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Promoting Gender Responsive Enterprise and Skills Development Systems (ProGRESS): Feminizing Bangladesh’s Skills and Enterprise Systems and Labour Market - Midterm evaluation

eval_number:

3337

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/3337

location:

country:

Bangladesh

region:

Asia and the Pacific

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eval_title:

Promoting Gender Responsive Enterprise and Skills Development Systems (ProGRESS): Feminizing Bangladesh’s Skills and Enterprise Systems and Labour Market - Midterm evaluation

recommendations:

date:

2026-05-24 00:00:00.0

themes:

theme:

Employment

category:

Employment creation

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action_plan:

The Project commits to the following: 1. On Conducting In-depth Barrier Analysis – Expansion of Needs Assessments: Beyond the existing women’s access studies, the project will launch targeted qualitative assessments for other disadvantaged groups, specifically focusing on the intersection of gender, disability and ethnicity identity in the project areas. Mapping the "Training-to-Employment" Gap: Commission a rapid study to identify the specific friction points—such as employer discrimination, lack of mobility, or lack of supportive networks—that prevent trainees from transitioning into the labor market. 2. On Stakeholder Engagement & Co-Design Institutionalize Community Validation: Move from "consulting" to "co-designing" by establishing local advisory circles that include community leaders, women’s organizations (as per Rec 3), and disability-rights advocates to validate recruitment strategies before launch. Employer Sensitization: Engage with private sector partners and chamber of commerce and small-scale employers to address the "demand-side" barriers, such as workplace accessibility and cultural inclusivity. 3. On Inclusive Targeting & Transparency Standardized Eligibility Framework: Review the effectiveness of the trainees and selection process, including the use of the approved criteria. Develop and share a "Universal Inclusion Manual" with all implementing partners to ensure selection criteria are transparent, merit-based, and heavily weighted toward socio-economic vulnerability and disability status. Data-Driven Selection: Upgrade the monitoring system to act as a diagnostic tool that flags if certain subgroups (e.g., ethnic women with disabilities) are being under-represented in the application pool in real-time. 4. On Flexibility in Program Design Adaptive Delivery Models: Require training providers to offer flexible schedules (to accommodate caregiving duties of women participants) and diversified delivery channels e.g. use of UNDP digital classrooms, community-based shared service facilities for remote hill communities or mobilize residential facilities where safety and mobility are concerns. Customized Training Materials: Ensure training content is translated into local languages and adapted for different learning needs, particularly for persons with disabilities. 5. On Implementation of Supportive Measures Budgetary Provisions for "Enablers": Ensure that training stipends are distributed rationally and `transparently to the training beneficiaries. Residential & Mobile Options: Establish shared service facilities and in alliance with UNDP maximize or prioritize the use of its community-based to service as mobile training in most remote areas of the three hill districts to bypass the physical barrier of hilly terrain. 6. On Family and Network Inclusion Family Orientation Protocols: Mandate "Pre-Application Family Meetings" where project partners staff meet with parents and spouses of potential female and youth applicants. This aims to secure domestic "buy-in" and transform families from potential barriers into support systems. Community Ownership: Use local social networks and religious or community leaders, e.g. village development committees, or UNDP’s Para Development Committees, to champion the benefits of vocational training, reducing the social stigma sometimes associated with women entering the workforce.

management_response:

Completed

progress:

Partially achieved

admin_units:

CO-Dhaka

title:

Strengthen beneficiary targeting to bolster access to employment results. This will require identifying and addressing specific barriers for each subgroup, including looking at cultural norms, financial constraints and access amongst other barriers. Understanding the specific needs of beneficiaries and ensuring that responses are tailor-made to address those needs is critical and must be further strengthened. Projects should not only aim to deliver standardized interventions but also recognize the diverse realities faced by the different groups it aims to support. In particular, it is essential to conduct an in-depth analysis of the critical barriers that prevent women and other disadvantaged groups from fully participating in training programs, workplace-based learning opportunities, entrepreneurship initiatives, and ultimately, what are the barriers between training and access to employment. These barriers may include socio-cultural norms, limited access to information, financial constraints, mobility challenges, discrimination, or lack of supportive networks. To respond effectively, the project should establish clear, transparent, and inclusive criteria for identifying participants. This will require: - Comprehensive needs assessments – this has been done for women’s access, but the project needs to gather both quantitative and qualitative data to understand the constraints for other beneficiary groups. - Stakeholder engagement – consulting with community leaders, women’s organizations, employers, and other relevant actors to validate findings and co-design solutions. (see recommendation above to include women’s organizations). - Inclusive targeting mechanisms – ensuring that selection criteria are clear and shared with partners, and that they take into account gender, socio-economic background, disability, and other intersecting vulnerabilities. The monitoring system should help identify the beneficiaries, both those most in need and also more likely to benefit from the project’s support. - Flexibility in program design – adapting training methods, schedules, and delivery channels to better suit the circumstances for the different groups, this is especially true for women, persons with disabilities and ethnic communities, each of whom needs different variables for consideration, which at present are not always taken into account. - Supportive measures – the project should consider if partners can provide complementary services such as childcare, transportation allowances, mentorship, or mobile units or residential options to enable meaningful participation. - Inclusion of a broader network. The project should consider the need to include applicants’ families from the outset and before the submission of applications. Parents’ participation, particularly in the case of female applicants, may foster a sense of ownership and ensure that parents and family members provide support to the trainees, rather than acting as a barrier to their participation in training and to the subsequent utilization of the skills acquired. - There should be special focus on intersectionality, for example, women with disabilities, youth with disabilities, and ethnic persons with disabilities, for eligibility and inclusion in skill training. By adopting this approach, projects will be better positioned to promote equal access, empower underrepresented groups, and create pathways for sustainable inclusion in the labour market.

project_symbols:

BGD/20/05/CAN

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/recommendations/2370914

information_source:

Country Office

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