“enabling to enable” · 4/24/2009 · zfe zambian federation of employers . ... - 38 training...

“Enabling to Enable”

Mid-Term Review

Dutch Employers’ Cooperation Programme 2006 – 2008

Final Report April 24, 2009 Frans van Gerwen Jolanda Buter MDF Training & Consultancy, Ede, the Netherlands

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Table of Contents List of Acronyms..................................................................................................................iii Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ v 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1

1.1. Structure of the report ............................................................................................ 1 1.2. Background and research questions...................................................................... 1 1.3. Approach & Methodology....................................................................................... 2

2. DECP: history, context and facts & figures ...................................................... 4

2.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 4 2.2. Policy and institutional context of DECP and MoFA/DDE support to DECP.......... 4 2.3. Mission, Objective and Main activities/services of the DEC Programme............... 6 2.4. Target groups and stakeholders in the DEC Programme ...................................... 7 2.5. Budget Development of the DEC Programme ....................................................... 7 2.6. Short description of DECP partner-organisations of country-visits ........................ 8

3. Analysis of findings ........................................................................................ 11

3.1. Policy and development relevance of the DEC Programme................................ 11 3.2. Analysis of activities and output of the DEC programme ..................................... 13 3.3. Effectiveness (outcome)....................................................................................... 22 3.4. Efficiency.............................................................................................................. 25 3.5. Specific Issues ..................................................................................................... 29

4. Conclusions.................................................................................................... 32

4.1. Main overall conclusions ...................................................................................... 32 4.2. Specific conclusions on research questions in ToR............................................. 33 4.3. Other conclusions ................................................................................................ 36

5. Recommendations and Lessons Learned...................................................... 37

5.1. Main Recommendations ...................................................................................... 37 5.2. Specific recommendations ................................................................................... 38 5.3. Lessons Learned.................................................................................................. 40

ANNEX 1: Mission Programme and List of people interviewed....................................... 41 ANNEX 2: List of references............................................................................................ 44 ANNEX 3: Terms of Reference Mid-Term Review DECP (in Dutch) and Profile of MDF consultants ............................................................................. 45 ANNEX 4: Presentation of main findings and conclusions of field visits to DECP partners ............................................................................................... 50 ANNEX 5: Dimensions and questions in Spider web assessment tool ........................... 59 ANNEX 6: Programmatic Activities in Partnership Agreements ...................................... 61 ANNEX 7: Detailed Budget and Budget-depletion analysis, 2006-2008 ......................... 63 ANNEX 8: Detailed analysis evaluation sheets DECP/ITC-ILO training courses, 2006-2008 ...................................................................................................... 64 ANNEX 9: Detailed analysis results Spider Web analysis in 2006 and 2008.................. 65 ANNEX 10: Results of Survey to DECP Partners ............................................................. 66

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List of Tables and figures Table 1: Summary activities realised in DEC Programme, 2006-2008 ......................................6 Table 2: Expenditures of DECP from 2006 and 2008 and budget for 2009...............................7 Table 3: Issues covered in advisory missions to partners by DECP........................................13 Table 4: Overview activities of DECP 2006-2008 ....................................................................15 Table 5: comparison direct costs of missions DECP, 2006-2008 ............................................25 Figure 1: Appreciation of partnership relation with DECP by partners ......................................18 Figure 2: Analysis of evaluation forms of ILO/DECP courses 2006-2008.................................19 Figure 3: Results Spider Web Assessments of DECP partners in 2006 and 2008 ...................27 Figure 4: Comparison of changes in the five dimensions of the Spider Web Assessments of

DECP partners in 2006 and 2008 ..............................................................................28

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List of Acronyms ACT-EMP Bureau for Employers’ Activities (ILO) AIV Advisory Council on International Affairs (Adviesraad Internationale Vraagstukken) (The Netherlands) APINDO Employers' Association of Indonesia (Asosiasi Pengusaha Indonesia) ATE Association of Tanzanian Employers AWVN General Employers’ Association (Algemene Werkgevers Vereniging Nederland) (The Netherlands) BAF Business Advocacy Fund (Kenya) BEMO Bureau Memorandum (used in MoFA) CADIN Chamber of Industries of Nicaragua CARICOM Caribbean Community CBI Centre for Promotions of Imports from Developing Countries (The Netherlands) CEC Caribbean Confederation of Employers CERM Confederation of Employers of Republic of Macedonia CNV Christian Employers Federation (Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond) (The Netherlands) CNPM National Confederation of Moldovan Employers COL Commission for Developing Countries (in VNO-NCW) (the Netherlands) COSEP Supreme Council of Private Enterprises (Nicaragua) (Consejo Superior de la Empresa Privada) COWI Consulting in Engineering, Environmental science and Economics (Denmark) CTI Confederation of Tanzanian Industries DANIDA Danish International Development Agency (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) DDE Sustainable Economic Development Department (MoFA) DECP Dutch Employers Cooperation Programme DGIS Directorate General of International Development Cooperation (The Netherlands) DSI Social and Institutional Development Department (MoFA) DVF UN and International Financial Institutions Department (MoFA) EEO Effective Employers' Organisations EM Explanatory Memoranda EO’s Employers’ Organisation(s) EVD Agency for International Business and Cooperation (Economische Voorlichtingsdienst) (The Netherlands) FKE Federation of Kenyan Employers FMO Development Finance Company (The Netherlands) FNPAIA National Federation of Employers in Agriculture and Food Industry (Moldova) FNV Federation of Netherlands’ Trade Unions (Federatie Nederlands Vakverbond) FTE Federation of Tanganyika Employers (Tanzania) FUE Federation of Ugandan Employers GEA Ghana Employers Association ICC International Chamber of Commerce ILO International Labour Organisation IOE International Organisation of Employers ISO International Organisation for Standardisation ITC(-ILO) International Training Centre (ILO) KADIN Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry KePSA Kenyan Private Sector Alliance MEA Ministry of Economic Affairs (The Netherlands) MoFA Ministry of Foreign Affairs (The Netherlands)

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MONEF Mongolian Employers’ Federation MTR Mid Term Review LESCO Labour Economic Social Council ORIO Development-related Infrastructure Facility (adapted ORET facility) (the Netherlands) OSH Occupational Safety and Health PA Partnership Agreement PLOS Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation (Surinam) PSD Private Sector Development PSF Private Sector Federation (Rwanda) PSI Private Sector Investment Programme (successor to PSOM

Programme) (The Netherlands) PUM Netherlands Senior Experts Programme RAVAKSUR Council of Trade Unions Surinam (Raad van Vakcentrales Suriname) SER Social Economic Council SME(‘s) Small- and Medium Enterprise(s) TBA Tanzania Bankers’ Association TCCIA Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and agriculture TCM Tanzania Chamber of Mines TCT Tanzania Confederation of Tourism TNBC Tanzania National Business Council ToR Terms of Reference TPSF Tanzania Private Sector Foundation VMP Trade Unions Co-financing Programme (MoFA) VNO-NCW Federation VNO-NCW (Federation of Netherlands’ Employers – National Christian Employers Federation) VSB Federation of Surinam Employers (Vereniging Surinaams Bedrijfsleven) WED Women in Entrepreneurship Development ZFE Zambian Federation of Employers

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Executive Summary Background and objective of the Mid Term Review This Mid-Term Review (MTR) of the Dutch Employers Cooperation Programme (DECP) was commissioned by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). MoFA started its support to DECP in 2006 and the current funding arrangement ends on December 31, 2009. This review analyses the developments in the DEC programme until the end of 2008, but where possible, recent developments in 2009 were still taken into account. The objective of this MTR of the DECP is to gain insight in the intermediate results of the programme thus far and to identify possible future improvements of the programme in the areas of policy-relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and impact. MoFA will use the outcomes of this MTR for the decision-making process on the future of the programme and continuation of financial support after the end of the current funding arrangement. This MTR looked at the following aspects of the DEC programme: - Policy and developmental relevance of the programme; - Quantity and quality of activities carried out by DECP; - Contribution of DECP to capacity development of partner organisations; - Efficiency of DECP in the realisation of the programme during the past period; - Amount of effort and attention to women’ employers issues; - Cooperation of DECP with other actors in the Netherlands and internationally. The MTR was conducted from December 2008 to March 2009 and consisted of a desk-study, interviews with stakeholders in the Netherlands and internationally, visits to the International Training Centre of ILO in Turin and to DECP partners in Surinam, Kenya and Tanzania. Description of the subject of evaluation DECP was founded in 2005 as a result of a policy dialogue between MoFA and Netherlands Employer’s Organisations to explore possibilities for capacity development support from Netherlands’ employers to employers’ organisations in developing countries. A first start-up plan was developed and submitted by DECP to MoFA in 2005 and MoFA approved its support to DECP in 2006. Herewith, the DEC programme was one of the most recent initiatives to be supported in the framework of MoFA’s policy on sustainable economic development. Within this framework several instruments and programmes exist to provide support to private sector development, such as PUM, CBI, PSI and ORIO. Together these are known as the Business Armamentarium (Bedrijfsleveninstrumentarium). Other relevant programmes supported by MoFA to which the DEC programme relates are the Trade Unions Co-financing Programme and the Netherlands’ support to ILO. After an initial phase of starting up the programme with modest support of MoFA in 2006, a three year programme-agreement was signed for the period of 2007-2009. The maximum support of MoFA committed to DECP for the entire period 2006-2009 was 4,925,654 €. The mission of DECP reads as follows: “Contribute to the fight against poverty by strengthening the capacity of business organisations in developing countries through the transfer of knowledge and experience, by cooperating with national and international organisations and through financial contributions to programme activities. It is the firm view of DECP that well-functioning business organisations can make a contribution to sustainable economic development in the partner countries.”

