Decent Employment for Women in India Project (DEW)

IND/00/M50/USA (INT/00/M05/USA)

Final Evaluation August 22 -26, 2005

Final Evaluation Report,

November 10, 2005 Evaluation Team Members:

Ms. Anne Mossige, Scanteam, Oslo (team leader and report writer) Ms. Lisa Wong-Ramesar, ILO-Declaration, Geneva Ms. Jona Lai, USDOL, Washington D.C. Mr. Uday Kumar Varma, Director, V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, Noida

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 11

1.1. BACKGROUND AND PROJECT DESCRIPTION ................................................................ 11 1.2. EVALUATION ’S PURPOSE AND METHODOLOGY .......................................................... 33

2. FINDINGS ............................................................................................................... 33

2.1. PROJECT OBJECTIVES, STRATEGY, DESIGN AND ASSUMPTIONS ................................. 33 2.2. PROJECT ORGANIZATION AND SUPPORT FROM ILO AND USDOL .............................. 44 2.3. EXPERIENCES RELATED TO PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION ............................................. 66 2.4. PROJECT ACHIEVEMENTS ........................................................................................... 88 2.5. SUSTAINABILITY OF PROJECT ACHIEVEMENTS ....................................................... 1212

3. CONCLUSIONS, LESSONS LEARNED AND RECOMMENDATIONS .. . 1313

3.1. CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................ 1414 3.2. LESSONS LEARNED ................................................................................................. 1515 3.3. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A WAY FORWARD ........................................................... 1616

ANNEXES:

Annex 1: The Evaluation’s Terms of Reference

Annex 2: List of Evaluation Questions

Annex 3: List of Key Persons Met or Interviewed

Annex 4: Dew’s Project Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (PMP)

Annex 5: Selection and Characteristics of NGOs

Annex 6: Rapid Households and Needs Assessments – Main Findings

Annex 7: NGOs’ Achievements Related to Skill Training of Women

Annex 8: DEW’s Training Manuals and Organizations/Experts Involved

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The subject of this final evaluation was the Decent Employment for Women project in India (DEW). The DEW was a pilot project funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) and executed by the ILO. The main objective of DEW was to improve the employability of poor women in the informal sector and their social status in the labour market. The project was mainly implemented in Bangalore and Delhi. It started in September, 2001 and was closed on September 30, 2005. Its funding amount was USD1,21 million.

The purpose of the evaluation was to determine if the project had achieved its stated objectives, assess project impact on the target group and sustainability of project achievements, report on lessons learned and determine if the project was suitable for replication.

Prior to the project the public vocational training institutes in India focused on formal training and were not involved in the informal sector despite its enormous size (90% of total workforce and 97% of women workforce) and lack of employment prospects.

DEW’s most important achievements were in developing and testing high quality training materials; in providing employable and soft skills training to poor and illiterate women in urban slum areas, e.g. 4500 women were trained and 70% of the trainees are employed; and in building the capacities of public and non-governmental training providers in Delhi and Bangalore demonstrating to the Government and other training providers that non-formal training for poor and illiterate women could be workable and cost-effective.

The pilot project was able to make these significant achievements with only one technical and two administrative staff and with limited technical support from the ILO (both SRO and HQ) throughout most of the project period. DEW’s project design was complex and ambitious, in particular in relation to its initial duration of only two years and its small staff size.

Project achievements related to the establishment of placement cells at the National Vocational Training Institute for Women (NVTI) in Delhi and the Regional Vocational Training Institute for Women (RVTI) in Bangalore and a Data Base at NVTI providing information on trainees and training providers were mixed.

There are significant challenges related to the follow-up, replication and expansion of DEW’s achievements by relevant Government training institutions. They include: (i) the lack of Government Focal points at various levels that were able take adequate lead responsibility; (ii) budgetary constraints and limited availability of staff; (iii) still limited capacities of many staff in actually training illiterate women at the community level; and (iv) the weak capacities of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) due to their limited participation in DEW’s activities.

Some NGO partners will have difficulties in continuing the training activities and the follow-up and hand holding1 of the women trainees without future external support.

Lessons learned

The DEW project experience provides several lessons learned for current and future projects and programs of MOL/GOI, ILO and USDOL. The main lessons include:

1 additional support following training period until the women trainees are able to find employment or become self employed

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(i) The need for a realistic project design and time frame, in particular for pilot projects.

(ii) The fact that capacity building takes time

(iii) The need to provide decentralized pilot projects with adequate technical staff and technical support and e.g. to link them with a strong anchor in a technical department in the ILO

(iv) The importance of focusing on strong involvement of project partners, experts and beneficiaries in the development of training materials, and to realize that this can be complex and takes time.

(v) The need to build strong linkages to markets and employers, in particular small scale employers, to ensure employability of skills.

(vi) The importance of focusing from the onset on project sustainability and identify when, how and who will take over and follow-up on project achievements after the project period.

Recommendations for a way forward

It is recommended that a possible follow-up of DEW in India by the ILO should focus on the need for the Government of India to follow-up and expand project activities and in the medium- or long term institutionalize non-formal training in the programs of many of its training institutions.

Specific recommendations include:

(i) Identify political and technical focal points with appropriate authority at different levels of the Government that can push for the follow-up and expansion of non-formal training in its training institutions, including the ITIs

(ii) Identify institutional mechanisms needed to formalize and institutionalize non-formal training in Government institutions, including the actual or potential bottlenecks and determine appropriate action to remove obstacles. This also includes the identification of future needs to decentralize (to regional/local levels) decision-making related to the identification and development of curricula.

