A Guide to Project Monitoring and Evaluation, 2003
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION
GENDER PROMOTION PROGRAMME
A GUIDE TO PROJECT MONITORING AND EVALUATION FOR THE PROJECT FOR PROMOTING THE LINKAGES BETWEEN WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT AND THE REDUCTION OF CHILD LABOUR/PROMOTING GENDER EQUALITY AND DECENT WORK THROUGHOUT ALL STAGES OF LIFE IN TANZANIA
May , 2004
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A Guide to Project Monitoring and Evaluation, 2003
Foreword
This document has been developed by the project for “Promoting the Linkages between Women’s Employment and the Reduction of Child Labour”/”Promoting Gender Equality and Decent Work Throughout All Stages of Life” for use by project implementing partners as a tool for motoring and evaluating project performance. This tool is based on a learning approach that would enable implementing partners monitor and evaluate achievements and problems for better decision-making and accountability. Through this approach, the project-implementing partners are expected to improve their development interventions on a continuous basis. Since the project’s overall objective is to create more and better jobs for women under conditions that will lead to a progressive reduction of child labour, women are the ones best placed to assess the project impact. The project is embedded in a web of relationships between many different actors from the national through to the district and community levels. These actors provide catalytic and advisory functions to the project. They are guided by mutually agreed terms of reference or contracts on their responsibilities, standards of work and style of operation. All partners are responsible for monitoring the activities they implement. The guide is therefore aimed at assisting partners to develop a learning process through critical reflection of the success and problems in order to guide interventions towards achieving maximum impact.
Table of ContentsPage
Forewordii
List of Acronymsiii
List of Tables, Figures and Chartsiv
1.Introduction1
2.Project Progress2
3.Rationale for the Guide3
4.Key Stakeholders and their Role in M& E3
4.1Primary Stakeholders4
4.2Implementing Partners4
4.3Responsible Government Ministry5
4.4Consultants5
5.Using M&E to Manage for Impact5
5.1What is M&E5
5.2Elements of Managing for Impact6
5.2.1Strategic Questions to Manage for Impact7
6.From Activities via Outcomes to Impact8
7.Encouraging Learning through Critical Reflection9
8.Steps in Designing the Monitoring and Evaluation9
9.Key Opportunities to Manage for Impact9
10.The Objective Hierarchy and Assumptions10
10.1.Definitions for Four Levels of an Objective Hierarchy11
10.2Assumptions11
10.3How a Project Logic of the Strategy Affects Project Success12
11.Accountability and Adjusting the Project Strategy12
11.1Guiding the Strategy12
12.Creating a Learning Environment13
13.Valuing Problems and Avoiding Failures13
14.Setting Up and Using the Monitoring and Evaluation System14
14.1What is the Monitoring and Evaluation System14
15.Balancing Internal Learning and Accountability14
16.Designing a Learning, Empowerment and Sustainability in the Project 14
17.How to Analyse Performance in Objective Hierarchy15
17.1How to Shift Information Needs in the Objective Hierarchy15
17.2Performance Questions per level of the Objective Hierarchy16
18.Indicators16
Annex18
Reference21
List of Acronyms
NGOsNon-Governmental Organisations
ILOInternational Labour Organisation
STISexually Transmitted Infection
HIV/AIDSHuman Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
TPAWUTanzania Plantation and Agricultural Workers’ Union
EUTCOEast Usambara Tea Company
TTETukuyu Tea Estates
SACCOSSavings and Cooperative Societies
STDsSexually Transmitted Diseases
List of Tables, Figures and Charts
List of Tables
Table 1:Example of Projects that do and that do not manage for impact
Table 2:Objective Needs in the Information Hierarchy
List of Figures
Figure 1:The Project Strategy
List of Charts
Chart 1:Projects Objective Hierarchy
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A Guide to Project Monitoring and Evaluation, 2003
1.Introduction
The International Labour Organisation in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour, Youth Development and Sports is implemented a project for “Promoting the Linkages between Women’s Employment and the Reduction of Child Labour’’between May 2000 and April 2004 as a response to ILO’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work which was overwhelmingly adopted by the International Labour Conference in June 1998, calling for both the elimination of child labour and discrimination in respect of employment and occupation and helping national efforts in poverty reduction and promotion of gender equality. The project, whose overall objective was create more and better jobs for women under conditions that will progressively reduce child labour, started with an action research covering 1450 working mothers in eight regions of Tanzania mainland. The sectors surveyed included commercial sex, domestic service, commercial plantations/textile and manufacturing industries, and informal sectors.
A national workshop which brought together 70 high ranking officials including government officials, workers’ and employers’ organisations, NGOs, heads of mission and international organisations, donor community, representatives of women workers and other civil society groups was held in August 2001 to disseminate and validate the research findings with a view to charting out the way forward. The other aims of the workshop were to raise awareness among stakeholders of the nature of the linkages between women’s employment and the reduction of child labour, enlist stakeholders commitment to the project, as well as sharing international experiences on women’s employment and child labour reduction.