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From this mission the following main objective was derived: “Strengthen the capacity of national and sectoral employers’ organisations in developing countries through transfer of knowledge and skills. The structural reduction of poverty is derived from this core objective. It is important that partner organisations embrace the goal to improve the business environment and doing so remain independent from the Government.” To achieve this objective DECP provides the following services to its partners: • Advisory services and coaching; • Training courses and workshops, organised by DECP itself or in cooperation with the ITC-

ILO, both in Turin as well as on location; • (Small) financial contributions to partners for activities and projects that are relevant in the

framework of the partnership relation between DECP and partners. Main findings In the period 2006-2008 and estimated total of 3,656,123 € was spent by the programme and with this amount the DEC programme is fully on target. At the end of 2008, the following results were achieved by DECP: - In total 27 fact-finding missions were carried out in 26 different countries. DECP realised

activities in 28 different countries, with an equal number of partners. 26 of these countries are on the partner-list of MoFA (except Kosovo and DRC that were later added to the list as post-conflict states);

- 36 advisory missions were organised in 28 different countries; - 38 Training courses and workshop were organised by DECP, from which 13 in cooperation

with the ITC-ILO in Turin; - Finally, 21 small financial contributions were provided to partners to organise promotional

conferences or to invest in office equipments or publication materials. DECP has signed partner-agreements with 9 partners until the end of 2008 and in the first Semester of 2009 another 3 are planned. With these results the DEC programme is above target. The countries where partner-agreements are signed or in process of being signed can be considered the core of the DEC programme, where most effort and investments have been made. These countries are: Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Surinam, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The main results in capacity development were at the level of the internal organisations of partners: - Improved organisational structure; - Improved income through collection of membership fees; - Increased membership registration and improved administration systems; - Improved communication systems and contents. More limited were the effects at the institutional level: in lobby and advocacy of organisations and therefore on influencing the business enabling environment, sustainable economic development and ultimately poverty reduction. This is not surprising as the programme is still recent and changes in the external environment require a significant amount of time. DECP uses its own assessment and monitoring instrument to measure capacity levels in their partner organisations. It considers five dimensions of capacity: representativeness, strategy, lobby & advocacy, structure and finances. Thus far, the instrument has not been implemented in a systematic and uniform way and therefore it does not yet give reliable results on capacity development results at the partner level.

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The DECP partners express a high level of satisfaction with the services provided by DECP. In a survey partners valued the overall service delivery of DECP with 8.7 on a scale from 1 to 10. Also the training activities of DECP/ITC-ILO are valued highly, with 4.3 on a scale of 1 to 5. This positive appreciation by partners was confirmed during the field-visits to partners by the MTR team. In addition to concrete services delivered by the DECP special advisers, partners also indicate the political value of support of the DECP, because this programme is backed by Netherlands Employers’ Organisations that have a sound international reputation. Main conclusions DECP is a small, but relevant, programme in the area of Sustainable Economic Development, because it addresses an important stakeholder group in economic development in developing countries: the Employers’ Organisations. Strengthening of Employers’ Organisations in these countries is beneficial for raising the voice of entrepreneurs to influence their business enabling environments. DECP has the potential to contribute to poverty reduction, through improving doing business indicators that lead to economic growth and work opportunities for people in developing countries. The DEC programme has a clear and focused mandate on strengthening employers’ organisations and by doing so it contributes to both World Bank’s “Doing Business” and ILO’s “Decent Work” agenda’s, although there is a logical focus of employers on “doing business” aspects. This focus, clear mandate and identity of DECP are very important and cannot be diluted by forcing “Decent Work” agenda items in the programme. However, through linking the programme with other development efforts within the framework of the Sustainable Economic Development policy of MoFA, more opportunities can be found to increase effects and impact of the DEC programme not only on “doing business” but also on “decent work”. The DEC Programme is most relevant and has the best potential for impact on sustainable economic development and poverty reduction in those countries with a vibrant private sector and positive economic indicators. Typical labour aspects within the employers’ organisations receive more attention when basic economic and political conditions for private sector development have been effectively addressed. A stable political climate that favours social dialogue is beneficial for employers’ organisations to raise their voice and to engage in dialogue with other actors and eventually to move forward to tri-partite social dialogue. DECP has rapidly developed into a broad programme, spread out over 28 different countries. In many countries only incidental activities have been carried out and the likeliness of effects and impact in the further future is remote. It also poses a risk of diverting attention from those countries and regions in which a more in-depth and programmatic approach shows better potential for sustainable impact. DECP has not yet developed a programmatic approach with most of its partners, based on a sound organisational assessment within a broader institutional environment. Most programmes and partnership agreements with partners until present have still a somewhat “ad-hoc” character, moving from one specific subject and/or project to another and not so much on longer-term, strategic and externally focused support interventions. Main Recommendations For a future phase of support of MoFA to DECP, a more specific policy framework for DECP is needed within MoFA to ensure that this programme is well aligned with other programmes and instruments in the area of sustainable economic development. This framework should include the Trade Unions Co-financing programme and the partnership with ILO, managed by other departments in MoFA. Such a framework can enable that different actors and programmes within their specific mandates can contribute to the challenge of MoFA to combine and integrate the Worldbank’s “Doing Business” and the ILO’s “Decent Work” agenda’s in its overall support

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to private sector development, sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction in developing countries. Target the interventions of DECP on those countries with positive economic development indicators, a vibrant private sector and an enabling political climate for social dialogue. It is in these countries were most impact can be reached in economic growth, equity and poverty reduction, through a stronger voice of employers’ organisations towards their governments and a more active dialogue with other actors in private sector development. DECP is recommended, in a next phase, to apply a stronger focus on a limited number of countries and partners in order to create a better perspective for impact. The most promising countries and regions for the DEC programme are the East African Community, Balkan and South East Asia because employers’ organisations here are subject to the same regional developments and share common interests. Additionally DECP can reach advantages of scale in these regions. At the country level Surinam and Indonesia are important, because of historic relations with the Netherlands that can benefit impact of the programme. Finally, Ghana provides an interesting context, because it is a reference on Private Sector Development in the African continent. DECP is recommended to review its identification and assessment process of partners to ensure that they are most relevant for its direct mandate to influence the business enabling environment and private sector development and by doing so to maximise the contribution of employers to sustainable economic development and poverty reduction. This should include a broader recruitment pool than only IOE members. DECP is recommended to improve its tool for organisational assessment and to increase its effective use in the translation of needs into a comprehensive and longer-term programmatic planning of activities in stead of specific and incidental projects with its partners. This programmatic planning, in the next phase, should include a strong focus on influencing external institutional arrangements in Private Sector Development.

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1. Introduction The Department of Sustainable Economic Development (DDE) of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has commissioned an external Mid-Term Review (MTR) of its support to the Dutch Employers Cooperation Programme (DECP), from 2006 to 2008. The current programme period and the support from MoFA to DECP will come to an end on December 31, 2009. Although the experiences obtained in this programme are still limited, this MTR is needed at this point in time to allow MoFA and DECP to negotiate in time a possible follow-up support for a next programme period, starting in 2010. This MTR was carried out from January to April 2009 by Frans van Gerwen, senior consultant, and Ms Jolanda Buter, consultant, of MDF Training & Consultancy. Ms Buter realised the country visits in Kenya and Tanzania and Mr van Gerwen conducted the visits to Surinam and the ILO training centre in Turin. Mr van Gerwen was responsible for the overall evaluation process and the elaboration of this MTR report. This report contains findings, conclusions, recommendations and lessons learned on the DECP in the period 2006 to 2008. Where possible and when relevant, also information on the first months of 2009 is taken into account. 1.1. Structure of the report This report contains 5 chapters. In the following sections of this first chapter, the reader can find a summary of the background and research questions of the ToR of this MTR (see also ANNEX 3) and a concise description of the approach and methodology used in this review. Chapter 2 presents a brief history and context of the DEC programme and it contains a basic overview of facts and figures related to its implementation. Chapter 3 deals with the analysing of the findings, according to the main questions of the ToR. In Chapter 4, the reader can find the conclusions on the DEC programme. The final chapter 5 contains the recommendations of this MTR and it presents some broader lessons that can be drawn from the DEC programme. In the ANNEXES the reader can find: the mission programme and people interviewed, a reference lists of documents studied, the ToR of the MTR, the reports of the three country field visits, the results of the survey sent out to DECP partners and detailed analysis of budget-development of the DECP Programme, evaluation results of the DECP/ITC-ILO training courses and an analysis of the Spider web assessment results. 1.2. Background and research questions The objective of this MTR of DECP is to gain insight in the intermediate results of the programme thus far and to identify possible improvements of the programme in the future in the areas of policy-relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and impact. Considering the fact that this programme is a new feature in MoFA’s policy on sustainable economic development, the Ministry will use the outcomes of this MTR for the decision-making process on the future of the programme and continuation of financial support. The ToR mentions the following areas for research (for specific research questions under each heading, see ANNEX 3): - Policy relevance and development relevance; - Assessment of activities (output) carried out by DECP; - Effectiveness: the contribution of DECP support to increased capacities of partner

organisations; - Efficiency: An analysis of activities and output of the programme compared to the inputs

provided for DECP; - Specific issues: women’ employers issue; cooperation with other actors in the Netherlands,

internationally and in countries; relations between DECP and DDE and embassies.