(iii) Establish temporal milestones related to institutional changes

(iv) Identify one Government nodal institution/focal point with adequate authority that will take the lead responsibility – and link with appropriate partner institutions

(v) Assess the quality of DEW’s training materials as well as their actual use and prospects for future expansion and replication by Government, non-governmental and private training institutions. This should be done by a skill development specialist (in-house or outside ILO) with adequate experience in training of women in the informal and urban sector

(vi) If budget allows, assess the need for developing and testing materials related to new vocational skills. Focus more on testing and cross sharing in and from many sites

(vii) Ensure experience sharing between partners and stakeholders in all sites and the development of standards in methodologies and approaches

(viii) Focus on active employment and build effective linkages to markets and small-scale employers.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS DGE&T Directorate General of Employment and Training (MOLE) DEW Decent Employment for Women Project GENPROM Gender Promotion Program, ILO GOI Government of India HQ ILO Headquarters (Geneva) IIWE Indian Institute of Workers’ Education ITI Industrial Training Institute IFP/DECLARATION InFocus Program on Promoting the Declaration IFP/SKILLS InFocus Program on Skills, Knowledge and Employability ILO International Labor Organization/Office MOLE Ministry of Labour and Employment, India MTR Mid-Term Review NGO Non Governmental Organization NLI National Labor Institute (V.V. Giri) NPC National Project Coordinator NVTI(W) National Vocational Training Institute for Women PAC Program Advisory Committee PASC Program Advisory Sub-Committee PMP Performance Monitoring Plan Rupee (Rs) Rupee, Indian currency, 43 Rs = I USD (August 2005) RVTI Regional Vocational Training Institute SPC Sub-program coordinator (for Bangalore) SRO Sub-regional office for South-Asia, International Labour

Organization- (New Delhi) TOT Training of trainers USDOL United States Department of Labor VVGNLI V.V. Giri National Labour Institute

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background and Project Description

Country Contex

India has an estimated population of 1,079 million (2004). About 30% of the population live below the national poverty line, the majority of them women. In 2001, 83 percent of the workforce was in informal non-agricultural employment, characterized by low productivity, minimal incomes and a lack of economic and social security. Women’s share in non-agricultural employment was 17 per cent, indicating a substantially smaller share than that of men. In 2001, the labor force participation rates in urban areas for men and women were 54 percent and 15 percent, respectively. The female-to-male school enrolment ratio at primary, secondary and tertiary levels respectively stood at 77, 66, and 61 per cent in the same year.

Project Description

The Decent Employment for Women project in India (DEW) was a project funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) and implemented by the International Labor Organization (ILO) through a cooperative agreement designed to help countries realize the principles of the ILO’s Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

The initial project period was two years. The project started on September 21 2001, nine months later than originally planned due to delays in receiving clearances from the Ministry of Labour for implementation of the project and recruitment of project staff. The project was closed on September 30, 2005. The project was extended three times for a total of two years2. USDOL’s initial contribution to the project was approximately USD 1,28 million3. In 2004, the project’s budget was reduced by USD 124,920. The overall management of the project lay with the ILO’s InFocus Programme on Promoting the Declaration (IFP/DECLARATION) in Geneva. The responsibility for project implementation was decentralized to ILO’s Sub-regional Office for South Asia (SRO-Delhi), and project was technically backstopped by the Gender Promotion Programme (GEN/PROM) at ILO HQ.

DEW’s development objective, as stated in the Program Proposal, was to improve the employability of women in the informal sector and their social status in the labor market, and at the same time, contribute to the eradication of poverty in India. The immediate project objectives were to:

(i) improve the access of at least 2,000 poor women in the informal sector to effective training for better employability and knowledge of their rights as women workers; and

(ii) ensure that at least 1,500 women who were trained were organized and had the necessary structures and supports to translate training into decent employment and improved welfare for themselves and their families.

DEW was a pilot project and was implemented mainly in two metropolitan areas, Delhi and Bangalore. The main target group was poor and often illiterate or semi-illiterate women living in slum areas in these two cities.

The DEW project had a total of about 17 main activities divided into five components:

2 The first extension period was from October to December 2003, the second for an additional 12 months, and the last for 9 months until September 30, 2005. All three were no cost extensions 3 The exact donor contribution from USDOL was USD 1,289,714.

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(i) Capacity building of public vocational training institutes in developing and providing relevant skills training for improved employability of poor women in the informal sector by conducting baseline surveys and economic opportunity identification surveys, developing curricula, vocational training materials and instructional media packages, providing training and gender sensitization workshops and establishing a data base at the National Vocational Training Institute of Women (NVTI) on public and private training providers;

(ii) Capacity building of relevant NGOs, public training institutes and network structures to train poor women in the non-formal sector in productive employment, workers’ rights, occupational safety and health and life skills by establishing a resource centre on women workers’ rights at the National Labour Institute (NLI) and by assisting public vocational training institutes and NGOs to develop different modular training and awareness raising packages;

(iii) Capacity building for training providers to train women in the informal sector by establishing and strengthening training networks, and to train trainers from other government (incl. IIWE) and private sector institutions and NGOs so that they were better equipped to assist women in the informal sector to enhance their skills and knowledge for employability and empowerment;

(iv) Actual delivery of training to at least 2,000 poor women in the two metropolitan areas of Delhi and Bangalore through RVTI and ITIs and NGOs by using community-based participatory approaches to publicize the training and select particularly poor women - identified as women below the official poverty line including migrant women or female heads of households - for training and by organizing four model training programs in either ITIs, RVTI/NVTI and NGOs; and

(v) Improve the women trainees’ employment opportunities and possibilities for improved family and child welfare by establishing placement cells within the NVTI and TRVI, assist in organizing production, credit or self-help groups or cooperatives, establishing support services and facilities, support self-help groups and women’s organizations to establish relationships and networks with existing market and micro-finance institutions.

DEW’s main partners were the training institutions of the Ministry of Labour (MOL), Directorate General of Employment and Training (DGE&T), such as the NVTI for Women, Noida, V.V.Giri NLI, RTVI, Bangalore, ITIs for Women; and NGO partners.

Mid-term Evaluation

The mid-term evaluation4 which was conducted from October 14-19, 2002 raised two major points: (i) Issues with implementation of project activities in Bangalore due to the lack of technical capacity staffing. It was recommended that priority be given to resolving the situation. The project made some changes, including the removal of the Sub Program Coordinator (NPC) in Bangalore. The SPC was not replaced, and the two sites are run by the NPC based in New Delhi. A decision was taken at the end of 2004 that no new activities would be embarked upon in 2005.

4 The evaluation team included Anthony Twigger, consultant and John Ritchotte from ILO, Declaration. There was no USDOL representative. The team visited sites in New Delhi and Bangalore to meet women beneficiaries. In addition, the team met with Indian government officials and the national project coordinator and other project and SRO Delhi staff.

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(ii) Slow implementation start-up in general. To compensate for the slow start in implementation it was recommended that the project be extended in time. The project received a no cost extension until September 2005.

In 2002, a Project Management Plan (PMP) was designed with the input of the project staff. The project has been working closely with all of the institutions to try to improve data collection capabilities.

