Enhanced Impact of Public Financial Management at National and Sub-national Employment Governance Project in Uganda

I. Background
During the last two decades, Uganda has made significant progress towards economic growth. The Government of Uganda’s commitment to ensuring peace, successful implementation of reforms for economic liberalisation and decentralised services, and growth of the private sector has served as a vital foundation for this growth, particularly in the manufacturing, construction, and service sectors. Prior to the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic, economic growth in Uganda remained relatively steady with the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP), estimated at 6.8 per cent, recorded in 2019 with an estimated average income of around $949. Consequently, the country has experienced a reduction in overall unemployment from 12% in 2013 to 8.8% in 2019/20.
Despite this fact, Uganda’s outlook for economic growth continues to be vexed by many startling employment challenges. For instance, the Employment Diagnostic Analysis Study (2018) commissioned by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), characterises Uganda’s labour market as one struggling with the following key five challenges:
▪ A rapidly expanding working-age population is not effectively integrated into the formal labour market;
▪ The dichotomy of employment-unemployment hides deeper labour market issues;
▪ There are stark disparities in working conditions and wages amongst various segments of communities;
▪ Pervasive gender-based inequalities across the labour market; and
▪ The considerable influx of refugees suffers from labour market challenges similar to their national counterparts.
Since its emergence in December 2019, the threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic to public health and employment was equally distressing. Indeed, the worsening of the long-standing challenges and inequalities in the world of work has been among the pandemic’s salient impact, which continues to undermine recent progress in poverty reduction and decent work. This is primarily the result of stalled economic activity owing to a domestic lockdown, border closures, and the effects of disruptions on global demand and supply chains. This has led to a sharp decline in GDP growth, public investment, and private consumption, with devastating effects on the industrial and service sector, particularly the informal service sector. Of even more significant concern, the pandemic’s socioeconomic effects are expected to continue for prolonged time to come unless the government, workers, and employers collectively take immediate measures to tackle the crisis, preserve jobs and protect incomes.
Based on the above challenges, the government of Uganda (GoU) aims to seize the moment and tackle decent work deficits as part of a broader response to the long-standing structural challenges and the impact brought forward by the pandemic on the labour market. Towards this, Uganda's National Development Plan (NDP) III aims to increase household incomes and improve the quality of life of Ugandans through sustainable industrialisation for inclusive growth, employment, and sustainable wealth creation. Sustainable industrialisation is being pursued to increase the country's resilience and transform people's lives through better incomes and gainful jobs.
Therefore, the NDP III tasks the government, private sector, and development partners to support the creation of 2.5 million jobs – 512,000 annually – over the plan’s implementation (2020/21 – 2022/25). An essential response toward realising the employment target highlighted above is to review and establish the preconditions for an effective employment governance framework as the steppingstone to better coordinate employment creation. II. ILO Development Cooperation project The “Enhanced Impact of Public Financial Management at National and Sub-national Employment Governance” is a two-year (Jan 2021 – Dec 2022) project funded by the European Union Delegation in Uganda. The project is implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in partnership with several government institutions, i.e., the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Works and Transport, and Uganda Bureau of Statistics. The objective of the project is to enhance gender-responsive public financial management outcomes for national and sub-national employment governance. This project has been designed and is implemented as part of the fiscal decentralisation and service delivery agreement between the government of Uganda and the European Union. The project has two mutually reinforcing result areas in which different actions have been prioritised: Result Area 1: Establishing pre-conditions for local government (LG) employment governance which is expected to result in equitable allocation of funds for sub-national service delivery. The following interventions were identified to be supported under the Project’s Result 1: Intervention 1: Support the development of the National Employment Strategy (NES) in partnership with the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD). Intervention 2: Provide technical assistance to Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) in conducting the National Labour Force Survey (NLFS). Intervention 3: Support the establishment, operationalisation, and promotion of labour market information system (LMIS).
