and ILO staff involved in the technical preparations of logical frameworks are not only qualified in skills and TVET but also sufficiently trained (including regular refresher trainings) in program design and planning because these skills are indispensable for drawing up program designs that work and are not overly difficult to draw up in fields like skills and TVET. It is also good practice to develop these program designs jointly with the stakeholder institutions to achieve sustainable results.

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/244279

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location:

country:

Asia and the Pacific - regional

region:

Asia and the Pacific

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eval_title:

ILO-UK Prosperity Fund Skills Programme for South East Asia (UKPFSEA) - Midterm evaluation