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1.3. Approach & Methodology In this MTR, the MDF consultants have adhered to the following approach: 1. Participation of key staff and managers of all organisations, beneficiaries, and key external

stakeholders in the implementation of the DEC programme, internationally and at country-level. DECP and its local partners, where possible, have been involved in validation of findings and discussion of preliminary conclusions and recommendations;

2. The review process combines different instruments for data-collection and analysis. Results have been cross checked and submitted for comments and suggestions by the stakeholders involved in the process;

3. MDF believes in team-work and this MTR has been carried out by a small team of two consultants, with different backgrounds; one consultant with wide experience in institutional development processes and in economic development and poverty reduction approaches and a second consultant with a specific background in ILO.

The approach of this MTR has been translated into six subsequent and complementary instruments steps for data collection, analysis, cross-checking and validation of findings. 1. Desk study (January-March 2009): The desk study analysed documents provided by DECP and partners in the Netherlands, Suriname, Kenya and Tanzania. For the list of documents consulted, see ANNEX 2. 2. Interviews with stakeholders in the DEC programme in the Netherlands (January-March

2009): The interviews included different stakeholders in the DECP programme, among the following categories: - Chairperson of the Board of DECP; - Staff and Management of DECP; - Special advisers attached to DECP; - Support staff to the DECP programme in VNO-NCW; - Staff and Management at MoFA, Sustainable Economic Development Department (DDE); - Management of other relevant Dutch International cooperation programmes with senior

experts and with labour unions. In total 14 different stakeholders in the Netherlands were interviewed. For the list of people interviewed, see ANNEX 1. 3. Field Visits to selected countries and partners (February-March 2009): In consultation with DECP and DDE, the consultant identified three countries to be visited for more in-depth country-level analysis of different aspects of the programme. The field visits were realised as follows: 1. Suriname: visit to VSB (Vereniging Surinaams Bedrijfsleven): from February 8 – 12, 2009; 2. Kenya: visit to FKE (Federation of Kenyan Employers): from February 9 – 11, 2009; 3. Tanzania: visit to ATE (Association of Tanzanian Employers): from March 6 -12, 2009. For the mission programme and list of people interviewed, see ANNEX 1. After each field-visit, findings have been debriefed and validated with the local DECP partner organisations. 4. Visit to the International Training Centre of ILO in Turin (January 28, 2009): The DECP programme cooperates with the International Training Centre of ILO (ITC-ILO) in Turin. A brief visit was organised to the Centre to speak with Managers and staff of the ITC-ILO involved in training courses co-organised with DECP. The visit took place on January 28, 2009 and the list of people interviewed at ITC-ILO is included in ANNEX 1.


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5. Internet Survey to selected partners of DECP (March 2009): A survey was sent out to partners of DECP. Not all partners were included in this survey. The survey was not sent to the partners visited during the country visits and also partners with whom DECP only has had incidental contacts until 2008 were not included in the list. In total 13 partners received the survey and 9 of them sent in their responses. 6. Workshop with staff and management of DECP on preliminary findings of the MTR (23 March 2009): Before the elaboration of the final report of this MTR, a workshop was organised with staff and management of the DECP bureau in The Hague. This workshop had the following two objectives:

1. Discussion and validation of provisional insights obtained through the previous five methods and instruments;

2. Discussion and exploration of main challenges and issues for future development of the DEC Programme.

After the workshop the final report of this MTR was prepared. This was done in two steps. A draft version of the report was sent to DECP and DDE for their additional inputs and feedback on the process, findings, conclusions and recommendations. After this step, the final report was presented to DECP and DDE on April 24, 2009.


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2. DECP: history, context and facts & figures 2.1. Introduction The Foundation Dutch Employers Cooperation Programme (DECP) was founded in 2005 as a result of a policy dialogue between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and associations and federations of Netherlands employer’s organisations. After an initial period of exploration in 2004 and 2005, MoFA and the Employers Organisations reached agreement on the following: After an initial phase of starting up the programme with modest support in 2006, a three year programme-agreement was established for the period of 2007-2009. The programme agreement foresaw in a Mid Term Review of the DEC Programme in 20081 in order to take stock of the developments in the programme and results obtained thus far and to identify a possible course for the future development of the programme. 2.2. Policy and institutional context of DECP and MoFA/DDE support to DECP At the time of approval of the DEC Programme, MoFA motivated its support to DECP as follows: “The DECP is focusing on the economic core-dimension of poverty. It is a generic programme to strengthen institutional capacity of national and sectoral employer’s organisations in MoFA’s partner countries. These employer’s organisations represent the interests of their members and thus can play a role in improving the business enabling environment. This will increase capacities of individual employers to develop their companies and increase employment and income opportunities for employees.” (BEMO, 7 December 2006, page 4, translation by author). This relationship between PSD, economic growth and poverty has been researched by several institutes. The Netherlands Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV) states that “growth is by far the most important factor in poverty reduction and that on average growth in per capita income among the poor is equal to that in the population at large. It also shows that poverty reduction resulting from economic growth has two components: growth and distribution. The two can reinforce each other – if income distribution is relatively equal – or counteract each other if it is not. In the first case, growth will be pro-poor, in the second it will not. For this reason, it is vital to know – and to be able to influence – the conditions under which the two components will reinforce each other. Growth is the main factor in poverty reduction and the quality of domestic institutions is by far the most important factor in generating faster growth. The rule of law, democracy, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality and control of corruption are all relevant because they determine the quality of the investment climate (the location-specific factors which enable companies to invest, expand and provide employment, and citizens to develop as entrepreneurs, employees and consumers.” (AIV, # 50, Oct 2006 (page 31). DECP contributes to Millennium Development Goal 1: reduction of poverty. It does so through improving the business enabling environment. Additionally, the DEC Programme can also “contribute to other Millennium Goals: equal rights for male and female employees, prevention of HIV/AIDS and sustainable environment” (BEMO, 7 December 2006, page 4). Within the framework of Explanatory Memoranda (EM’s) of MoFA for 2008 and 2009 the support of MoFA to DECP is included in Policy Article 4: Growth & Equity2. Under this article 5 operational objectives are elaborated: 1 With some delay, in the first trimester of 2009 the MTR was conducted, the results of which are presented in this report. 2 In Dutch: Meer welvaart, eerlijkere verdeling en minder armoede


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1. An open and fair trade system 2. Significant reduction of the percentage of people that has to live from less than a dollar a

day 3. Increased economic growth and decreased poverty as a result of healthy private sector

development 4. Increased quality and effectiveness of the development cooperation efforts 5. Increased quality and effectiveness of the Netherlands support to trade and investment

promotion (EM’s of 2008 and 2009) More precisely the DECP support fits under operational objective 3. The most relevant Instruments and activities supported by MoFA and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MEA) that are relevant for this operational objective: - ORIO (adapted ORET facility): Development-related Infrastructure Facility - PSI (successor to PSOM programme): Sector Investment Programme - Matchmaking Facility (housed at MEA) - CBI: Centre for Promotions of Imports from Developing Countries; - FMO: Development Finance Company; - PUM: Netherlands Senior Experts Programme. These instruments together are known as the Business Armamentarium (Bedrijfsleven-instrumentarium). DECP is considered part of this set of instruments of MoFA and MEA. Another relevant programme in relation to the DEC Programme is the Trade Unions co-financing programme (VMP), but this programme is managed by another department in MoFA, the Department for Social and Institutional Development (DSI). The Netherlands support to ILO also constitutes a relevant external context to the DECP and VMP support, but this relationship is managed by the UN and International Financial Institutions Department (DVF). Relevant organisations in the context of the DEC programme and the set of instruments are: - VNO-NCW and other federations/associations of Dutch Employers, as the hosts of the DEC

Programme and of PUM; - Ministries of Foreign Affairs (DDE, DSI and DVF) and Economic Affairs: enabling the set of

instruments above; - CBI, responsible for the Promotion of Imports programme; - EVD; The agency of MoFA and MEA responsible for ORIO, PSI and Matchmaking facility

(and a range of other instruments); - Trade Unions: FNV and CNV who cooperate with trade unions in developing countries, as

one of the three counterparts in social dialogue processes; - SER: The Netherlands Social Economic Council is sometimes involved in promoting

exchange on the Netherlands tri-partite social dialogue. It plans to organise a Summer School open for international partners in 2009.

Additionally there are a few relevant platforms for dialogue between different parties on employers’ issues in development cooperation: - The Commission for Developing Countries of VNO-NCW; - The Social Dialogue platform, established by MoFA/DDE. DECP is actively involved in exchange of information, brokerage and coordination of activities with all the stakeholders mentioned above.