1.2. Evaluation’s Purpose and Methodology The purpose of this final project evaluation, as stated in the TOR (see Annex 1), was to:

(i) determine if the project had achieved its stated objectives and explain why/why not; (ii) assess and document the effects of project activities and outputs on the target group; (iii) assess the impact of the project in terms of likelihood that outputs will be sustained; (iv) determine if the project was suitable for replication; and (v) report on lessons learned The evaluation’s methodology included review of project material and other relevant literature; meetings and interviews with project staff and key project stakeholders in Delhi and Bangalore and telephone interviews with relevant staff at ILO headquarters in Geneva and USDOL; and visits to project sites in Delhi and Bangalore (see Annex 3 with lists of organizations and key persons met).

The evaluation team consisted of one external evaluator and one representative each from ILO Declaration, USDOL and the Ministry of Labor and Employment. The evaluation mission to Delhi and Bangalore was conducted from August 22 to 26. The limited time of only five days for the evaluation mission in India did not permit a comprehensive review of all project activities and in depth interviews with all of the project’s different stakeholders. Moreover, the non-availability of training and some other project materials in electronic format made it difficult to review these.

2. FINDINGS

2.1. Project Objectives, Strategy, Design and Assumptions The project’s objectives of improving the employability of poor women in the informal sector in urban areas and their social status in the labor market was and is still very relevant in the Indian context characterized by e.g.:

• The general low socio-economic status of Indian women • About 23% of women are in the workforce compared to about 52 % of men, in particular

in urban areas where the percentages stand at 10 and 53 % respectively • Indications during the last 30 years that the growth of female share of the workforce has

actually decreased • The enormous size and prospects of the informal economy in India, with an estimated

90% of the total workforce and an estimated 97% of the women workforce. The project’s two-pronged strategy of: (i) focusing on building the capacities of the Ministry of Labor’s (MOL) vocational training systems and other training providers such as NGOs and the private sector; and simultaneously (ii) providing vocational and soft skills training to women and to link the trainees to markets and employers seemed well-founded. It was in accordance with the GOI’s Common Minimum Program. Prior to the project, MOL through

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its Directorate of Women’s Vocational Training at the DGE&T had developed women’s specific vocational training programs and institutionalized training centers that target women in the formal sector all over the country. There were about 670 Women Industrial Training Institutes/wings in the general ITIs in the state sector, and 11 institutions at the central level, including one NVTI and 10 RVTIs. In the ITIs, 47,000 trainee seats and 2,000 in the central institutions were created exclusively for women.

On the other hand, these institutes were not involved in training in the informal sector in spite of its great importance in the Indian economy and for the country’s workforce. Consequently, there was an important and urgent need for the GOI to extend its services to the huge informal sector by creating employment opportunities and providing relevant vocational skills.

The project intended to demonstrate by developing training materials and providing training to poor women in urban slum areas that it would be workable for the different public vocational training institutes to be involved in this and to even formalize and integrate non-formal training into its regular programs.

The relevance of project objectives and strategy was also confirmed by resource persons and organizations interviewed.

It is important to note that DEW’s expected outcomes as stated in the Project Document did not include the institutionalization of non-formal training for poor women in the government vocational training programs, institutes and structures5. Should the institutionalization aspect have been a project objective already from the onset of the project? In retrospect, this seems valid. Such an objective would have helped the project in focusing more on gaining Government support and commitment to ensure follow-up and expansion of non-formal training after the project closed, and in the long term institutionalisation of non-formal training in relevant public training institutions. Instead the project’s actual focus was on training individuals within these institutes.

The project design was rather complex and ambitious with 17 more or less distinct activities, a multitude of partners and initial project duration of only two years. The project activities included the establishment of placement cells, gender resource center and data bases; the creation of networks; the identification of vocational skill training needs and the development, testing, validation and dissemination of training materials; and the actual selection and training of women beneficiaries as well as organizing them and finding them employment and markets.

2.2. Project Organization and Support from ILO and USDOL Project Staff

The project management unit was planned to include one national program coordinator (NPC), one sub-program coordinator (SPC) based in Bangalore, one program assistant for each of the two project sites, one administrative staff to the MOL and four social workers for the placement cells6. From the beginning of 2003 the project management unit consisted of only the NPC, one programme assistant and one secretary who were based in the office of SRO-Delhi and one secretary/assistant based in Bangalore. The two main reasons for the limited number of staff were: (i) The recruitment of the four social workers was never launched; partly due to the significant delay in project start up and later because the SRO office thought that it would be speedier and more cost-effective to contract consultants to do 5 It seems that this was not stated as a project outcome before the project’s MTR and was subsequently mentioned in various mission reports of ILO 6 See Project Document

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this work rather than starting a very time consuming and cumbersome recruitment process. Instead, both in Delhi and Bangalore, consultants with experience in social work were engaged to provide counselling services to women beneficiaries to identify economic opportunities for them and link the women with these opportunities. These exercises were conducted towards the end of the partner NGOs’ first training cycles: and (ii) Following the recommendations of the MTR, the SPC in Bangalore was dismissed towards the end of 2002. In 2003 until the Bangalore activities were closed in end 2004, the Bangalore office had a secretary. A short term consultant was recruited in 20047 The SPC was never replaced. The project and SRO thought that the remaining project period of only nine months was too short to recruit a new person and decided not to have a SPC in Bangalore. The need to recruit a new coordinator for the Bangalore activities was not addressed when it was decided to extend the project.

The actual project management unit of only one technical staff, the NPC, was too small. Reportedly, all three project staff in Delhi worked very hard, for very long hours, and often during the weekends. Although the NPC had previous extensive experiences in vocational training and knew well the relevant Government institutions, several interviewees claimed that the project team still required additional technical staff (e.g. by two full time technical positions related to skill development, markets and employment, the establishment of data bases and monitoring and expediting the NGOs’ activities) and that the delivery of some project outputs were affected, such as the monitoring of NGO activities and the establishment of the database and the development of audio-visual materials at the NVTI (see chapter 2.4). During interviews, several resource persons also claimed that additional staff would have given more time for the NPC to work more on overall monitoring of activities and on issues related to cross-sharing of experiences between implementing partners and between Delhi and Bangalore, network and partnership building and long term commitment and follow-up, in particular at Government level.

