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Youth Employability Programme Component 2: Skills Initiative for Africa - Final evaluation

eval_number:

3128

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/3128

lessons_learned:

themes:

theme:

Tripartism & constituent partnerships

category:

Organizational issues

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comments:

The direct beneficiaries were the national task teams, and the tripartite constituents who participated in the development of the national action plan. However, the intervention is ultimately expected to benefit all, including workers, employers, and learners / young job seekers, women, migrants, people with disabilities, etc.

challenges:

While ownership adds value to the institutionalisation and implementation, it is itself insufficient to ensure sustainability of an intervention or its results. The Covid-19 pandemic and lack of a no-cost extension (beyond two months) have created challenges for the implementation. In addition, while funding has been secured in one of the countries, in others there are only vague leads at this point. Overall, the project end feels “abrupt”, although it has to be acknowledged that the action plans can now also be used as road maps, and even to mobilise additional funding from internal or external sources.

success:

Interviewees agreed that when constituents engage in a meaningful manner, it helped “breaking down the barriers between rigid administrations”, leading to “de-compartmentalisation”, and allowing different voices to be heard.

context:

The development of the national action plans in the project followed a clearly defined process that started with the mapping and assessment of the countries’ LMI and skills anticipation systems and practices, and lead onward to the establishment of national task teams. The ‘pen-holder’ approach was used during the development of the national action plans, where the ILO provided experts for guidance and direction of the discussions among the national stakeholders, and hired national consultants to support the drafting of the action plans. The national task teams deliberate, make decisions, and “dictate” the content of the action plans.

description:

ALLOCATING THE ROLE TO LEAD THE PROCESS TO NATIONAL CONSTITUENTS, IN COMBINATION WITH A “PEN-HOLDER” APPROACH, ENCOURAGES OWNERSHIP AND CONTRIBUTES TO EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION.The key lesson drawn from experiences in Eswatini, Ghana, and Zimbabwe was that the national task teams in these countries were able to secure high level of ownership. Allowing the task teams to own and lead the process, with the ILO supporting and giving direction as a “pen-holder”, helped secure strong national ownership of both the process and its output in form of the national action plans. In all three countries the task teams were able to secure ownership also on the level of management and political leadership, by involving the principal secretaries in the Ministries of Labour and Ministry of Education.

administrative_issues:

Stakeholders have the view that there is a need for a longer duration of the intervention – to develop the capacities of the beneficiaries and support them as they move into the next phase of implementing national action plans.

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/247070

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location:

country:

Africa - regional

region:

Africa

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eval_title:

Youth Employability Programme Component 2: Skills Initiative for Africa - Final evaluation