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National Rural Employment Strategy in Lao PDR towards increasing opportunities for decent and productive employment in rural areas - Final evaluation

eval_number:

2770

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/2770

location:

country:

Lao People's Democratic Republic

region:

Asia and the Pacific

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eval_title:

National Rural Employment Strategy in Lao PDR towards increasing opportunities for decent and productive employment in rural areas - Final evaluation

recommendations:

date:

2022-08-22 00:00:00.0

themes:

theme:

Organizational issues

category:

Monitoring and evaluation

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comments:

(1) The project undertook a number of monitoring activities (basing on a "light" application of DCED results-based framework), despite the difficulty of recruiting a good local MEL officer. The evaluator noted that it is beyond its role to consider the various MEL exercises done other than simply capitalizing on the lack of an continuously engaged M&E officer. (2) The new project documents have a strong component on monitoring and evaluation.

action_plan:

The project did allocate a significant budget and a position dedicated to MEL, but the hiring and implementation challenges in Lao could have been considered for revising future HR or MEL tasking strategies. The simple conclusion of the study is that, since there is no continuous MEL officer (given the scarcity of MEL experts in Lao), all the efforts done by the project staff supported by previous MEL staff/consultants were inadequate. This is not a fair or well-studied observation. When the project's comments suggested that the MEL processes that were carried out amid the challenges should also be analyzed, the reply was: "The proposed analysis is beyond the scope of the evaluation. No change." The evaluation report also recklessly stated that the "data was plagued with double counting". Care was done to remove double counting, or where this was unavoidable, it was also duly reported and emphasized. Calculations and formulas could have been furnished if the evaluator had sought clarification. That the evaluator would jump to conclusions, without cross-checking facts and observations, is unfortunate.

management_response:

Completed

progress:

Achieved

admin_units:

CO-Bangkok

title:

Recommendation 4: In any subsequent phase, the project should allocate a sufficient budget and establish a robust MEL system that would not simply collect/manage administrative M&E data needs but also enable systematic learning and knowledge creation. It should engage constituents and stakeholders in project planning, monitoring and project learning.

project_symbols:

LAO/16/01/CHE

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/recommendations/15911

information_source:

Country Office

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