- Evaluation Plan:
- 2008-2012, Lesotho
- Evaluation Type:
- Project
- Planned End Date:
- 03/2009
- Completion Date:
- 03/2008
- Status:
- Completed
- Management Response:
- Yes
- Evaluation Budget(US $):
- 9,000
Promotion of Youth Employment
| Document | Type | Language | Size | Status | Downloads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 YEP External Evaluation Report March 2009[1].doc |
report | English | 2589.00 KB | Posted | 4338 |
 TORs for PromotionsYouth Employment.pdf |
tor | English | 657.63 KB | Posted | 643 |
| Title | Promotion of Youth Employment | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlas Project Number: | |||||||||
| Evaluation Plan: | 2008-2012, Lesotho | ||||||||
| Evaluation Type: | Project | ||||||||
| Status: | Completed | ||||||||
| Completion Date: | 03/2008 | ||||||||
| Planned End Date: | 03/2009 | ||||||||
| Management Response: | Yes | ||||||||
| Corporate Outcome and Output (UNDP Strategic Plan 2014-2017) | |||||||||
| Evaluation Budget(US $): | 9,000 | ||||||||
| Source of Funding: | TRAC | ||||||||
| Joint Programme: | No | ||||||||
| Joint Evaluation: | Yes
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| Evaluation Team members: |
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| GEF Evaluation: | No | ||||||||
| Key Stakeholders: | Government, Youth Groups, local authorities, micro credit institutions | ||||||||
| Countries: | LESOTHO |
| Lessons | |
|---|---|
| Findings |
| Recommendations | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Evaluation recommendation 1. It is recommended that the YEP should be extended for a period of no less than two years, but ideally for five years, in order to enable real and sustainable benefits to accrue and to learn lessons for the longer term. A technical working group under the direction of the Steering Committee and comprised of all key stakeholders should be established to formulate the new programme, which should be much more explicit in terms of targets, timeframes and intended outputs and outcomes than the initial programme. |
| 2 | Evaluation recommendation 2. The finalisation of the NAPYE should be expedited, ensuring that it contains concrete activities, with outputs, outcomes, measurable indicators and responsible actors. The NYC should be finally established and operationalised; and efforts to effect change to schools and tertiary institution curricula should be resumed, as part of objectives to build the entrepreneurship culture of youth in Lesotho. |
| 3 | Evaluation recommendation 3. Consideration should be given to temporarily halting all training in order to prevent the expansion of the pool of trainees with high expectations of credit that are unlikely to be met in the short term, and trainers should focus on building the cohesion of existing beneficiary groups and on BDS and mentoring |
| 4 | Evaluation recommendation 4. Additional capacity building should be provided to trainers to establish a first cohort of Master Trainers and to improve their ability to provide BDS and mentoring support and to initiate enterprise types that are innovative and with better linkages to Lesotho?s resource base. |
| 5 | Evaluation recommendation 5. For the three Districts of Berea, Thaba Tseka and Botha Bothe that are not currently benefiting from the programme, consideration should be given to leaving them out of the programme for a period or to providing GYBI and SIYB training as a prelude to credit delivery |
| 6 | Evaluation recommendation 6. In respect of credit provisioning, Moliko should consolidate its current capacity and improve credit repayment rates across all Districts; should increase its credit delivery capacity through the recruitment, training and deployment of additional loan officers, on the basis of a stable and predictable budget; and should make credit available to qualifying groups in Districts where loans have not been made available |
| 7 | Evaluation recommendation 7. The Steering Committee and MAB should be reinvigorated in order to more actively pursue and support key programme objectives and to better fulfil their oversight, resource mobilisation and network building functions, for the proposed, expanded programme |
| 8 | Evaluation recommendation 8. The capacity of the office of the NPC should be enlarged to enhance his ability to engage in more substantive programme management activities, including more rigorous and joint planning to ensure better integrated field operations. |
| 9 | Evaluation recommendation 9. The contractual positions of trainers should be regularised and additional logistical support should be provided to them in order to improve their capacity to manage, train and mentor, communicate with and travel to beneficiaries. |
1. Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 1. It is recommended that the YEP should be extended for a period of no less than two years, but ideally for five years, in order to enable real and sustainable benefits to accrue and to learn lessons for the longer term. A technical working group under the direction of the Steering Committee and comprised of all key stakeholders should be established to formulate the new programme, which should be much more explicit in terms of targets, timeframes and intended outputs and outcomes than the initial programme.