Result Area 2: Strengthening capacities at national and local government levels in the implementation of employment-sensitive public financial management tools for effective inter-governmental fiscal transfer reform. The project aims to provide technical advice on the following two interventions: Intervention 1: Preparing and disseminating tools for mainstreaming employment in public financial management at sub-national level. Intervention 2: Preparing, costing, and mainstreaming medium term strategies for employment-intensive investments in District Development Plans.
The project has reported up to December 2021 the following key results achieved:
1. Technical Assistance towards the analysis and quality assurance of the national labour force survey (NLFS) and associated modules.
2. Technical and capacity building support towards the formulation process of a National Employment Strategy (NES).
III. Project management arrangement
The project is administered by a project team that operates within the ILO Country Office in Dar es Salam which comprises of one internationally recruited labour economist responsible for the administrative, operational, and technical supervision and implementation of the project interventions. Further, the project recruited a national project coordinator (NPC), finance and administration assistant (FAA) and a driver.
Moreover, the project is backstopped by Decent Work Team (DWT), particularly employment specialists in Dar and Pretoria, labour statistician and employment intensive investment programmes specialists in Pretoria. Equally, the project established a Technical Working Group (TWG) in UBOS and Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD) which are chaired by Directors in respective institutions. The purpose of TWGs is to coordinate and oversee the project delivery, identify and address risks, and mobilise other stakeholders. Relatedly, the project team closely works with Uganda’s National Employment Council (NEC) which includes tripartite structures mandated to oversee the National Employment Strategy (NES) formulation process. Finally, the project provides continuous updates and briefing, on ad hoc basis, to the EU’s responsible manager. IV. Project alignment with the DWCP, P&B, CPO & SDG
The project is aligned with the overarching priorities of the National Development Plan (NDP III) 2020/2021 –2024/25. The actions prioritised in the project seek to serve as a strong basis for facilitating the coordination of 2.5 million jobs as set out in the NDP III. Additionally, interventions under Result Area 2 are intended to contribute to the delivery of the Inter-Government Fiscal Transfer Reform Programme (igFTRF) which started in 2015/2016. The key focus of the IgFTRP is to address the challenges in the financing of local government service delivery through: the restoration of adequacy in financing of service delivery; ensuring equity in allocation of funds to local governments for service delivery; and improving the efficiency of local governments in the delivery of services. V. Evaluation background
The ILO considers evaluation as an integral part of the implementation of development cooperation activities. The evaluation in the ILO is for the purpose of accountability, learning, implementation improvement and building knowledge. It should be conducted in the context of criteria and approaches for international development assistance as established by: the OECD/DAC Evaluation Quality Standard; and the UNEG Code of Conduct for Evaluation in the UN System.
The project will follow the ILO Policy on Evaluation for Technical Cooperation projects and the Development Cooperation Internal Governance Manual. A project of this nature, which takes over 24 months to implement, requires annual progress report for the first year, final report covering achievements in the two years; an internal mid-term evaluation at the end of year 1 and a final independent evaluation at the end of year 2 to be conducted by an independent Evaluation Consultant and managed by ILO/EVAL, separate from the project.
VI. Evaluation purpose, scope and clients
Purpose:
The mid-term evaluation of “enhanced impact of public financial management at national and sub-national employment governance project” is intended to provide project stakeholders with the opportunity to assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, progress and sustainability of the project actions within the context of Uganda’s employment sector.
The specific objectives of the evaluation are to:
• Asses the relevance of the project strategy and outcomes related to the UNDAF, SDGs indicators DWCP, NDP III and national policies.
• The extent to which the project has achieved, on track, or not achieved its stated objectives and results and why
• Assess the extent to which the project delivered, or is likely to deliver results (outputs and outcomes)
• Identify contextual factors (opportunities and challenges) that have a positive or negative bearing on the project implementation, including technical, managerial, organisational, socio-economic and policy issues, in addition to other external factors unforeseen during the project design.
• Assess the potential impact and sustainability of project outcomes and strategy support to it
• Identify approaches and methodologies adopted by the project to mainstream gender equality, inclusivity, social dialogue, international labour standards, and environmental sustainability.