Project support from SRO, ILO Geneva

Project’s support from SRO and ILO Geneva have to a large degree focused on backstopping related to administrative, budgeting and programming issues and provision of technical support from GENPROM. In spite of the fact that it was a pilot project and that vocational training targeting poor women in the informal sector was a rather new terrain in India, apart from the inputs of local training experts that were involved in DEW’s networks, DEW did not receive any inputs from specialists – neither inside nor outside ILO – that had these specific skills. As one person put it: “The project was studied by many, but their actual contributions were fewer”.

ILO decentralized the responsibilities for project implementation to SRO-Delhi which is one of ILO’s largest SROs. Consequently ILO Declaration only provided a limited number of missions to the project. The SRO Delhi provided day-to-day administrative and programming support. In spite of DEW’s very small project unit, SRO-Delhi generally did not provide additional support related to programming, administrative and budgeting issues. This finding was confirmed during interviews.

For two years, until April 2003, SRO’s senior skill development specialist - for the formal sector - provided advice and some technical backstopping to DEW on issues related to the selection of NGOs and review of the NGO proposals as well as the development of training material during its initial phases. The specialist was not an expert in training in the informal

7 The short term consultant was recruited to work on strengthening the linkages between the women trainees and potential employers and markets in Bangalore.

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sector and was also relatively charged with other tasks at the SRO. After the specialist was transferred to ILO Geneva in 2003 and up to the time of the evaluation mission, this position at the SRO was not filled. Technical input from the rest of SRO’s technical team to DEW was generally limited to participation in workshops organized by or related to DEW and occasionally to review project related documents and some training materials.

At ILO in Geneva, the overall programme management and donor coordination was provided by its InFocus Program on Promoting the Declaration (IFP/Declaration). Staff from Declaration had undertaken a total of three missions to DEW, including the MTR and the final evaluation missions. All backstopping provided by Declaration, including the one non-evaluation mission was mainly related to administrative, budgetary and programming issues.

In spite of SRO’s vacant skill specialist position, ILO’s InFocus Program on Skills, Knowledge and Employability (IFP/Skills) input to DEW had been limited to the contribution to the work safety module in the soft skills training manual and the participation in a recent workshop organized by DEW. The Gender Promotion Programme (GENPROM) or the Employment and Gender Team, now placed in EMP/POL had carried out three missions to the project that mainly focused on gender and employment issues.

The ILO Turin Centre provided some training materials to the project and DEW participated in a one week training program on women entrepreneurs in the informal sector in Delhi. The Turin Center does not have many non-formal training materials. Moreover, USDOL was in general against using the Turin Center for training purposes due to high costs.

DEW’s requests for a study tour to countries with experiences in non-formal training and a visit to the Turin Center was turned down by SRO-Delhi due lack of an appropriate budget line.

USDOL’s Role

On average USDOL’s program manager would visit the project twice per year. In 2004, two additional missions were undertaken by USDOL’s assistant Secretary and by its Deputy Secretary, respectively. It was reported that given that DEW is a small project within a larger USDOL package, it did not receive any particular attention from the US Embassy.

2.3. Experiences related to Project Implementation The Cooperative Agreement was signed in September 2000. DEW was scheduled to start in January 2001, but actual project start up was nine months later, on September 21, 2001. The main reasons for the delay included the processes related to the recruitment of project staff and significant delays in clearance from the Ministry of Labor for project implementation. According to many interviewees, the delay in MOL’s signing off the project appeared to be partly due to the fact that DEW was a small part of a larger USDOL package where the commitment of GOI was on a higher than Ministry level. Consequently it took some time to get the MOL on board.

The initial program implementation table was unrealistic and subsequently revised. This was confirmed during many interviews and in technical reports. DEW’s planned implementation table did not take into consideration the considerable time requirements for aspects related to project start up, including the initial period that included tasks related to the set-up of office, recruitment of staff etc. and the time and processes related to the selection of NGO partners, in carrying out the planned needs assessments and baseline studies, review of NGO proposals, drafting of TORs and finalizing and signing of agreements. E.g. the mapping and selection of NGOs and the baseline study of households was a process that took approximately five

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months8 compared to the planned three months. In 2002, the implementation plan was rescheduled to make it more realistic and workable.

In Bangalore the project start up was significantly delayed. This was mainly due the sub-program coordinator’s lack of adequate skills required to manage and coordinate the Bangalore activities. Following the MTR, which addressed this issue, the sub-program coordinator in Bangalore was dismissed at the end of 2002 and was never replaced. In 2003, the NPC launched the activities with its implementing partners in Bangalore. There were more challenges related to the implementation of project activities in Bangalore compared to those in Delhi. E.g. during several interviews it was reported that the Delhi NGOs were more flexible to the duration of their DEW contracts, while the NGOs in Bangalore refused to sign contracts for a period less than six months. The trainees in Bangalore were often trained in non traditional job skills such as plumbing, masonry, taxi driving etc. and had problems in finding work. In October 2004, ILO and USDOL decided jointly that no new activities should be undertaken in Bangalore after the end 2004 so that DEW could focus on consolidation and sustainability of activities in Delhi during its last nine months. In 2005, SRO-Delhi financed some of the originally proposed DEW activities in Bangalore.

Three extensions of project period. The project was extended three times for a total of two years; all three were no cost extensions. The first extension period was from October to December 20039, the second for an additional 12 months, and the last for 9 months until September 30, 2005. Given the rather complex and ambitious project design, the initial project duration of only two years and the initial delays in project launching and implementation, the extension periods were necessary to enable the project to better achieve its objectives. The first project extension created a significant time lapse of two to three months between the actual closing of project commitments (and consequent freezing of project activities) during first week of December until mid February when project activities were resumed. This hampered project execution, in particular the programming and execution of the NGO partner contracts that had duration of between four and six months.

2004 project budget cut. In November 2004 the project’s budget was cut by USD 124,920 or approximately 10% of the total funding level. This was mainly due to the project’s previous disbursement figures and the perception of both DECLARATION and USDOL that the project would not to be able to disburse the remaining funds by September 2005, even if the Bangalore activities would continue. The project and SRO-New Delhi were informed by DECLARATION about the proposed budget cut in May 2004. The budget cuts did not have any significant impact on project’s delivery of outputs. E.g. before the evaluation mission in august 2005, only one month prior to the project’s closing date, about USD 40,000 of the project funds were still uncommitted.