Management Response: [Added: 2010/03/10]
Management concurs with the recommendations. A substantive revision has been done for the project covering the period 2010 ? 2012 which is in sync with the current UNDAF cycle. The substantive revision has benefited from a review of performance, the current evaluation, and discussions and review meetings with all stakeholders. It is also linked to the regional youth employment project allowing it to benefit from advisory services in a number of areas that were not foreseen initially, such as labour market information, social dialogue etc. Also, a much stronger partnership with ILO and UNICEF has been forged ? also including for the first time cost sharing from ILO.
Key Actions:
| Key Action | Responsible | DueDate | Status | Comments | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 Substantive revision of the previous ?pilot? programme into a full fledged programme
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2010/12 | Completed | New Phase launched Jan 2010 | |
| 1.2 Explicit log frame developed
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2010/12 | Completed | New Phase launched Jan 2010 |
2. Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 2. The finalisation of the NAPYE should be expedited, ensuring that it contains concrete activities, with outputs, outcomes, measurable indicators and responsible actors. The NYC should be finally established and operationalised; and efforts to effect change to schools and tertiary institution curricula should be resumed, as part of objectives to build the entrepreneurship culture of youth in Lesotho.
Management Response: [Added: 2010/03/10] [Last Updated: 2010/03/10]
Management concurs with the recommendations. The project has been experiencing serious capacity issues with the consultancy firm that was contracted by the Ministry to complete this task as the draft that was received was neither strategic nor an action plan. The Office has provided significant comments on this first draft, only to find that the second draft did not take this into account. The UNDP office then took it upon itself to draft detailed comments and guidelines and undertook several meetings with the consultants and the counterparts to complete the exercise. At present, this issue remains to be solved, but it is expected that in Q3 2010 the NAPYE will be finalised, but new consultants will need to be recruited. The National Youth Council are being launched early 2010 (the scope of which goes a little beyond the current YEP project). Guidelines for youth council has been finalised, but elections have to be held. UNDP support is provided through the National Volunteer Corps.
Key Actions:
| Key Action | Responsible | DueDate | Status | Comments | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 Finalisation of NAPYE
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2010/07 | Overdue-Initiated | Pending recruitment of new consultants | |
| 2.2 National Youth Councils established
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2010/07 | Overdue-Initiated | Outside scope of project |
3. Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 3. Consideration should be given to temporarily halting all training in order to prevent the expansion of the pool of trainees with high expectations of credit that are unlikely to be met in the short term, and trainers should focus on building the cohesion of existing beneficiary groups and on BDS and mentoring
Management Response: [Added: 2010/03/10]
Management concurs to some extent with the recommendation and the frequency of the training sessions has been reduced. However, two important points are to be made 1) training should not include the expectation of receiving credit ? it is important to train youth on entrepreneurship irrespective of whether they will receive credit through the project and 2) the project has invested in trainers that are proficient in the modules and it would be a big risk stopping training and releasing them from their contracts as it would imply a significant loss of investment.
Key Actions:
| Key Action | Responsible | DueDate | Status | Comments | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 review training schedule in light of lack of credit facility.
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2009/04 | Completed | Done, frequency reduced and monitoring of trainers increased |
4. Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 4. Additional capacity building should be provided to trainers to establish a first cohort of Master Trainers and to improve their ability to provide BDS and mentoring support and to initiate enterprise types that are innovative and with better linkages to Lesotho?s resource base.
Management Response: [Added: 2010/03/10]
Management concurs to with the recommendation. Firstly the trainers had to be certified in the modules for them to be considered for Master trainers. The trainers have been assessed and those who performed well have been recommended for certification. The office is still seeking for clarification on the implementation of the recommendation of the assessment before final decision is made on which trainers to qualify as Masters.