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2.3. Mission, Objective and Main activities/services of the DEC Programme The mission of DECP reads as follows: “Within the context of Millennium Goal 1 DECP wants to contribute to the fight against poverty by strengthening the capacity of business organisations in developing countries through the transfer of knowledge and experience, by cooperating with national and international organisations and through financial contributions to programme activities. It is the firm view of DECP that well-functioning business organisations can make a contribution to sustainable economic development in the partner countries.” (DECP Business Plan 2007-2009, page 8). From this mission the following main objective is derived: “DECP is aiming to strengthen the capacity of national and sectoral employers’ organisations in developing countries through transfer of knowledge and skills. The structural reduction of poverty is derived from this core objective. It is important that partner organisations embrace the goal to improve the business environment and doing so remain independent from the Government.” (Ibid, page 8,9) This objective is translated in the following overall anticipated result: “DECP strives to improve the capacity of those organisations with which it has signed Partnership Agreements with 15 % within 3 years in five different areas: Representativeness, Strategy, Lobby, Revenues, and Organisational Structure.” (Ibid, page 8, 9) The activities mentioned in the business-plan 2007-2009 cover the following areas: - Set up and nurture an active national and international network for support of national and

sectoral employers’ organisations in MoFA partner countries; - Sign Partnership Agreements (PA’s) with partner-organisations as a framework for a series

of support activities and projects in a period of 3 to 4 years. DECP anticipates signing 15 PA’s in the period 2007-2009. With these partners changes in organisational performance according to the five areas above will be monitored. To achieve these results, DECP anticipated regular advisory missions to these partners;

- Training courses and workshops: It was anticipated to realise 10 training courses in co-production with the ITC-ILO in Turin (both in its training centre as well as on location). Additionally, also training courses and workshops organised by DECP alone were anticipated but not specified;

- Incidental projects (workshops) and advisory missions to benefit those partners-organisations with which no PA has been signed. DECP anticipated to realise in total approximately 20 of such missions and activities in the period 2007-2009;

- In occasional situations, DECP provides small financial contributions to partners that can have a direct and immediate impact on the quality of services of these partners and/or as supporting investments to other activities in the DECP or partnership relation.

A summary of the activities realised in the programme period is provided below3: Table 1: Summary activities realised in DEC Programme, 2006-2008

Advisory Missions

Fact-Finding Missions

Training, seminars & workshops

Financing / Project / Study

Total

2006 11 1 5 17 2007 15 8 15 8 46 2008 21 8 22 8 59 Total 36 27 38 21 122

3 For a detailed analysis of these activities the reader is referred to section 3.2.


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2.4. Target groups and stakeholders in the DEC Programme DECP identifies the following criteria for selection of countries and partners for the programme: - The countries are within the list of 36 MoFA partner-countries (2007); - The Governments of the countries identified are to be willing to stimulate an enabling

business environment; - The partner identified should be willing to work together with DECP; - The support of DECP has to have a good perspective to produce effects. In 2006, DECP sent out an open invitation to member-organisations of the International Employers’ Organisation (IOE) in the 36 MoFA partner-countries, which means that in practice the membership of IOE has also been used as a criterion for partner-selection. Thus-far no non-IOE members are part of the DECP partner-community. DECP in its business plan 2007-2009 (page 13, 14) states some additional aspects of its partner policy: It states that it is not possible “to build intensive relations in an equal degree with all partner-organisations”. With some partners, incidental and specific activities will be realised, while with core partners, longer-term relations will be built (through PA’s). DECP, in principle, wants to “avoid war-ridden countries and countries where other similar employers’ organisations programmes are active.” DECP also identifies Northern Partners. In the first place DECP strive to exchange information with Northern partners and where possible to come to coordination and alignment of policies. DECP identifies ILO (and more specifically ACT-EMP and ITC-ILO), IOE and MoFA (DDE) as its most important stakeholders, with whom longer-term cooperation relations will be nurtured. 2.5. Budget Development of the DEC Programme The following table presents the expenditures in the DEC-Programme over the past years and the budget for the current year of 2009 Table 2: Expenditures of DECP from 2006 and 2008 and budget for 2009

Budget Item 2006 2007 2008

(estimate)4 2009

(budget) Staff DECP 431,980 667,081 680,420 660,000Rent office space 35,343 48,811 49,764 48,000Services: Reception/HR/ICT 19,459 35,204 27,077 23,000Costs of DECP Board 0 0 0 0Administration costs 10,000 10,000 10,000 12,500Office costs (VNO-NCW) 30,000 9,985 9,985 13,000Office costs (other) 20,907 27,913 30,000 35,000Costs of hard- and software 6,155 6,731 20,000 22,000Support services PUM 7,580 0 0 0Fees consultants 9,552 0 0 0Activities Partner organisations 21,497 162,724 200,000 287,000Training activities commissioned to ILO 42,437 211,213 285,214 280,000Travel and accommodation costs missions 93,130 183,900 210,000 272,000Auditing costs 5,000 7,165 7,500 10,000Start-up costs 2,894 0 0 0Contingencies 13,264 1,238 5,000 15,000Total 749,198 1,371,965 1,534,960 1,677,500Contributions MoFA 591,879 1,279,584 1,452,828 1,601,303Employers’ Organisations (through VNO-NCW) 156,888 83,305 76,132 76,000Interest 431 9,076 6,000 4,000Total 749,198 1,371,965 1,534,960 1,681,303 4 At the time of this review no final data on financial reporting were available, therefore an estimate is given. For a detailed table on budget and expenditure development see ANNEX 7


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MoFA has committed a total amount of 4,925,654 € for the DEC programme in two separate subsidy arrangements (591,879 € in 2006 and 4,333,775 € for 2007 – 2009). In the same period, the Dutch employers have committed 411,832 €. The expenditures thus far (including the estimate on 2008) show that DECP is realising a budget depletion of 100%. DECP anticipates a spending of at least 100% in 2009. VNO-NCW’s (and other Dutch employers’ organisations) contribution is considerable: Apart from inputs that are quantified as own contribution in the table 2 above (office space and support services) the immaterial contributions are considerable: - VNO-NCW’s Chairperson is chairing the boards of both the DECP and PUM programmes; - DECP participates in the Commission for Developing Countries (COL) of VNO-NCW; In 2008: - Several staff members have been allocated by VNO-NCW for missions of DECP without

salary costs: this has occurred in Eastern Europe, Surinam, Moldova, Macedonia, Mongolia and Nicaragua. Additionally, VNO-NCW staff members acted as tutors in a workshop on Communication held in The Hague for Eastern European employers' organisations;

- Claris and TrajectPlus provided OSH-training in Moldova, Surinam and Macedonia5; - AWVN assisted in workshops on negotiation techniques in Uganda and Kenya; - “Kimmunication” assisted in a communication workshop in Zambia; - Chamber of Commerce of the Hague assisted in business linkage activities in South Africa; - Members of VNO-NCW, Royal van Zanten and Unilever, assisted in purchase of ICT

equipment for partners in Uganda and Ghana respectively; - PUM has assisted with nutrition experts for food and agriculture activities of partners in

Balkan and in other projects in Nicaragua and Vietnam. The DECP programme is implemented by a small full-time staff of three managers/special advisers and an office manager. Additionally two special advisers are attached to the programme on a consulting basis. In 2009 a third adviser is added to this consulting pool. The programme is managed by the DECP office in VNO-NCW. The relations and projects with partners are managed and realised by all advisers of DECP. Countries and partners are distributed among the advisors, where all advisers are responsible for approximately 5 partners and they are back-up/alternate advisers for another 5 partners, where a colleague special adviser is the prime responsible. Planning of activities is based on the three year business plan. Annually a year-plan is developed and the special advisers discuss yearly plans with their regular partners. 2.6. Short description of DECP partners subject to country-visits in this MTR In the framework of this Mid Term Review three country visits have been realised to look at the relevance of the DECP programme in the local context, to analyse the effects of the DECP support on the partner-organisations and to gain insight on the dynamics of the partnership relation between DECP and Partners. The visits took place in Suriname, Kenya and Tanzania with VSB, FKE and ATE. These countries were selected in consultation with DECP and DDE, using the following criteria: - A country with a long and more frequent presence of DECP and of special importance to

the Netherlands: Surinam. In this country it was possible to analyse the use of DECP’s partner assessment tool (the Spider web diagram);

5 The services of Claris, TrajectPlus,AWVN and Kimmunication were delivered against internal fees. The Chamber of Commerce and the VNO-NCW members delivered their services for free. The services of PUM are funded by MoFA and individual experts provide their services on a voluntary basis


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- A country with a more recent presence of DECP and with a vibrant economic development. It was decided to combine two countries Kenya and Tanzania so an additional perspective of regional economic integration in the East African Community could be considered.

This section presents a short description of these partners. In Chapter 3 the findings of the field visits are integrated in the overall analysis of findings. For more specific information on the findings during the country field visits see ANNEX 4. Vereniging Surinaams Bedrijfsleven (VSB) The Association of Surinam Businesses (VSB) was founded in 1950. VSB is promoting free entrepreneurship in production and service delivery for all business people in Surinam. Its goals are to promote the interests of its members on the one hand and to promote the economic and social wellbeing of the whole Surinam society. VSB is member of the IOE and its president is currently chairing the Caribbean Confederation of Employers (CEC). VSB operates in three policy areas: - Dialogue with social economic partners (on investments, labour policies, employment, etc.) - Strengthening the domestic private sector (small and medium enterprises); - Cooperation with civil society (clustering of micro-enterprises). VSB currently has approximately 180 members and it represents more than 75% of the private sector activities. A second more specific and sectoral association is ASFA, who is representing the interests of Manufacturers. The Chamber of Commerce of Surinam is also active in promoting interests of business people in Surinam, but it is not a private sector organisation. Surinam has undergone a period of relative stability and economic growth, but still the country faces many challenges. A particular challenge is the political and ethnic compartmentalisation of organisations, which makes representation of organisations in broader institutions quite difficult. An example is the establishment of the Social Economic Council (SER) in Surinam; while this council was already established by law a few years ago, the installation of its members was stalled for a long time due to continuous struggles about the distribution of the seats in this council. On February 27, 2009 the installation and swearing in of the SER finally became reality. VSB has acquired a reasonable image in Surinam society and it is well know in different circles and among entrepreneurs in Surinam. However, the organisation mainly is based on activities of its board- and commission members as its executive apparatus is very small. In the office of VSB a small team of four persons and a director are responsible for day to day activities. The relationship with DECP was started in 2007, after a fact-finding mission of DECP to Surinam in 2006. After a counter-visit in February 2007 of VSB to the Netherlands, the partnership gained speed and since then regular missions and support activities have been carried out. Federation of Kenyan Employers (FKE) The FKE was established in 1959 with the vision “to be the preferred centre of excellence in industrial relations services, management practices and advocacy of employers’ needs”. KFE promotes an “enabling business environment and sound industrial relations in Kenya through effective representation, advocacy and provision of value added services that strengthens the ability of employers to attain competiveness”.


