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Advancing Social Protection in Cambodia - Midterm joint evaluation

eval_number:

3551

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/3551

lessons_learned:

themes:

theme:

Planning and programme design

category:

Organizational issues

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comments:

Project management; project staff; partners

challenges:

As the current process of both EA and MTE has revealed, some causal steps were missing in the plan at the outset. This has meant that at this mid term point results have so far been slow to emerge, especially in the Social Security dimension, and there continues to be some risk that the expected outcomes will not be achieved by the end of the project. Challenges in the line of causation expressed in project design has meant that there are ‘gaps’ – for instance in allowing time for the procedural steps necessary for developing and then implementing new legislation. This means that some types of support which might be helpful has not been identified; and results as currently framed are over ambitious.

success:

Good focus on reconstructing the ToC at this mid term stage has laid the groundwork for a more comprehensive and realistic approach moving forwards, as the expected process is now more clearly mapped. A clear approach to reviewing the current (reconstructed) ToC by the project partners in systematic manner over the next 2 years will strengthen the sense of how targets are to be achieved and how long this will take, and therefore help to design the project’s final months, including any no cost extension planned. It will also clarify thinking on the relation of the capacity building / institutional strengthening initiatives to project outcomes within this project timeframe – i.e. which capacity inputs (if any) are necessary steps for achieving the objectives of this project; and which capacity inputs are implemented in the interests of sustainability / impact orientation beyond the scope of this immediate

context:

A theory of change was developed at the project design stage, but the causal dynamic was not clearly expressed in the visual version or the narrative accompanying it. This reflected gaps in project design which was not clearly articulated at the outset. One challenge for the ToC is that the project aims to give strategic support for the government-led evolution (expansion and improved targeting) of the SP system as a whole. Thus in principle the project –specific ToC sits within a broader (and longer) vision of the evolving social protection system in general. This created complexity for what the ToC for this specific project should look like.

description:

A stronger approach to Theory of Change development at the design stage would have benefited the project implementation and will still be beneficial in the remaining timeframe. The reconstructed Theory of Change should be reviewed during the second half of the project and before final evaluation.

administrative_issues:

N/A

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/256807

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location:

country:

Cambodia

region:

Asia and the Pacific

---

eval_title:

Advancing Social Protection in Cambodia - Midterm joint evaluation