Project’s monitoring of activities. Initially, the project did not emphasize monitoring of project activities. The project prepared a Project Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (PMP) in February 2002. Reportedly it was often difficult for both ILO and USDOL to obtain quantitative figures from DEW related to project achievements10, in particular related to the NGO implemented activities. It seemed that this shortcoming could be explained by: (i) the initial lack of focus on the monitoring of activities and (ii) the acute lack of staff to monitor

8 Actual time line: September 21, 2001, Project launched; December 2001: Mapping started, February 2002: meeting with NGOs, April 5: Deadline for submission of proposals; and May 15: contracting NGOs. 9 The first extension was expected to be for 12 months but ended up being only for 3 months due to some processing problems of that particular extension request by USDOL. 10 Figures were generally provided when DEW was reminded.

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the many activities that were implemented by its 14 partner NGOs, in particular without a local coordinator in Bangalore (see Annex 4 for information about DEW’s PMP-results). This shortcoming and its causes were confirmed during interviews.

2.4. Project Achievements Selection of NGO partners and their characteristics. DEW’s NGO partners in Delhi and Bangalore had to be identified, selected and contracted before the project could launch the rapid community needs assessments. The mapping and selection of NGOs and the baseline study of households was a process that took approximately 5 months. The process and results are described in Annex 5. A main finding of the mapping exercise was that very few NGOs had previous experience in training in productive employment in urban slum areas

Rapid household needs and economic opportunities assessments. All the NGO partners (seven in Delhi and six in Bangalore) carried out rapid appraisal studies of their slum communities to elicit the selected communities’ demographic and socio-economic profile and to assess the skill training and employment needs and opportunities of the targeted women. The main findings of the appraisals are in Annex 6.

Capacity building of staff of public training insti tutes and NGO partners. DEW trained a total of 48 master-trainers from NVTI, Noida; RVTIs Delhi and Bangalore and ITI, Delhi as well as 45 trainers from the eight NGO partners in non-formal training of semi and illiterate women in several areas such as beauty culture, garments, handicrafts, care economy and life skills. Master-trainers and trainers also participated in workshops related to the development of the training manuals, in the field testing of the manuals, and in actually training the women beneficiaries in the specific vocational, soft and/for life, and entrepreneurial skills.

The actual field testing and training of the target group were mostly driven by the NGOs. This was mainly due to their more hands-on experience in working with and training women and also that the NGOs were contracted by DEW to provide most of the skill training. Some public training officers provided short term model training programs/ upgrading courses. In retrospect, they should have been more involved in the actual field-testing and training of women to gain more hands-on experience in non-formal training. In the future many of them will need more training and field experience before they are able to effectively train illiterate women.

Only two ITIs were involved in project activities and their participation was very limited: Eight trainers of the Delhi ITI participated in developing a training module and the proposals from the ITI in Bangalore were received too late by the project. Their involvement was constrained by management issues, including changes of PAC’s members which reduced its initial strong commitment to ITI participation.

Capacity building of Government institutions and NGOs in gender issues and women workers’ rights. In 2004, DEW organized one Gender Sensitivity workshop for a total of 26 participants. 14 of these were government officials, including from MOL, NVTI and RVTI. Members from Central Workers’ Board of Education (CWBE) also took part in the training.

With the aim of collecting and disseminating information on women workers’ rights as well as to mainstream these issues into the work of relevant institutions, DEW supported the establishment of a gender resource center at V.V.Giri NLI. Given the limited resources (USD 41,000) provided by DEW, the project supported only the initial phases of the creation of the center. NLI has since provided USD 91,000 of its own resources to finalize the center and to carry out periodical reviews of resource center maintenance and upgrading. The center has generated documents related to gender issues, in particular on gender inequality, legal rights

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and sexual harassment, and has prepared an annotated bibliography. Currently, NLI tries to integrate and mainstream these issues into its work and training program. The center is part of the NLI’s main library and is frequently visited by its professional staff and visitors.

Training of women in vocational and soft skills was one of DEW’s main achievements. The project trained a total of 4,500 women in traditional or non-traditional vocational skills and soft and entrepreneurial skills. This is 2,500 more women than initially planned (The table in Annex 7 provides detailed information about the NGOs’ achievements).

Most women beneficiaries (Annex 6 describes their characteristics) were selected during community meetings. Some women trainees also reported to have contacted the NGO or that they were contacted by the NGOs’ outreach staff.

Vocational skill training. Many NGO partners trained the women in traditional vocational skills such as beauty culture, dress making, care of elderly and children, food processing and/or catering and as e.g. domestics. More importantly, DEW broke the glass ceiling by training some women in non traditional skills for women such as car driving (Bangalore and Delhi), two wheeler mechanics (mostly Delhi and model training in Bangalore) and masonry (Bangalore).

The NGOs would generally train the women for three to four months. The full training cycle, which was from four to six months, included training in entrepreneurial and soft skills. The different NGO partners organized three to seven training cycles. The Bangalore-based NGOs carried out a maximum of three cycles mainly because of the late start up (2003) and early phasing out (end 2004) of project activities in Bangalore.

Some of the public training institutes (NVTI and RTVI) developed add-on modules and provided short term upgrading courses in e.g. dressmaking and the use of power machine to women who had already gone through the “basic” training course provided by the NGOs.

Certified training. The vocational training courses were certified jointly by ILO and DGE&T and most women trainees received a training certificate. The certification was a unique process that was put in motion by DEW. In terms of the structure and content of these training courses, experts and NGOs reported that some of the manuals covered too many subjects and that the training period of three months was in general too short. In future they should be longer (about 6 months but depending on the skill) and focus on only one or two specialized skills. Add-on modules to the basic skills should also be provided to the best performing trainees. Standards, product development and quality assurance should also be included in most future courses. Several training experts, NGO partners and beneficiaries stated the important need for skill upgrading.

Entrepreneurial and soft skills training were also provided during the training cycle. The soft skills included training sessions related to awareness raising, health and occupational safety for women, gender equality and women workers’ rights and self development, interpersonal and leadership skills. Given that most of the women trained were taking up self-employment, the entrepreneurial skills training focused on providing the trainees basic business/commercial skills and how to develop business proposals.