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Some important developments and issues in the recent environment of FKE are: - Introduction of a New Labour Law after more than half a century; - National dialogue between public and private sector: the National Business Agenda; - Collapse of the tourism sector after the violence of early 2008; - The overall economy is declining due to the political crises, international financial crises and

the high fuel prices. Lack of investments has put under pressure the competiveness of the Kenyan private sector in regard to other countries;

- Relationships between labourers and employers are still more competitive than cooperative; - The business climate is improving, but is still not favourable. FKE is internationally recognised as the legitimate employers’ organisation of Kenya. According to IOE data the total membership of FKE, including members of the 18 affiliated associations is about 3,000, with an aggregate workforce of approximately 500,000. It developed an image of representing mostly the larger companies of Kenya and not yet small and medium enterprises, although the latter are economically very important for Kenyan private sector development. FKE is partner in the DEC Programme, since 2007 and a Partnership Agreement was signed in December 2008. FKE participated in a first exchange of employers’ organisations in the East African Community together with DECP and ILO. This event was realised in March 2009 in Arusha in Tanzania and employers’ organisations from Tanzania (ATE), Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi were present. Association of Tanzanian Employers (ATE) The Association of Tanzania Employers (ATE) formerly known as the Federation of Tanganyika Employers (FTE) is Tanzania’s apex Employers’ Organisation. It was formed in 1960 by a number of companies, industries and association of employers. One of ATE's core functions is to represent employers' interests in the formulation and implementation of national policies and legislation on labour relations. It represents all Tanzanian employers in LESCO, (Labour Economic Social Council). ATE participates in several other tripartite forums Tripartite HIV/AIDS Working Group, tripartite Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) framework as a Member of the Ministerial Advisory Board of OSHA. ATE is representing 850-1000 employers (70 % from the Dar Es Salaam region); only in the Dar Es Salaam region there are 93.430 businesses (Business Survey 2007, NBS) The Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) is an umbrella organization of the business associations with the objective of promoting private sector development by way of dialoguing with the Government directly or through the Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC). Some of the notable achievements are that TPSF and the Confederation of Tanzanian Industries (CTI) are among Members of the Tax Task Force formed by the Ministry of Finance to review the Government Budget Estimates with a view to make the fiscal policy stable, predictable and investor friendly. ATE is a known and considered as trustful partner among different private sector organisations but it is only one out of many employers’ organisations in Tanzania. The Relationship with DECP was developed more or less at the same time as the FKE in Kenya. Since 2007 a few advisory missions have taken place and ATE participated in a training-event on effective Employers organisations of DECP/ITC-ILO. At the end of 2008, at the same time as FKE, DECP and ATE signed their partnership agreement. In 2009 ATE participated in a second training course of DECP/ITC-ILO and after this training also participated in a first exchange of employers’ organisations in the East African Community together with DECP and ILO. This event was realised in March 2009 in Arusha, Tanzania.


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3. Analysis of findings This chapter presents the analysis of the main findings of this MTR process and it follows the structure and main questions of the ToR (see ANNEX 3). 3.1. Policy and development relevance of the DEC Programme In the Approval Memorandum of the DEC Programme, DDE motivated the policy relevance of this programme as follows: - “Many companies in partner countries have limited institutional capacity to represent their

interests at the Government. As organised groups they can be an adequate interlocutor to influence the business enabling environment and to contribute to economic development solutions in their countries and regions;

- Adequate local organisations of entrepreneurs can strengthen local business activity and through this activity contribute to employment, income generation and poverty reduction;

- Well performing organisations of entrepreneurs/employers present more possibilities for a successful and effective tri-partite social dialogue. This can contribute to improved agreements on for instance labour conditions;

- Partners of DECP can address specific issues such as the position of women entrepreneurs and employees, HIV/AIDS prevention, environmental protection and fighting corruption;

- DECP supports organisations of employers in strengthening their capacities in specific areas such as organisational structure, financial management, communication and marketing.” (summary and translation of arguments BEMO, page 5)

These arguments fit well in the overall policy framework on growth and equity of MoFA that states that Private Sector Development is the engine of economic growth and economic growth contributes to poverty reduction. For private sector development to happen a supportive enabling environment and institutional framework is crucial. Several stakeholders can contribute to establish, improve and nurture such enabling environment. The specific support to employers’ organisations recognises this group as an important actor in this environment, alongside to other social partners. Although the relevance of strengthening Employers’ Organisations in Developing Countries in the light of other PSD interventions is clear, until present the DECP programme has not yet been optimally integrated in a broader policy framework on sustainable economic development. This poses three challenges to MoFA: - Linking DECP with other support-activities to tri-partite social dialogue: The DEC

programme can contribute to social dialogue, through its specific focus and support to employers’ organisation in external relations, lobby & advocacy, communication and negotiation skills building. DECP occasionally works with the trade unions FNV and CNV (in the trade union co-financing programme (VMF)) and exchanges information on relations between employers and employees. At the level of MoFA the VMF programme is housed in DSI while DECP is in DDE. Therefore both programmes have to align to different policy frameworks. The social dialogue working group established by DDE, through half-yearly meetings contributes to more coordination and exchange, but has a limited mandate to shape and re-arrange programmes;

- Integration of DECP in the Enterprise Development instruments and programmes (Bedrijfsleven-instrumentarium) of MoFA. Although this programme clearly complements other instruments that focus more on economic, technical and trade dimensions (such as PSI, ORIO and CBI), in practice there is no active cooperation with these programmes, although information is exchanged and activities are coordinated with CBI and particularly with PUM, which as a TA programme for private sector organisations that comes close to the mandate of DECP. DECP also has exchanged information with the Netherlands’ Trade Unions, FNV and CNV (active in the Trade Union Co-financing Programme of MoFA). Because of different profiles, mandates and areas of expertise of these different


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organisations, cooperation in joint projects on the ground is not always an option or even desirable. However, the evaluators have not seen examples where more cooperation has been actively strived for, while such synergies might have been interesting, for example: - VSB in Surinam is also partner of CBI; in the area of certification (ISO, HACP etc.) CBI

might have been an interesting partner in the PLOS certification project; - The Employers’ Organisations in EAC might have explored exchange of information with

the Trade Unions in this region on processes of regional integration. - The “Doing Business” vis-à-vis “Decent Work” agenda’s: Both agenda’s are very relevant to

Private Sector Development and the DDE policy framework. DECP’s mandate is particularly focused on strengthening employers’ organisation in influencing enabling environment for business development. Although this focus might be more aligned with “doing business” DECP and its partners also embrace elements of the “decent work” agenda, particularly those aspects that are related with labour conditions and productivity (issues as Occupational Health & Safety (OSH) and HIV/AIDS prevention). For DDE it is still a challenge how to combine and align the two different agenda’s forwarded by the Worldbank and ILO respectively, both at the level of its policy framework and of concrete cooperation between organisations and PSD instruments on the ground. DECP could make specific contributions from the perspective of its own specific mandate to a broader DDE approach that could be headed under the name of: “Doing Decent Business”.

Although in the internal programme approval memorandum of the DEC programme in MoFA it was anticipated to address gender, HIV/AIDS and issues of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), in practice these aspects did not received special attention in the programme. In the grant agreement between MoFA and DECP it was agreed that DECP in its reporting would include information on the developments in the three areas specified above. Occasionally, specific relevant initiatives have been supported in the DEC Programme in the above areas, such as a “Women in Business” Seminar (Indonesia), HIV/AIDS working groups (in Surinam). However, as such elements were not a core focus in the DEC programme and not part of a specific mandate of DECP, information-provision on gender, HIV-AIDS and CSR has been incidental. The evaluation forms on ILO/DECP training courses and the survey responses show that Gender aspects have not been mainstreamed in training courses and advisory services. The aspect of gender is the least appreciated in the training courses. DECP partners in the survey indicate that they are not really concerned about gender, HIV-AIDS and CSR issues. It is in training-courses and workshops on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) that have taken place in many countries, where CSR and HIV-AIDS issues have received most attention. The visits to employers’ organisations in Surinam, Kenya and Tanzania confirm the previous findings in this section. DECP partners, all IOE members, are mainly involved in Employment and Social Dialogue issues. Other aspects of PSD, related with trade, taxation, licensing and business enabling environment, are often represented by other business organisations. This specific mandate/area of operations of DECP is related with the own identity of the hosts of the programme, the Dutch Employers’ Organisations and its alignment with IOE. Thus far the approach of DECP has been more focused on support to specific individual organisations and less so on the broader institutional framework of different private actors (employers, entrepreneurs and businesses) that contribute to private sector development from different perspectives. This creates both a strength and weakness for the DECP programme: on the one hand it can focus on and specialise in labour and social issues in business development but on the other hand it can easily miss other relevant players that can be more influential in promoting a business enabling environment and in tackling those social economic issues that can be more relevant from a developmental and poverty reduction perspective. The country visits show that DECP support to its partners has targeted mostly the organisational development of Employers Organisations themselves and strengthening their membership support base. While this is relevant, less attention has been given to issues of external networking and lobby & advocacy on the business enabling environment, economic