Key Actions:
| Key Action | Responsible | DueDate | Status | Comments | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 Assessment of trainers and decision on certification
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2009/10 | Overdue-Initiated | Assessment done, report to be discussed with Ministry | |
| 4.2 Certify trainers
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2010/01 | Overdue-Initiated | Pending decision | |
| 4.3 Master training of selected trainers (maximum 3)
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2010/10 | Overdue-Initiated | Pending decision and funding for master training |
5. Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 5. For the three Districts of Berea, Thaba Tseka and Botha Bothe that are not currently benefiting from the programme, consideration should be given to leaving them out of the programme for a period or to providing GYBI and SIYB training as a prelude to credit delivery
Management Response: [Added: 2010/03/10]
Management concurs with the second part of the recommendation and trainers have been redistributed over all ten districts to ensure that training can be delivered country wide.
Key Actions:
| Key Action | Responsible | DueDate | Status | Comments | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.1 Redistribution of trainers to all ten districts
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2009/10 | Completed | Done |
6. Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 6. In respect of credit provisioning, Moliko should consolidate its current capacity and improve credit repayment rates across all Districts; should increase its credit delivery capacity through the recruitment, training and deployment of additional loan officers, on the basis of a stable and predictable budget; and should make credit available to qualifying groups in Districts where loans have not been made available
Management Response: [Added: 2010/03/10]
Management concurs with the recommendation, however also recognizes that the capacity of Moliko is something it has little control over (especially its financial base) and as such, the office opted to review other ways to provide credit to youth. Examples of such are the Village Savings and Loans Associations for which training has been provided as well as the Lesotho PostBank which is supported by technical assistance from UNDP / UNCDF.
Key Actions:
| Key Action | Responsible | DueDate | Status | Comments | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.1 Increase credit delivery capacity by identifying options
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2010/01 | Completed | Done, VSLA training provided to trainers and a number of VSLA have already been set up, and support to Postbank |
7. Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 7. The Steering Committee and MAB should be reinvigorated in order to more actively pursue and support key programme objectives and to better fulfil their oversight, resource mobilisation and network building functions, for the proposed, expanded programme
Management Response: [Added: 2010/03/10]
Management concurs to with the recommendation and for the substantive revision of the programme this steering committee has been formally established, roles defined and meeting schedule agreed. The MAB meetings are occurring already in 2009 linked to the substantive revision. This will continue as an advisory function to the project.
Key Actions:
| Key Action | Responsible | DueDate | Status | Comments | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.1 Steering committee TOR, membership, meeting schedule and protocol formalised
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2010/10 | Completed | Done | |
| 7.2 MAB meetings re-started
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2009/04 | Completed | Done |
8. Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 8. The capacity of the office of the NPC should be enlarged to enhance his ability to engage in more substantive programme management activities, including more rigorous and joint planning to ensure better integrated field operations.
Management Response: [Added: 2010/03/10]
Management concurs with the observation that the capacity of the office of the NPS is limited to do al programme activities, however it was believed that a different way of organising the work would be more beneficial and cost effective than just adding staff to the office. Selected trainers have been appointed as coordinators of the trainers in their area. This solution limited the need for additional staff.
Key Actions:
| Key Action | Responsible | DueDate | Status | Comments | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.1 Appoint and instruct coordinator / trainers
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2010/01 | Completed | Done |
9. Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 9. The contractual positions of trainers should be regularised and additional logistical support should be provided to them in order to improve their capacity to manage, train and mentor, communicate with and travel to beneficiaries.
Management Response: [Added: 2010/03/10]
Management concurs with the recommendation of regularizing the management of the trainers and has taken action already also through more rigourous performance management of the trainers. A regular review schedule has been agreed on the basis of which trainers are assessed. Performance criteria are also incorporated in the contracts. ILO is also providing support to continuous capacity development of the trainers.
Key Actions:
| Key Action | Responsible | DueDate | Status | Comments | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.1 Review contractual arrangements of trainers including follow up on performance assessment
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2010/01 | Overdue-Initiated | Done, pending some decisions from MoGYSR | |
| 9.2 Increase performance oversight and mentoring of trainers to ensure quality
[Added: 2010/03/10] |
Alka Bhatia | 2009/10 | Completed | Done, monitoring sheets in place, performance contracts and mentoring |