According to DEW, the project evaluated the training activities of NGOs and NVTI/RVTI by obtaining information on training plans prior to training, visits to the training sites during training, getting progress and final reports on the training programmes from the NGOs and institutes, together with result sheets of internal and external evaluations of trainees' skill levels conducted at the end of the training programmes. The organizations needed guidance and sometimes regular handholding related to different activities such as the organization of training activities.

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Development and testing of training materials. This is another area where the project has been very successful. The project prepared a total of 11 training manuals in vocational skills (8 manuals), soft skills (2) and entrepreneurial skills (1). Many training experts, ILO staff and other resource persons claimed that the training materials developed by DEW were of often high and sometimes even excellent quality. The development process focused on a strong involvement of partners and experts. The table in Annex 8 provides information about each manual and the organizations and experts involved in developing and testing the materials.

DEW’s NPC and partners and other experts put a lot of efforts into developing the training materials. The project involved many partners in order to create ownership and to ensure that the training materials would be introduced, adopted and replicated by partners and other relevant training institutions.

The process involved in developing, testing, finalizing and approving each manual took between two to six months, excluding the printing process that has been very time consuming (e.g. in August 2005 only seven of the 11 training manuals were in printed versions and the others were still under processing11). In general the approach was to start with a consultant which was often an expert from specialized institutions that would develop a draft manual or one or several specific modules of a manual. The draft manual would then be presented in a workshop where master trainers and trainers of partner organizations would participate. Subsequently the manual would be tested in the field by trainers and the women beneficiaries. Most often the field tests were carried out by NGO partners. Different partners would also provide feedback and inputs and the consultant/expert was responsible for finalizing the material. For some of the manuals, experts from the private sector also participated12.

Some of the materials were made from scratch. Others were made by modifying already available materials in that particular skill and simplifying them to better target illiterate women e.g. by using photos and drawings. To facilitate physical and technical updating and upgrading of the manuals, the project insisted on the use of loose leaves.

Currently the manuals are being circulated through DGE&T to the formal training institutes and will also be available for NGOs and other relevant institutions.

DEW supported NVTI’s development of audio-visual training materials which was very popular among NVTI’s staff. However, the production of audio-visual films has mostly targeted NVTI’s formal-training courses. To date the use of these films in non-formal training has been very limited.

The evaluation team did not have time available to assess the quality of DEW’s training materials during its short mission in India. It was also difficult to review the materials after the mission as the manuals were not available in electronic format. In the near future ILO should identify a skill development specialist (in-house or outside ILO) with adequate experience in training in the informal and urban sector to assess the quality of the training materials as well as their actual use and prospects for future expansion and replication by Government, non-governmental and private training institutions.

Support package. The NGO partners provided a support package to the trainees including:

• Health services: In Delhi, all women trainees received a health card funded by the local Government. In Bangalore, the trainees had access to a health check.

11 According to DEW, the printing process of the remaining four will be completed by end October 2005. 12 E.g. employers from garments export industries in Delhi and experts from the construction industry in Bangalore

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• Morning tea and breakfast or a support package of 10 Rs that covered costs related to transportation and food and tea during the training, and

• All NGOs had child care facilities for the trainees’ youngest children.

Employability. Approximately 70% of the women trainees were involved in an income generating activity within six months after completing the training13. Most of the women were self-employed.

It has been relatively easy for the women trained in traditional vocational skills to find work, partly because some NGOs had created or already had linkages to employers and/or markets. It was also quite easy to sell the women’s products in the neighborhood markets where there was often an important demand for ready made low quality garments and for food products such as jams and pickles. All NGOs reported that there was a significant need for hand holding and follow-up of the trainees after the training. Apparently, there was a positive correlation between the amount of time the NGOs spent and the latter’s ability to find work.

It was more challenging for women trained in non traditional skills to find work. Employment opportunities in non traditional areas seemed to require a longer lead time. There was a certain tendency of DEW and its NGO partners to showcase the success stories of women cab drivers (e.g. one DEW supported cab driver has received a lot of publicity in the media in Bangalore) and women mechanics that had set up their own workshops.

However, actual employment figures related to women trained as cab drivers, plumbers and two wheeler mechanics etc. were rather grim. E.g. 25% of women trained as plumbers and 18 of the women who are trained as cab drivers did not work. This seemed to be due to different reasons, including: (i) traditional attitudes of employers and industries; (ii) lack of focus – and time - to organize the trainees in production groups and cooperatives and linking these to credit institutions (the successful women were often assisted by external inputs in the form of credits etc.). DEW started late in organizing the trainees (2003), currently about 154 groups have been created or supported by DEW; (iii) the weak performance of the public training institutes in linking trainees to employers and markets and (v) the weak linkages between DEW and small scale employers (their members in PAC were large scale employers (e.g. the main Chamber of Commerce that do not reach out to the smaller groups),

The NGO and trade union KKNSS was relatively successful in finding employment for the women trained as masons (previously they worked as unskilled laborers, coolies on construction sites). During and after the training cycles, KKNSS has had a close relationship with small and larger private contractors and Government companies. The women trainees often worked as apprentices during the first period after training. Currently DEW is exploring possibilities with the Bangalore Builders’ Association to support KKNSS’ training course in the future. One of the challenges related to the follow-up and replication of this course is its relative high costs, partly the costs of the materials, but also because the women coolies have to be compensated for their lack of wages during the training period.

DEW’s support to placement cells at NVTI and RVTI. The establishment of NVTI’s and RVTI’s placement cells was delayed. It seemed that they have so far mainly focused on making an inventory for formal training and trainees. The collection of data for the informal sector started recently. In general the outreach capacities of these placement cells and their effectiveness in linking the trainees, in particular those in the informal sector to employers are questionable. Several resource persons claimed that these institutions generally did not reach

13 According to DEW, they verified the figures given by NGOs by carrying out regular visits to the NGOs where they checked on the basis of a sample.

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out to employers but waited for the employers and for employment demands to come to them (while e.g. private sector employers make announcements in newspapers or on internet which is more effective).

The establishment of a NVTI Data Base on skill supply and demand by different training providers, including NGOs, was not yet finalized. This activity started late and had initial problems. Recently the National Information Center (NIC) had assisted and was expected to continue this work after the project closed. There are two main challenges related to the follow-up and sustainability of this Data Base: (i) the potential lack of follow-up by the NGO partners that need to regularly update their data related to their training activities and project trainees and (iii) the actual ownership to the data base and the future use by MOL and NVTI are questionable as most of the data sources come from organizations outside MOL.