Recommendations from the national workshop were further discussed and localized at the district stakeholders meetings, which were conducted in November 2001 in the selected project areas. The district meetings brought together all the actors concerned with women’s employment and reduction of child labour. These include district functionaries, heads of primary school, principals of vocational training centres, representatives of women workers, ward executive officers, community leaders, faith leaders, and community based organizations. Recommendations from district stakeholders meetings culminated to the launching and implementation of model schemes for working mothers and their children through integrated policies and programmes that address both women’s employment and child labour.
With an overall objective of creating more and better jobs for women under conditions that would lead to progressive reduction of child labour, implementation of model schemes (November 2001 – April 2004) concentrated on building the capacities of the key beneficiaries on a wide range of issues aimed at achieving the two immediate objectives of the project, namely:
To have enhanced the capacity of governments, employers and workers’ organisations, NGOs and other civil groups to formulate and implement policies and programmes that maximise the positive impact of women’s employment on the reduction of child labour.
In the selected communities, to have promoted the socio-economic empowerment of women and at the same time less work, better education and greater protection for children, through the implementation of integrated policies and programmes which address both women’s employment and child labour.
In all the project sites, stakeholders’ meetings were held aimed at raising awareness on the nature of the linkages between women’s employment and the reduction of child labour. The other aim was to cultivate the ownership of the project activities at the outset. Participants were drawn from district officials, heads of primary schools, principals of vocational training centres, employers, village/street leaders, opinion leaders, women workers and influential people. District monitoring teams comprising of representatives from the above mentioned groups were established in all the project sites to follow up and monitor implementation of project activities.
Women workers were assisted to establish coherent economic groups and trained on a wide range of issues including formation of group guidelines; organizational skills (the art of conducting effective meetings, group dynamics, conflict management and conflict resolution, communication skills); business management; savings and credit; and job skills. Other trainings included reproductive health, occupational safety and health, child labour problems and legal rights for women and children. Child labourers were identified and mechanisms put in place for their integration into basic education and vocational training.
Three structures have been put in place to provide technical and policy support and monitor implementation of project activities at the national, district and grassroots level.
- The National Task Force (NTF) in mainland Tanzania and the National Advisory Committee (NAC) in Zanzibar represent tripartite partners (employers, workers and government) and NGOs involved in women’s economic empowerment and the reduction of child labour. Their primary tasks are to monitor project performance, provide direction on policy and intervention strategies and overall advice and guidance for the operation of the revolving loan fund operations.
- Monitoring teams have been established in each of the eight districts or municipalities where project activities are implemented. The District Monitoring Teams consist of representatives from district departments (such as Community Development, Education and Health), village councils, women’s groups, primary schools and vocational training institutions, as well as well as TPAWU branch officials and employers’ representatives. Although they vary in strength and capacity, most of these teams work effectively and provide considerable practical assistance and training through extension services, as well as overall guidance and monitoring. The District Monitoring Team on the EUTCO tea estate in Tanga Region, however, which is chaired by the estate manager, had not met for 15 months, and it is doubtful that it will be able to play a meaningful role in the present difficult situation at EUTCO.
- Community watch groups, consisting of members of women’s groups and community leaders at the grassroots level, have been established to identify children of school going age who have dropped out of school, who are engaged in unacceptable forms of labour, or who have never been to school.
A tripartite agreement was signed between the Ministry of Labour, Youth Development and Sports, the ILO and Akiba Commercial Bank with a Cash Guarantee of $ 200,000 to provide flexible loans to women workers who have been organized and trained by the project. A procedure manual with four tier guarantee system has been developed to guide the programme.
2.Achievements
The implementation of model schemes began in November 2001 in selected locations of the informal sector in Dar es Salaam, Tanga, and Zanzibar targeting women workers involved with stone crushing, food vending, vegetable growing and selling, and petty trading. The implementation in Zanzibar commenced in April 2002 in the selected locations of the informal sector in Unguja and Pemba focusing on women workers in food vending, retail trade, horticulture (tree planting, banana/sugarcane/spice growing, dairy cattle and poultry keeping). In April 2003, the project targeted women commercial sex in the three municipalities of Dare s Salaam. For the formal sector, the implementation started in November 2001 targeting two tea plantations, namely; Tukuyu Tea Estates (TTE) and East Usambara Tea Company (EUTCO). Up to April 2004, the project had achieved the following:
Gender sensitisation and awareness raising seminars were conducted to the communities where the project is operating. The seminars brought together the spouses of women beneficiaries, village/street leaders, ward leaders, opinion leaders, women beneficiaries, district officials, workers and employers and influential people surrounding the project areas. The seminars focused on the gender division of labour (time management for women and men, girls and boys), access and control over productive resources, child labour problems, and reproductive health issues including STIs and HIV transmission and mitigation.