• Provide specific recommendations to the project stakeholders that aim to improve the project delivery and outcomes.
• Identify lessons learned and good practices to inform the project’s second year implementation.
Scope:
This mid-term evaluation will focus on the first year of the project implementation (Jan – Dec 2021). it is expected to review and assess all the results and key outputs that have been produced in this period. Geographically, the first-year activities focus on providing technical assistance at national level, thence no site visits required for this mid-term evaluation. The evaluation process will ensure that ILO’s cross-cutting are taken into consideration as per the EVAL guidance note n° 4 and Guidance Note n° 7 to ensure stakeholder participation.
Clients:
The primary users of the evaluation are the Government of Uganda, as implementer and recipient country, the project implementing partners (EPRC) as well as the ILO tripartite constituents, the ILO project technical unit, the ILO CO-Dar, the ILO DWT Office in Pretoria, the ILO Regional Office for Africa (ROAF), and the relevant technical units in ILO Headquarter and the donor, the European Union.
VII. Evaluation criteria and questions
The evaluation will cover the following evaluation criteria (in line with the DAC criteria, UNEG guidelines and ILO evaluation policy guidelines):
• Relevance and strategic fit;
• Effectiveness of project implementation and management arrangements;
• Efficiency of resource use and project set-up;
• Sustainability
• Impact orientation
In line with the results-based approach applied by the ILO, the evaluation will focus on identifying and analysing results through addressing key questions related to the evaluation criteria and the achievement of the outcomes/ objectives of the project using the mainly, but not only, indicators in the logical framework of the project. The list of questions presented below should be reviewed and adjusted during the preparation of the Inception report. Any adjustment should be approved as part of the approval of the inception report.
Key Evaluation Questions
The evaluator shall examine the following key issues: Ref Evaluation criteria Definition 1
Relevance
• To what extend are the project objectives aligned to beneficiaries needs, policy frameworks at national and sub—national level?
• To what extent has the project fit in and compliment with the Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP), Country Programme Outcomes (CPOs), UN Country Programme and other ILO projects in the country?
• Was the project design realistic to the context of Uganda? 2
Efficiency
• To what extent has the project delivered or is likely to deliver results (outputs and outcomes) in an economic and timely way?
• If not, what were the challenges encountered?
• Did the project budget allocate resources to implement cross-cutting themes?
• Did the project establish a reliable monitoring system and risk register during the implementation? 3
Effectiveness
• To what extent has the project achieved or is expected to achieve planned outputs and objectives?
• To what extend the social partners were engaged during the design and delivery phases?
• What outputs have not been produced? And why?
• How effective were the backstopping support provided by DWP team in Dar and Pretoria? 4
Sustainability
• What is the likelihood that the structures, capacities, services and benefits delivered will be sustainable after the project completion?
• To what extent Are the process, structures and capacities delivered during the first year serve the implementation in the second year? 5
Coherence
• To what extent has the project been coherent with other policies and interventions within the employment and PFM reforms strategy?
6
Impact orientation
• Is the project working towards achieving the proposed impacts?
• Is the project strategy and management working towards impact?
• Is the project working at policy and practice levels (change in practices, perceptions, technical capacity, governance or enabling environment) significant contributions to gender and inclusion related concerns?
VIII. Approach and Methodology
The approach to the mid-term evaluation will be interactive, consultative, and transparent. The evaluator will use a combination of secondary and primary data collection methods including documents review, key interviews with selected beneficiaries, observations, and a workshop discussions. In line with the specific objectives of the mid-term evaluation, the evaluation approach sought to
• Maximise the use of existing secondary documents and data.
• Undertake selective carefully structured interviews on the more sensitive issues.
• Facilitate a stakeholder workshop with project stakeholders to obtain feedback and validate project, challenges, and results.
• Ensure an interactive process of synthesis and development of potential options for improving the project delivery, the Results Framework, and related Action Plans.