Impact on women beneficiaries. As mentioned above, 70% of the trainees had found work after participating in the training courses. Their average income ranged from 1,000 Rs. to 3,500 Rs per month. An impact study on DEW’s activities in Delhi (2004) found that an increase of more than 1,200 Rs. satisfied the women as it significantly supplemented the household income. • The trained women masons in Bangalore reported that they earned between 120 to 150

Rs. per day. Previously they had all worked as coolies and earned from 60 to 70 Rs. per day. The income increase stabilized the monthly income as job demands were often irregular.

• Women doing cutting and stitching in Delhi earned from 2- 3.500 per month • The rag-pickers in Delhi earned 1500 to 2000 Rs from rag-picking and 700 Rs

supplemental from making and selling handicrafts (candles, glass etc.). • Women trained in beauty culture found employment easily and average income as

apprentices was around 1500 Rs • For most trainees their monthly earning represented their first independent source of

income Other impacts on women and their families from DEW’s training activities that were reported by the project staff, NGOs and women beneficiaries included: • The change in attitude of husbands who were often skeptical to the training. After the

women started to earn money from work most husbands often became very supportive • Many women reported to have gained more self confidence • If income was adequate, the women often tried to send children to better schools On the other hand, the impact on trainees that had not found employment was less evident.

2.5. Sustainability of Project Achievements In terms of sustainability of project achievements, the project had different expectations14, including that; “(i) Once the training material and modules had been developed, tested and put in place in NTVI and RTVIs, non-formal training would be institutionalized in these institutes and also have had an important snow balling effect for later training activities in other training institutes; (ii) MOL would use DEW’s outputs (e.g. the training materials) in a great variety of skills, modules and media packages in other parts of the country in order to expand non-formal training for women; and (iii) sustainability would also be ensured by the strengthening of network structures, working relationships and coordination among a different public, NGO and private training providers and users.”

14 Ref: Project Document, page 23

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Follow-up and expansion of project activities by relevant public training institutions. As mentioned in chapter 2.4 above, the project made important achievements in terms of building the capacities of public and non-governmental training providers and in developing some informal linkages between these providers, in developing high quality training materials and in actually providing employable training to the target group. With these achievements, DEW demonstrated that non-formal training to poor women was workable and could be cost-effective.

Although the project worked with the idea that activities and impact would be made sustainable through partners, the project’s support to e.g. building the capacities in non-formal training of public training institutions focused mainly on training their individual trainers and master trainers. Less emphasis was given to building ownership and commitment at decision making and policy level of these institutions, at MOL and higher political levels. In addition, several resource persons that were interviewed mentioned the uncertainty of the future of the different DEW initiated training networks without outside support and without any identified focal points to take the lead responsibility.

Concerning the actual possibilities of the targeted public training institutes to both use DEW’s training materials and to follow-up, expand and institutionalize non-formal training for women, they are still faced with many challenges, which include:

• Budget constraints – the integration of non-formal training in NVTI, RVTIs and ITIs requires additional budget support to finance training materials and additional instructors,

• Limited availability of staff - currently the advanced courses have an 8 month duration and the only time available for non-formal training is for 3-4 months of the year

• Still limited capacities of many staff in training women in the informal sector -the training officers participated more in TOT workshops and in developing training materials and less on actually testing the training at community level along with the NGO partners.

• ITIs very limited involvement in DEW and consequent lack of experience and capacities

Follow-up and expansion of project activities by NGO partners. Several NGO partners reported they had, through their involvement with DEW, built important capacities in non-formal skill training and that they had very few initial experiences in this field, in particular in urban areas. However, most of them claimed that follow-up of many of these activities would require external support. Only a few of them, those involved with several donors, believed that they would able to follow-up and integrate some of these training activities into their other programs. Many NGO partners also questioned their possibility to follow-up the trainees who were in need of hand holding for some time.

3. CONCLUSIONS, LESSONS LEARNED AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The public vocational training institutes in India focus on formal-training. They have not been involved in the informal sector despite its enormous size and lack of employment prospects. It is estimated that it has 90 percent of the total workforce and 97 percent of the women workforce. The Decent Employment for Women Project aimed at demonstrating that it was workable to provide employable training for poor women in the informal sector so that the Government would launch, expand and even institutionalize non-formal training in its training institutions.

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3.1. Conclusions Project objectives, strategy, design and assumptions

Relevant project objectives and strategy. DEW’s objectives of improving the employability of poor women in the informal sector in urban areas and in improving their social status by: (i) focusing on building capacities of public vocational training systems and (ii) providing vocational and soft skills to poor women were very relevant.

DEW’s outcomes did not include the institutionalization of non-formal training for poor women in the government training programs, institutes and structures which would have helped the project in focusing more – and from the onset – on gaining Government support and commitment to ensure follow-up and expansion of non-formal training after the project closed.

Project design was complex and ambitious, with 17 activities, a very small project unit and an initial project period of only two years. DEW was a pilot project in a relatively new area in India. Project design should have included a longer initial project period and an initial start up phase for studies, assessments and tests.

Project Organization and support from ILO

A too small project unit. For most of DEW’s duration, the NPC was the project’s only technical staff. Although DEW’s achievements were considerable, additional technical staff would have assisted the project in achieving even more, in particular in relation to the overall monitoring of activities, cross sharing of experiences between implementing partners and between Delhi and Bangalore, network and partnership building and long term-commitment and follow-up, particularly at Government level.

Project’s technical support from SRO and ILO-Geneva was limited, in particular related to skill development. Although vocational training for poor women in the informal and urban sector was a new terrain in India, DEW did not receive inputs from specialists outside India that had these specific skills. DEW was a decentralized project. It should have had a strong anchor in a technical department of ILO that should be involved in all the project stages, including in (i) providing guidance to strategy and design and how to implement innovative activities and develop and adapt tools; (ii) documenting processes and assessing impacts; and (iii) drawing lessons learnt.

Project Implementation

Delays in project launching. The actual project start up was nine months late due to recruitment processes and delays in the clearance from MOL for project implementation

The initial program implementation table was unrealistic and subsequently revised.

Project period was extended for a total of two additional years. This was necessary in order for the project to better achieve its stated objectives.

DEW’s monitoring of activities was constrained by too few technical staff.