1,200 women had been trained and helped to organise themselves into a total of 21 groups by the project, in Dar es Salaam, Tanga, Mbeya, and Zanzibar (both Pemba and Unguja). These include 100 women commercial sex workers in the three municipalities of Dar es Salaam;
150 leaders of women’s economic groups had been trained in organisational skills (the art of conducting effective meetings, group dynamics, conflict management and conflict resolution, communication skills and basic record keeping);
200 leaders of women’s groups and potential advisers had attended training of trainers courses on critical gender issues, reproductive health, occupational health and safety, child labour problems, and legal rights for women and children;
848 of these had been trained in different job and business skills;
948 trained on savings and credit and procedures at access loans;
700 women had been given loans ranging from USD50 to USD 700;
1,258 children between the ages of 2 and 8 years had been enrolled in a total of 15 daycare centres established in tea the estates and one community. The children have been provided with uniforms and feeding programme;
1,026 children (475 girls and 551 boys) had been identified, withdrawn from child labour, and provided with opportunities for primary education or vocational training;
393 youth (191 girls and 202 boys) have been assisted to organize into coherent economic groups and provided with working capital and tools to start income generating activities. Out of these, 27 boys have been attached with industrial firms for in-plant (on the job) training/apprenticeship;
700 employees comprising of women workers (600) and trade union leaders (100) have been sensitised and trained on trade union matters, labour laws, reproductive health, occupational safety and health, legal rights, child labour problems, and cooperative and savings and societies (SACCOS).
19 daycare centres in tea estates have been renovated and provided with facilities, including desks, learning and playing materials;
5 women’s/daycare centres have been created in five locations in the informal sector.
The National stakeholders recognised that the pilot activities had contributed to addressing the feminization of poverty and the vicious cycle of poverty from one generation to the next and strongly recommended that activities be scaled up and mainstreamed into national policies and programmes.The ILO extended the project to another two years (May 2004 – June 2006) to further operationalize, validate, and consolidate the life cycle approach to decent work and poverty reduction by building upon the lessons learned, good practices and tools developed in the previous project with a project title ‘’Promoting Gender Equality and Decent Work Throughout All Stages of Life’’. With an overall objective of contributing to the achievement of the national strategies for poverty reduction through integrating a number of MDGs of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education and promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women through using a life cycle approach to Decent Work, the project will achieve four immediate objectives, namely:
- To have promoted women workers’ rights and enhanced awareness by Constituents of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work
2.To have demonstrated that women’s socio-economic empowerment contributes directly to increased opportunities for children’s education and reduction of child labour.
3.To have facilitated the school-to-work transition of selected groups of young women and men.
4.To have contributed to knowledge exchange, enhancement and dissemination of the policy and programme implications and practical tools for implementing a lifecycle approach to gender equality, decent work and poverty reduction.
The project is using access to formal and non-formal education, employment creation and the promotion of gender equality as the major intervention strategies. It addresses the disadvantages and vulnerabilities in the key stages of life through a series of components: Component One: creating linkages between basic education for children, reduction of child labour and the socio-economic empowerment of mothers; Component Two: addressing the problems youth, especially young women, face in making the transition from school to productive employment; and Component Three: focuses on knowledge management and knowledge sharing. It facilitates the interchange of good practices, lessons learned and tools among the key actors, including information dissemination, capacity building, and exchange visits. Policy lessons and practical recommendations for taking a life cycle approach to gender equality, decent work and poverty reduction is widely disseminated to the constituentsand globally through the Gender and Employment Help Desk (
3.Rationale for the Guide
This guide will serve as tool that would be used to improve the performance and hence the impact of the project. The guide focuses on a learning approach to monitoring and evaluation that uses achievements and problems for better decision-making and accountability. The tool will help the primary stakeholders, implementing agencies, district monitoring teams and other stakeholders learn together in order to improve their development interventions on a continuous basis. Since the overall objective is contribute to the achievement of the national strategies for poverty reduction through integrating MDGs of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education and promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women through using a life cycle approach to Decent, women workers are the ones best placed to assess the project impact.
This tool will help everyone involved in the project, including primary beneficiaries:
clarify what impact the project is expected to have for the poor women and their families and how this will be achieved;
decide on how progress and impact will be assessed;
gather and analyse the necessary information for tracking progress and impact;
explain the reasons for success and failure and agree on how to use this understanding to improve future action.
4.Key Stakeholders and their Role in Monitoring and Evaluation
The previous project for “Promoting the Linkages between Women’s Employment and the Reduction of Child Labour” and the current project for ‘’Promoting Gender Equality and Decent Work Throughout All Stages of Life’’was implemented/is implementedin participatory manner involving closely all the key actors from national through to the district and local levels. It is therefore embedded in a web of relationships between many different actors. The project deals with two key groups: Women workers and their children who are primary beneficiaries and key stakeholders who are secondary beneficiaries.