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development and poverty reduction in the broader institutional environment. Some activities did address those aspects, among which three training courses with ITC-ILO on lobby & advocacy, several DECP training and support services in Occupational Safety and Health (e.g. in Surinam) and some workshops on negotiation and social dialogue. The primary focus on internal issues of employers’ organisations has limited DECP’s and Partners’ possibilities to have more direct impact on an enabling business environment, economic development and poverty reduction. The partners interviewed during the field visits (see ANNEX 1) and surveyed (see also ANNEX 10), without exception indicate that the support of DECP has been highly relevant for their organisations, particularly for resolving specific organisational challenges. Apart from the content-expertise and experience of DECP, many partners also mention the political importance of VNO-NCW and the other Dutch Employers’ Federations as hosts of the DECP. This political weight is an enormous support to local Employers’ Organisations in their external environment, particularly in their contacts towards the government. 3.2. Analysis of activities and output of the DEC programme The activities of DECP that are focusing on producing value for their target-groups are threefold: 1. Advisory missions: with policy advice on strategic issues and more operational advice on

specific organisational issues: An analysis of reports, interviews with selected partners and the survey to regular partners indicate that this support is addressing the following issues/areas: Table 3: Issues covered in advisory missions to partners by DECP

Strategic Issues Operational Issues/Service Delivery Support in strategic planning and business plan(Ghana, Tanzania)

Set up OSH services (Armenia, Georgia, Ghana, Macedonia, Surinam and Moldova)

Revision of organisational set-up/structure (Indonesia)

Strengthening communication efforts (e.g. newsletters) (Bolivia, Kenya, Surinam, Zambia)

Support in communication plan (Mali, Surinam)

Set up Train the Trainers programmes (Bosnia, Georgia, Ghana, Uganda and Kenya)

Set up and strengthening of regional branches of EO’s (Indonesia, Rwanda)

Set up of “business house” (Ghana, Kenya)

Training in Lobby and Advocacy and/or social dialogue and negotiation (Moldova, Nicaragua, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia)

Revision cost-structure for legal advice services (Kenya)

Assistance on labour legislation (Mongolia) Redesign membership packages (Tanzania) Conflict-mediation between EO’s (Ethiopia)6 Improve quality management consulting services (Kenya) Realisation of Business/Business registration survey

(Macedonia, Mali, Rwanda) Set-up member registration subscription systems (Kenya,

Moldova, Nicaragua, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia) Set up of business linkage support service (South Africa) 2. Standardised and tailor-made training courses With ILO several training courses have been organised on the following subjects: - Managing Effective Employers Organisations; - Lobby and Advocacy for Employers Organisations; - Effective Service Delivery to members; - Resource Mobilisation and Project Design.7 6 This activity has not been successful 7 This course was realised in 2009 and is not taken into account in the analysis


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DECP has also run courses on location on the following themes related to ILOs mandate, and international labour standards: - Occupational Safety and Health in several countries; - International Communications workshop in the Hague and regional workshop in Mali; - Women in Entrepreneurship Development workshop (Indonesia); - Social dialogue workshop and workshop on how to attract Members in Nicaragua; - Negotiation training workshops in Kenya and Uganda; - Workshops on Membership, Communication and Lobby in Zambia; 3. Financial and Project Support to Partners DECP in al documents and communication makes clear that it provides technical assistance and not financial support. This has proven to be quite important as many organisations in developing countries often expect financial support and a number receives financial support from other development partners. The characteristic of DECP as a TA provider in practice needed to be well explained in order to avoid misunderstanding and frustration. However on a small scale DECP does provide financial support to enable and supports its other interventions and sometimes also to “oil” the relationship. These small projects have benefitted the following aspects in partner organisations: - Organisation of promotional seminars/conferences; - Computers and office equipment; - Newsletters and website development; - Production of booklets (e.g. on labour legislation (Ghana), opportunities for subsidies and

funding (Surinam)); - Business Surveys (Mali, Macedonia); - Training and workshop materials. There is one exception to the above. DECP has decided to support a newly established Kosovo Employers’ Confederation with start up costs and a series of promotional conferences. In this case, the local situation and conditions of KEC were considered too basic to enable a good start up of a programme without prior financial support for start-up activities. In addition to the above DECP also realises supporting activities in which it invests significant time: The set-up and development of contacts and networks. In the past years DECP has realised the following activities in this area: - participation in international conferences; - Policy dialogue and development of courses with ITC-ILO (and ACT-EMP at ILO and IOE in

Geneva); - Regular exchange of information and policy dialogue with PUM, FVN and CNV (half-yearly); - Participation in the Social Dialogue working group of DDE; - Set up of networks and exchanges with likewise Nordic development actors; - Participation and exchange with European Employers’ organisations in the Business

Europe platform and globally with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).


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Analysis of activities of the DECP programme The following table presents an analysis of the activities of DECP since its foundation. Table 4: Overview activities of DECP 2006-2008

2006 2007 2008 Tot. Countries Fact

Finding/ Advisory Missions

Training, seminars & work-shops

Funding for project / Study

Advisory Missions

Fact-Finding Missions



Advisory missions

Fact Finding Missions



Afghanistan 1 1Albania 1 2 1 4Armenia 1 1 2Benin 1 1 2Bolivia 1 1 2Bosnia-Herz. 2 3 3 1 1 1 1 12DRC 1 1Ethiopia 1 1Georgia 1 1 2 1 1 6Ghana 1 1 1 1 2 6Guatemala 1 1Indonesia 1 1 2 3 3 1 11Kenya 2 1 3 2 8Kosovo 1 1 2Macedonia 1 1 3 1 3 1 10Mali 1 1 1 3Moldova 1 1 2 1 1 6Mongolia 1 1 1 3Mozambique 1 1Nicaragua 1 1 2Rwanda 1 1 1 2 5Senegal 1 1South Africa 1 2 3Surinam 1 2 2 2 1 1 9Tanzania 1 2 3Uganda 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 10Vietnam 1 1 2Zambia 1 1 1 3East Africa Regional

1 1

West Africa Regional

1 1

Total 11 1 5 15 8 15 8 21 8 22 8 122NB: 1 activity realised in the Netherlands (no country specified): a communications workshop in 2008 A comparison of realisation of activities, as presented in the table above, compared with planning by DECP leads to the following findings: DECP realised one or more activities in 28 countries. 26 of these countries are among the 36 countries on the partner-country list of MoFA. In two other countries, Kosovo and DRC served by DECP also MoFA has included them more recently in their policies. In 10 countries of the partner-list (Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Egypt, Eritrea, Yemen, Cape Verde, Pakistan, Palestine Authorities, Sri Lanka) DECP is not developing activities, although some of them are planned to be included in the programme in 2009 (e.g. Bangladesh). The table above shows in orange those countries that have had only one activity, or one fact-finding mission without any further support. In total 6 countries (Afghanistan, DRC, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Mozambique and Senegal) belong to this category. In two of these countries, Guatemala and Mozambique, DECP did not provide any further support. In the other four countries DECP realised its first activities in 2008 and therefore some of these countries might receive more support in the near future.


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Six countries (in green) can be considered the most developed partnerships of DECP. This is the case for Indonesia, Kenya, Macedonia, Surinam and Uganda, where DECP has realised 8 or more activities/missions over the past three years and four partnership agreements (APINDO, FKE, FUE and VSB) have been signed (Macedonia is planned for the first Semester of 2009). Bosnia-Herzegovina is an interesting case; many missions have been realised and an attempt was made for a partnership agreement and an organisational spider web assessment was carried out. However, the complex and politically unstable situation in Bosnia did not permit a sound relation to develop. Runners up (in light green) are Albania, Georgia, Ghana, Moldova, and Rwanda. The partners in these countries have already received several visits (at least 4) and are considered promising by DECP. With three partners GEA (Ghana), CNPM (Moldova) and PSF (Rwanda) partnership agreements have been established that illustrate their importance. These partners currently can be considered as developed partnerships. DECP indicated that although in some countries the number of visits has been lower, developments are also promising in Tanzania, Mongolia and Zambia (that all have received three visits) and Nicaragua (with two visits). With ATE in Tanzania and MONEF in Mongolia) partnerships have already been signed. In Nicaragua and Zambia Partnership agreements are planned for the first Semester of 2009.)More recently, DECP has identified some promising countries for new partnerships, notably in Zambia, Nicaragua and Mongolia. Mali and South Africa both received three DECP missions, but in these countries the relations are still somewhat incidental of nature. The same is true for the other countries in the table (in white). Here the contacts are still a few and incidental. It still remains to be seen if in these countries sound relations will develop. DECP advisers mention that among these countries, Kosovo and Vietnam are promising countries. Finally, the table shows that some regional training activities have taken place in East and West Africa, catering for larger audiences of different national employers’ organisations. In East Africa, a new regional training and exchange event was organised for partners in EAC. Characteristics of DECP partner countries Looking at the characteristics of the countries where DECP has been most active over the past year, one can clearly observe that most of these countries had a positive and stable political climate and a positive economic development indicators and a vibrant private sector. Moldova and Georgia are more recently facing political instability, but cannot be considered fragile states. On the other hand, DECP has faced difficulties in some other countries, like Bosnia-Herzegovina, Guatemala and Ethiopia. In these countries structural cooperation could not materialise because of conflictive settings. DECP has taken up the challenge provided by MoFA to consider more activities in fragile states and it has realised incidental activities in Afghanistan and DRC. Although the special advisers see possibilities for some incidental activities in fragile state settings, in general they are sceptic about possibilities for effects and impacts. This has also been illustrated by the difficult experiences in particularly a country like Bosnia-Herzegovina. Other actors, such as the Trade Unions in the Netherlands Trade Union Co-financing Programme (VMB), indicate that private sector development in fragile state settings is difficult compared to more stable settings, but that particularly aspects of freedom of expression and organisation, let alone social tri-partite dialogue are close to impossible and people risks their lives doing so. The DECP programme typically thrives in countries that can be poor to very poor, but that have positive economic development indicators, room for organisation and freedom of expression and an enabling environment for the private sector. A stable political environment and a state that has the capacity to develop political frameworks for development and dialogue are also typical for those countries, where Employers’ Organisations and DECP have been most active.