Desk review
A desk review will analyse project and other documentation including the Theory of change logframe, implementation plan, annual report, project deliverables and other relevant documents. The desk review will suggest a number of initial findings that in turn may point to additional or fine-tuned evaluation questions. The desk review will include briefing interviews with the project team and the donor.
This will be reflected in the Inception report that will translate the TORs in an operational work plan. The Inception report will be reviewed and approved by the evaluation manager economist prior to interviews and stakeholder workshop.
Interviews with ILO, EU, and project stakeholders
The evaluator will undertake individual interviews with the ILO staff of technical units and the project team who are involved with the project management and implementation. A first meeting will be held with the ILO Labour Economist, National Project Coordinator and Finance and Admin Assistant. After that, the evaluator will meet relevant stakeholders including the focal points of respective institutions, members of various working groups, and the donor. An indicative list of persons to be interviewed will be developed by the evaluator in consultation with the project management. This will include but not limited to:
• ILO Programme Staff
• ILO Decent Work Team: Labour Statistician and Employment Specialists in Dar es Salam and Pretoria
• EU Programme Manager
• Government Partners
• Social Partners
• Implementing partners
The stakeholders include the following:
3. Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development
4. Uganda Bureau of Statistics
5. Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development
6. Federal of Uganda Employers
7. Central Organisation of Free Trade Union
8. National Organisation of Trade Union
9. Economic Policy and Research Centre
10. International Labour Organisation
11. European Union Delegation in Uganda.
Stakeholder Workshop
A Stakeholders workshop will be organized at the end of the interviews in Kampala to validate findings and complete data gaps with key stakeholders, ILO staff and representatives of the donor.
The project team will be responsible for organizing the workshop. The identification of the participants of the workshop and logistics will be the responsibility of the project team in consultation with the evaluator.
Draft Report
After the interviews, the evaluator will develop a draft evaluation report (see Deliverables below for the report outline its content) in line with EVAL Checklist 5.
The total length of the report should be a maximum of 30 pages for the main report, excluding annexes; background and details on specific projects evaluated can be provided in the annexes. The report should be sent as one complete document. Photos, if appropriate to be included, should be inserted using lower resolution to keep overall file size low.
The evaluation manager will circulate the draft report to key stakeholders, the project staff and the donor for their review and forward the consolidated comments to the evaluator.
Final report
The evaluator will finalize and submit the final report to the evaluation manger in line with EVAL Checklist 5. The report should address all comments and/or provide explanations why comments were not taken into account. The quality of the report will be assessed against ILO/EVAL’s Checklist 6.
The will review the final version and submit to the RSMEO for final review. The evaluation report will be distributed to the key stakeholders to enhance learning and uploaded in the ILO-EVAL e-discovery website for public use to provide easy access to all development partners, to reach target audiences and to maximise the benefits of the evaluation. IX. Deliverables
1. Inception report (with detailed work plan and data collection instruments) following ILO EVAL Checklist 3, the report should include:
• Description of the evaluation methodology and instruments to be used in sampling, data collection and analysis and the data collection plan mentioned above;
• Guide questions for the interviews;
• Agenda for the stakeholders’ workshop;
• The proposed report outline.
2. A draft and a final versions of evaluation report in English (maximum 30 pages plus annexes) as per the following proposed structure:
• Cover page with key project and evaluation data
• Executive Summary
• Acronyms
• Description of the project
• Purpose, scope and clients of the evaluation
• Methodology and limitations
• Clearly identified findings for each criterion or per objective
• Conclusions
• Recommendations (i.e., for the different key stakeholders)
• Lessons learned and good practices
• Annexes:
- TOR
- List of people interviewed
- Documents reviewed
- Data Table on Project targets as per Project logical framework targets
-ILO EVAL templates for each Lesson learned and good practice identified
3. ILO template for the Executive summary completed.
4. A brief presentation on the outcome of the evaluation to the ILO Country Office Director (one hour)
All reports, including drafts, will be written in English. Ownership of data from the evaluation rests jointly with the ILO and the evaluator. The copyright of the evaluation report will rest exclusively with the ILO. Use of the data for publication and other presentations can only be made with the written agreement of the ILO. Key stakeholders can make appropriate use of the evaluation report in line with the original purpose and with appropriate acknowledgement. X. Management arrangements, work plan & time frame
Management
The evaluator will report to the evaluation manager (project manager) Mr. Abdelmalik Muhummed, with whom he/she should discuss any technical and methodological matters. He will supervise the evaluator. The final approval of the report will be by the Regional SMEO.