Project achievements

DEW made important achievements related to:

• Developing, testing and validating high quality non-formal training materials in employable and soft skills for women in the informal sector

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• Providing employable skill training to poor and often illiterate women in slum areas in Delhi and Bangalore. This has included both traditional and non-traditional vocational skills. Although many of the women trained in non-traditional skills are still unemployed, overall 70% of the women trained by DEW have found employment and have raised their families’ income after the training course.

• Building the capacities of public and non-governmental training providers in Delhi and Bangalore in non-formal training for women. This was a relatively new field for both NGOs and public training institutions of India.

By this, DEW has demonstrated to the Government and other training providers that non-formal training for poor and illiterate women can be both feasible and cost-effective.

Other project achievements were mixed, such as the establishment of placement cells at NVTI and RTVI and a Data Base at NVTI providing information on trainees and training providers.

Sustainability of project achievements

There are important challenges related to the expected follow-up, replication and expansion of DEW’s achievements by relevant Government training institutions. The challenges include:

• The lack of Government Focal points at various levels to take lead responsibility for the expansion, integration and institutionalization of non-formal training in the relevant public training institutions and for the continuation of the training networks initiated by DEW.

• Budgetary constraints and limited availability of staff. Budgets are limited and relevant staff are involved in formal training throughout most of the year.

• Still limited capacities of many staff in actually training women at community level • The weak capacities of ITIs and their actual limited participation in DEW’s activities.

Some NGO partners will have difficulties in continuing the training activities and the follow-up and initial hand holding of the women trainees without outside financial support.

3.2. Lessons Learned The DEW project experience provides several lessons learned for current and future projects and programs of MOL/GOI, ILO and USDOL. The main lessons include:

The need for a realistic project design and time frame, in particular for pilot projects. DEW’s design was very complex and ambitious. The project was expected to show results after three months and to carry out 17 distinct activities within only two years. Its initial short duration and subsequent extension periods caused problems related to the programming and execution of project activities and possibilities to recruit staff. DEW was a pilot project in a new sector for most of its stakeholders, including ILO. Consequently, project design should also have included an initial start up phase for studies, assessments and tests.

The fact that capacity building takes time! Initially, the project expected to significantly build capacities of training institutions within only a two year time frame. The experiences gained from this as well as most other development projects are that this is too ambitious and in general not feasible.

Provide pilot decentralized projects with adequate technical staff and technical support. DEW’s project management unit was too small. The need for additional technical staff was never really addressed. DEW’s technical support from the SRO and ILO Geneva was limited. In the future, ILO should address pilot projects’ often important needs for technical support,

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guidance and experience sharing. Regular support should be provided from in-house (ILO) or outhouse experts and/or by financing study tours etc. Moreover, DEW provides lessons for ILO’s decentralized projects which in the future should have a strong anchor in a technical department that should be involved in all the stages of the project, including in (i) providing guidance to strategy and design and how to implement innovative activities and to develop, adapt and disseminate tools and methodologies; (ii) documenting processes and assessing impacts; and (iii) drawing lessons learnt.

The importance of focusing on strong involvement of project partners, experts and beneficiaries in the development of training materials, and to realize that this can be complex and takes time. DEW focused on building such partnerships in its development of training materials and demonstrated, by developing high quality training manuals that this is workable and can be cost-effective. The collaboration between public and NGO training providers and experts from the private sector, including from garment and construction industries, was also a relatively new experience in India.

The need to building strong linkages to markets and employers, in particular small scale employers, to ensure employability of skills. 70% of DEW’s trainees found employment after the training. The NGO partners with highest percentage of trainees employed had or built relations with small scale employers, contractors or local markets. DEW broke the glass-ceiling in terms of training women in non-traditional vocational skills. In spite of some success stories, many of these trainees had problems in finding employment. The NGO KNSS demonstrated that by its relations with small and larger private contractors, construction companies and Government companies it was possible to find work for the women trained as masons. Relevant future ILO projects in the informal sector should also focus more on linking the project with small scale employers (e.g. by involving them in the PAC etc.) that have a better outreach in the informal economy.

The importance of focusing from the onset on project sustainability and identify when, how and who will take over and follow-up on project achievements after the project period. DEW’s experiences reveal that more emphasis should have been given on gaining government support early on and at a higher political level. The identification of political and technical focal points with adequate authority could have pushed for the Government’s follow-up and expansion of non-formal training in its training institutions in the medium term and the actual institutionalization in the long term. Project design should also have identified benchmarks related to project sustainability that should be monitored throughout the project period.

3.3. Recommendations for a way forward It is recommended that a possible follow-up of DEW through the SRO should focus on the need for the GOI to follow-up and expand project activities and in the medium- or long term institutionalize non-formal training in the programs of many of its training institutions.

The follow-up should also have in mind that in 2003, the DGE&T sent a proposal and request for funds to the Planning Commission related to the extension of its institutional training facilities to non-formal training. If this is approved the funds will become available in about three years. Consequently, the time frame for follow-up of DEW could be around three years. Benchmarks should be identified for this period to monitor the progress in the Government’s follow-up. A follow-up should also incorporate the findings and lessons learned gained from DEW’s project experience.

Specific recommendations include:

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(i) Identify political and technical focal points with adequate authority at different levels of the Government that will push for the follow-up and expansion of non-formal training in its training institutions, including the ITIs

(ii) Identify institutional mechanisms needed to formalize and institutionalize non-formal training in Government institutions, including the actual and potential bottlenecks, and determine appropriate action to remove obstacles. This also includes the identification of future needs to decentralize (to regional/local levels) decision-making related to the identification and development of curricula.

(iii) Establish temporal milestones related to institutional changes

(iv) Identify one Government nodal institution/focal point - that will have adequate authority to take the lead responsibility - and link with appropriate partner institutions

(v) Assess the quality of DEW’s training materials as well as their actual use and prospects for future expansion and replication by Government, non-governmental and private training institutions. This should be done by a skill development specialist (in-house or outside ILO) with adequate experience in training of women in the informal and urban sector

(vi) If budget allows, assess the need for developing and testing materials related to new vocational skills. Focus more on testing and cross sharing in and from many sites

(vii) Ensure experience sharing between partners and stakeholders and the development of standards in methodologies and approaches

(viii) Focus on active employment and build effective linkages to markets and small-scale employers.