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Some remarks on fact-finding missions: In 2006 all missions can be considered fact-finding missions, as at that time (with the exception of Indonesia) there were no partnership relations. It is likely that some fact-finding missions also included advisory activities. In 2007 and 2008 fact-finding missions have been separated from advisory mission. In the total project-period 27 fact-missions have taken place in 24 different countries. In Afghanistan, Mozambique, Senegal and South Africa no formal fact finding was carried out, but DECP immediately moved towards realisation of activities (advisory support, training or projects). In Benin and Bosnia-Herzegovina, fact-finding was done in 2 missions. In roughly half the cases, we can observe that fact-finding has led to establishment of more regular working relations and all Partnership Agreements are in countries where fact-finding was done. All these relations are with local members of the International Organisation of Employers (IOE). However, we cannot assess whether the fact-finding missions or other sources of data have been beneficial for the identification of other possible partners outside the network of IOE. Our research during field-visits indicated that there are more relevant possible partners in relation to DECP’s mandate, particularly when looking at sectoral or de-central level. On advisory missions: The lion share of the activities of DECP is taken by advisory and coaching missions, sometimes combined with training and workshop activities. 36 advisory missions, of 4 to 5 days per mission, took place in 2007 and 2008. The planning of DECP did not foresee in a specific amount of missions. In practice these are planned according to needs and dynamics in partner-organisations and availability of DECP advisors. Particularly the partners in Kenya, Tanzania, Surinam, Bosnia, Rwanda, Uganda and Albania have benefited from a series of subsequent advisory missions. In these cases they could be considered trajectories. The special advisers of DECP indicate that in the case of more regular partnership relations they try to visit each partner roughly 3 to 4 times a year, sometimes combining advisory activities with the conduction of a local or regional training activity. Therefore contact between DECP advisers and partners is more regularly than only during specific advisory missions. On training courses and workshops: DECP had originally planned to conduct 10 training courses together with ITC-ILO in the period 2007-2009 and a non-specified number of training activities and workshops realised by DECP itself. The table 4 above shows that the amount of training and workshop activities has rapidly increased from 1 training in 2006 to 15 in 2007 and 22 in 2008. From 2006 to 2008 in total 14 training courses were realised with ITC-ILO, which is, with still one year to go, significantly above planning. 24 training activities and workshops have been realised by DECP itself. Indonesia is among the countries that most benefitted from training. Here, several national and regional training courses on effective employers’ organisations were conducted with ITC-ILO. Financial contributions to partners: As indicated before, such financial contributions are not frequent and usually small scale. They can be considered as collateral activities to the previous core services provided to partners. Only in the case of CERM in Macedonia 5 of such support projects have been approved (including 2 business surveys, a promotional conference and support in setting up a newsletter). In all other cases it is a maximum of 3 small activities and in 14 countries no such support has been provided during the entire programme period. Partnership Agreements as foundation for relations of DECP with partners An important instrument in the DEC Programme for establishing and managing the partnership relations within the programme are the Partnership Agreements (PA). DECP strives to establish more continuous and structural relations with partners based on a mutual agreement and longer-tem commitment. The original DECP-plan foresaw 15 PA’s in the period 2007-2009.


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The first partnership agreement was signed with KADIN/APINDO in Indonesia already in the very beginning of the programme in 2006. In 2007, VSB in Surinam, GEA in Ghana and PSF in Rwanda followed suit. In 2008 new PA’s were signed with FKE in Kenya, CNPM in Moldova, MONEF in Mongolia, ATE Tanzania and FUE in Uganda. For the first quarter of 2009, PA’s are planned with CERM in Macedonia, CADIN in Nicaragua and ZFE in Zambia. With 9 PA’s signed in 2008 and more in the pipeline for 2009 it is likely that DECP will meet the target of 15 PA’s for the end of the programme period. DECP envisioned that with the establishment of Partnership Agreements a comprehensive organisational assessment would be carried out with the goal to establish an agenda and a plan for capacity development and support activities for a longer-term time period. For this purpose an organisational assessment tool was developed under the name of “Spider web Diagram”.8 In principle each partnership agreement is accompanied with a Spider web Diagram analysis and a corresponding action plan for specific activities and support in the partnership relation for a period of 3 to 4 years. The introduction of the Spider web diagram has suffered some delay and it has not been applied comprehensively. Only in the case of VSB in Surinam, CNPM in Moldova, MONEF in Mongolia Spider web diagrams have been developed, but in none of these cases these diagrams have been used as a basis for the partnership agreement. The PA’s are not accompanied with the diagrams and no specific planning has been developed with the agreements. The PA’s read as generic documents with limited information on specific activities. Although some of the documents are very similar, all PA’s do have different agenda’s of items for capacity development support, which is an indicator that they are developed on a case by case basis (for the list of content-items in the PA’s see ANNEX 6). All activities with partners are based on a first fact-finding mission. These missions are documented and stored in the DECP archive. Although fact-finding missions contain information on the context and background of the EO’s and other relevant stakeholders, corresponding reports do not contain a needs-analysis and organisational assessment (incl. spider web diagram) of the partner-organisations. Therefore, there is no direct and explicit relation between fact-finding, organisational assessment and needs-assessment and the TA activities planned in the PA’s. Quality of service delivery by DECP The quality of the support of DECP is valued highly by partners. The survey among DECP partners shows the following appreciation by regular partners9 of their relation with DECP. Figure 1: Appreciation of partnership relation with DECP by partners

8 The spider web instrument will be further analysed in section 3.5 9 The survey was sent to 13 regular partners. Incidental partners of DECP and the three partners visited in the field-studies were not included in the survey. 11 people from 10 partner organizations responded.


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On a scale from 1 to 10, all partners score their partnership relation with DECP with a 7 or more. More than half of the partners value their partnership with a nine or ten. This very positive appreciation is based on some specific characteristics, some of them quality related, but also some of them more political and process related: Aspects most frequently mentioned by partners are: - The support of DECP is useful and applicable, because it relates to practical support from

hands-on experts in for example improving communications, setting up subscription-fee systems etc.;

- The support of DECP is relevant and based on experience of likewise organisations. The partners appreciate that support is provided from circles in and around Netherlands’ employers’ organisations;

- The technical assistance is provided by highly qualified and experienced advisors. The partners appreciate that DECP advisers all have had a long work-trajectory in employers’ organisations;

- Similarity of mission and vision of partners and of DECP, who are both employers’ organisations and members of the same IOE family;

- High demand orientation by DECP experienced by partners; - Cultural sensitivity and adaptability of DECP advisors;10 In addition to these quality aspects partners also mention the political importance of the partnership with DECP. The fact that DECP is a programme of Dutch Employers Organisations, hosted by VNO-NCW gives enormous credibility and political weight to the partnership which radiates to the local partner as well and this can have a very positive impact on relations with government and government institutes. Many of the partners did not express an assessment of DECP’s attention for and experience in Gender and HIV/aids issues, which indicates that these issues are not clearly integrated and communicated in the support activities of DECP. An analysis of the evaluation forms of the courses conducted in cooperation with ITC-ILO (in Turin and on location)11 show the following results: Figure 2: Analysis of evaluation forms of ILO/DECP courses 2006-2008

Avarage Appreciation of ILO/DECP training courses

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3.60

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10 For the complete survey results and more examples and information, see ANNEX 10 11 For the complete analysis of the evaluation sheets, see ANNEX 8