The evaluation will be carried out with full logistical and administrative support of the ILO Office in Kampala.
All draft and final outputs, including supporting documents, analytical reports and raw data should be provided to the evaluation manager in electronic version compatible with Word for Windows.
The first draft of the report will be circulated to stakeholders for a two-week review. Comments from stakeholders will be presented to the evaluator by the evaluation manager for its integration into the final reports as appropriate or to document why a comment has not been included.
Evaluator qualification
The evaluator will be selected on the basis of proven evaluation experience and meeting the following independence criteria:
• A Master degree in Social Sciences, Development studies, Economics or related graduate qualifications
• A minimum of 5-7 years of professional experience specifically in evaluating international country development initiatives, including UN projects, in particular with policy level work and institutional building
• Experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, including survey design,
• A good understanding of ILO mandate and tripartite structure
• Experience in facilitating workshops for evaluation findings
• Have no previous or current involvement – or offers of prospective employment – with the ILO project or programme being evaluated
• Have no personal links to the people involved in managing the project/programme (not a family member, friend or close former colleague)
• Knowledge and previous experience on the project thematic area and the country/region will be an asset
• Fluent in spoken and written English.
• Be based in Kampala, Uganda.
The evaluator will start to work tentatively on first week of June 2022. Output Description Work days Desk review Including inception meetings with the project team and key stakeholders within the ILO, and the donor Read and review the core set of project documents. Request any additional documentation required 3 days Meetings (virtual or physical) with the project team and core staff at ILO and the donor Inception report: An operational work plan which indicates the phases of the evaluation, finalises the set of evaluation questions, the approach, the timing, key deliverables and milestones, aligned with TOR Stakeholder interviews • Interview with national stakeholders in Kampala • 4 days Stakeholder workshop • Prepare the workshop presentation with focus on preliminary findings and information gaps • Facilitate the workshop proceedings • 3 Draft report A short (no more than 30 pages) report (templates and annexes not counted in the page numbers) addressing the evaluation questions. 3 days Draft report circulated to stakeholders for comments by the labour economist He will consolidate and forward the feedback of the stakeholders to the evaluator. All feedback from stakeholders for the evaluator will be communicated in a consolidated manner 0 days
Finalize evaluation report and submit to the labour economist The evaluator submits to the manager the final text of the evaluation report, the Evaluation Summary and other documents concerned with the ILO template for the review and final submission to EVAL 1 days Total 14 days
XI. Budget and Payment Schedule
A budget is allocated for this mid-term evaluation for engagement of the evaluator and organization of a consultative stakeholder workshop. The evaluation budget includes:
• Fees for the evaluator for 14 workdays;
• Cost of meetings, workshops defined by the TOR.
Payment will be disbursed in line with the satisfactory delivery of outputs and activities outlined as per the following three instalments: Output Payment Indicative Date 1. Submission of the inception report and a work plan detail the approach and the questionnaire. First instalment – 20 per cent 15th June, 2022 2. Submission of a draft evaluation report second instalment – 40 per cent 5th July, 2022 3. Submission of final report with annexes
Third Payment –40 per cent 16th July, 2022 XII. Duration
This assignment will be implemented between 1st June and 16th July 2022. The evaluator will be mostly based in Kampala, Uganda. XIII. Submission of Applications
Interested candidates should submit the following documents:
• A Technical and Financial Proposal – the financial proposal should indicate total number of days and other related costs.
• Curriculum Vitae
• Date of availability
• A written sample of prior work
• Contact details for two (2) references to be contacted.
These documents should be submitted to klaprocurement@ilo.org not later than 2nd June 2022 11:55 PM.