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CARIFORUM Civil Society in the Regional Development and Integration Process: Challenges to CARIFORUM Labour, Private Sector and Employers - Final evaluation

eval_number:

2383

eval_title:

CARIFORUM Civil Society in the Regional Development and Integration Process: Challenges to CARIFORUM Labour, Private Sector and Employers - Final evaluation

location:

region:

Americas

country:

Americas - regional

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eval_url:

https://analyticstest.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/2383

lessons_learned:

description:

Broad stakeholder engagement and consultations are necessary when designing and implementing a project involving a multiplicity of regional stakeholder that are not ILO’s, employers’ and workers’ organizations traditional partners. The evaluation’s findings showed that the activities that should have allowed the CEC and the CCL to be involved in the implementation, governance and monitoring of the social aspects of the EPA at the regional and national levels, should have been designed differently in order to ensure expected results can be reached. Consulting and involving a wider set of stakeholders could have allowed providing a more realistic picture of the assumptions, threats and opportunities of the necessary actions required to achieve the expected result. More specifically, the CARICOM, the CARIFORUM, Ministries of Trade, national and regional EPA implementation units’ involvement and inputs would have added significant value to the project design and implementation.

context:

As highlighted in the 2014 report monitoring the implementation and results of the EPA, the evaluation team observed there was limited knowledge about the roles and responsibilities of the different actors having staked in the EPA. In this context, it seems the project design was hampered by the fact ILO, the CEC and the CCL were not sufficiently aware of the EPA implementation structure and of where to intervene to facilitate workers’ and employers’ organizations involvement in its governance.

success:

The project was more successful in consulting employers’ and worker’s organizations through the CEC and the CCL. These consultations informed the project’s design which, in turn, was able to provide trainings and workshops responding to some of the need and priorities of employers’ and workers’ organizations across the region. As these workshops were among the products of the project that were most appreciated by national employers’ organizations and national trade unions, it supports the idea that stakeholders’ consultations can add significant value to an intervention and increase the likelihood of ownership by beneficiaries.

challenges:

While the project’s activities put a lot of emphasis on strengthening the capacities of workers’ and employers’ organizations, its interventions were not sufficiently linked to the EPA governance structure. Given the EPA is first and foremost a trade-related agreement, national and regional actors having stakes in the trade-related aspects of the EPA could have been consulted or involved as advisors when designing the project and to propose mitigation strategies in face of emerging challenges. The CARICOM, the CARIFORUM, Ministries of Trade, national and regional EPA implementation units among others could have contributed to strengthen the project’s design and implementation.

administrative_issues:

A comprehensive stakeholder mapping must be conducted prior to the design of every intervention to ensure all relevant actors related to an intervention are identified.

comments:

Donor, ILO Directorate, project managers/coordinators, monitoring and evaluation officers.

url:

https://analyticstest.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/201797

themes:

theme:

Tripartism & constituent partnerships

category:

Organizational issues

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