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The appreciation of participants of the ILO/DECP training courses has been generally high. The table shows that the biggest improvement in these training courses can be obtained through increasing attention to gender issues in the training and by providing timely and better quality preparation materials for the courses. The course-objectives are considered very clear and the contents very relevant in relation to individual and organisational needs, as these aspects score higher than average. Courses on Effective Employers Organisations in Indonesia and in Rwanda have been evaluated below average and Courses on Effective Employers Organisations in Afghanistan, East Africa (regional) and Uganda have been evaluated above average. Additionally two courses for the region East Africa on Lobby & Advocacy and for West Africa on Effective Service Delivery also have been evaluated above average. It is known that evaluation of training activities on a scale from 1 to 5, usually are in the range from 3 to 5. Participants tend to respond with a very positive bias. Considering this bias; a score below 3.5 is probably an indicator of unsatisfactory performance, while scores above 4.5 probably indicate high satisfaction. Scores between 3.5 and 4.5 (as is generally the case in the ITC-ILO/DECP is an indicator of good performance. In addition to these sources, the field visits to Surinam, Kenya and Tanzania also gave insight in the appreciation of DECP partners of the quality of the services and support provided by DECP. In all three cases, the local partners showed clear satisfaction with the training provided by DECP and by ITC-ILO/DECP. The courses are highly relevant for these organisations and it is well appreciated that experienced international experts in Occupational Safety and Health or in communication provide inputs from a practical perspective of employers’ organisations. The appreciation of the local partners in the field-visit countries for advisory services and coaching by the DECP special advisers is even higher, although in many cases partners most highly appreciate the practical and operational advices on membership issues, communication and fundraising. Apparently many partners expect quick wins in these areas, while support in strategy development, though it might be important, does not bring immediate results. Choice and selection of partner-organisations by DECP As observed under the section on fact-finding missions, the direct target group of the DECP programme is composed of those Employers’ Organisations that are member of the International Organisation of Employers (IOE). Although DECP during several fact-finding missions has visited a variety of organisations and other possible partners, recruitment of partners thus far has been limited to the IOE network. In the field-visit countries of Tanzania, Kenya and Surinam it was clear that there are other relevant employers’ and/or entrepreneurs organisations and networks, such as the Confederation of Trade and Industry, The Tanzanian Private Sector Foundation or Chambers of Commerce in Tanzania or the Association of Manufacturers in Surinam. While in Surinam, VSB is the largest and best known employers’ organisation, this leadership status of ATE is less clear and at least disputed by others. It is likely that such rivalry exists in most countries. When looking at specific geographic and sectoral level, even more organisations come into view. In Tanzania there is also a network of Female Entrepreneurs. Some of these networks might not be directly relevant to DECP, when they focus primarily on economic, technical and trade aspects, but some of them certainly also touch upon social and employment (decent work) aspects. It is likely that in some countries even more relevant partners in the light of the


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decent-work and poverty-reduction aspects of the DEC programme that are most relevant to DDE’s policy agenda on international development cooperation. In Kenya, the situation is somewhat in between Surinam and Tanzania. FKE is a recognised player in Kenya’s private sector and it has been relatively active and visible as a spokesperson of the employers in this countries. However, external stakeholders state that FKE particularly represents the larger and urban enterprises, while there are many micro-, small and medium enterprises that are at least as important for the Kenyan economy. From the employment perspective, these enterprises might not be so important, but economically they certainly are. FKE’s position as legitimate employers’ organisation is not challenged, but it is recognised that in this large economy with many important players there are many other relevant actors in the environment of FKE. In one case we have found that the social responsibility of a employers’ organisation, partner of DECP in Indonesia, is questioned by other stakeholders. FNV in the Netherlands has brought this issue to the attention of DECP and has found understanding at DECP, but has not yet seen clear actions of DECP to put this issue on the agenda for dialogue with this partner. DECP indicates that external relations of APINDO have improved: it has contributed to the establishment of council on labour issues and recently a trade-union leader has spoken on an APINDO conference. Although in this review we have found only one case in which the social responsibility of a DECP partner is challenged by other actors in society, it is likely that this occurs in some other countries were the political environment for social dialogue is hostile, particularly in countries like Guatemala, Ethiopia, DRC and Afghanistan. The existence of a CSR policy is not a criterion of selection of partners by DECP and it is not within the mandate of DECP to forward CSR on the agenda of its partners. However, for DECP legitimacy and “good employer-ship” is important for its partner-selection. In Guatemala, the relations with a local partner were suspended partly because that partner was not sufficiently recognising trade union rights and promoting ILO conventions. Organisational Structure and resources of DECP DECP since 2007 has a full-time staff of four: a Director, Deputy Director, a special adviser and an office manager. The Directors and special advisors, spend a significant part of their time to provide direct support to partners. Additionally DECP deploys two special advisers on a consultancy basis. These advisers spend approximately 100 days per year on DECP activities. Since January 2009 the former Director became a special adviser on consultancy basis and a new Director was recruited, thus expanding capacity with another 100 consulting days. Apart from the core team of DECP and special advisors, frequently other advisers (often senior staff in VNO-NCW) are involved in the realisation of specific advisory missions and/or training activities and seminars. The capacity of DECP in qualitative terms can be considered as very well. Management and special advisers all have more than two decades of relevant experience in employers organisations in international contexts, though not all of them in the context of developing countries. The profile of DECP advisers enables them to engage directly and constantly with CEO’s of the partner-organisations and in fact fulfil a coaching role to these CEO’s. At the same time they are able to interact with and built relations with national and international Governmental institutions and multilateral organisations. Their exposure with ILO bodies and departments such as Employers’ Activities (ACT-EMP) and ITC-ILO as well as with regional ILO offices is extensive.


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A significant part of the advisory activities (an estimate of 50% according to one of the special advisors) is dedicated to strategic issues and external relations and lobby and advocacy, while the other half is directed to more operational issues. This is also confirmed in the analysis of written sources in this evaluation. Because of the fact that DECP conducts most of the missions with its own core-group of advisors, who are all very senior, they seem to be overqualified for some of the support activities. But there are no junior advisors, or local consultants attached to DECP to provide such operational services at a more cost-effective rate, particularly when such support activities can be combined for several partners in specific regions. The amount of staff within DECP has been sufficient for the tasks at hand during the first years of the programme, but it can be observed that the staff-capacity was to be divided among 28 different countries and a group of 15 to 20 partners receiving more regular support. Considering the expected number of 15 to 20 PA’s at the end of next year that will all receive more frequent support, staff capacity will be sufficient to address approximately 20 days per year on a specific partner, with five partners for each advisers (who also is a back-up for five other partners where the other adviser is the accountholder). Given this structure, four special advisers (of which 3 on consultancy basis) and two managers who also dedicate significant time on partners, is enough to ensure a support of 20 days per year per partner, allowing for approximately 4 missions. The DECP special advisers indicate that this amount of time is reasonable in relation to the still limited absorption capacity of many partners. In addition to time spent on partners with a partnership agreement, the DECP advisers also spend time on incidental missions and activities with other partners. The amount of time involved varies between specific cases. 3.3. Effectiveness (outcome) Contribution of DECP advisory missions to capacity development of partners The survey and the country visits to Surinam, Kenya and Tanzania have clearly shown that most of the Employers’ Organisations are facing big challenges in consolidating their structure and their membership. Many Employers’ Organisations have never received any support from development partners or other actors and have built their organisations entirely with their own effort. Although this is in fact a very important strength of these organisations, because they are not dependent from external financial support, it is also a weakness, because in terms of organisational structure and performance most of these organisations are small, limitedly staffed and have limited infra-structural and other resources. The partners visited in this MTR and that responded to survey indicate that they have a great need for support to strengthen their own internal organisation first and later move to other more strategic and external challenges. DECP has responded to these demands and the partners express a high appreciation for these services. Partner-organisations in the survey indicate that the advisory services have been beneficial for their capacity development. Some examples of capacity developments that have taken place among partners, according to the partners in the survey, are: - The introduction of balance score cards to measure organisational performance in APINDO

in Indonesia; - Preparation and set-up of an OSH service in FNPAIA in Moldova; - Increase of revenues through introduction of new fee-collection instruments (several

partners); - Improvement of communication strategies and instruments (such as newsletters and web-

sites) towards members (several partners); In Surinam, VSB has been supported by DECP in a thorough revision of its communication efforts by a VNO-NCW expert. This advice has been taken up by VSB in redesigning its magazine and website. A new communications officer has been recruited. Another advice for


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restructuring the board structure of VSB has been taken up and with new elections of the board in 2009 these changes will take effect. The effects obtained with ATE and FKE are more limited because the relationship of DECP only recently (end of 2008) moved from incidental missions to a more programmatic cooperation based on a partnership agreement. With ATE in Tanzania DECP has particularly explored on how its support can be coordinated with the DANIDA/COWI support provided to this partner. It has not yet provided much other advisory support, but several training activities and workshops have been realised in the past two years. Also with FKE advisory support of DECP has been limited and most activities have revolved around a series of training and workshop events. However, FKE identifies that coaching support provided by DECP during four missions (combined with training) has been beneficial for revision of communication strategies and practices with members of the organisation. Some partners also indicate they have received support from DECP at the strategy and policy level, but this has occurred on a much more limited scale than the operational support mentioned above. The survey-partners mention the following examples: - Preparation of a strategic plan for GEA in Ghana; - MONEF in Mongolia, with the support of DECP, developed a Plan against Financial Crisis in

cooperation with the Government. VSB indicates that it is now in dialogue with DECP to start exploring more strategic areas for support and to move to more programmatic cooperation with DECP with a longer-term time perspective. This could not have been done without this prior phase of different support missions on specific issues. With ATE and FKE, DECP is currently working on bringing these partners together with other partners in the region to follow up on the process of regional economic integration in EAC. Prior to this year, activities have been incidental. Only at the end of 2008 the Partnership Agreements with these partners were signed and only since this moment a more programmatic cooperation has started. Issues that will be addressed in the coming period combine more operational and strategic aspects: improving communications with the membership and developing revenue income through service delivery (training & consultancy) at the operational level and development of advocacy role and function and strengthening research capacity at the more strategic level. All partners visited mention the importance and effect of DECP’s in two other ways: - The special advisers of DECP are very senior and they can provide excellent coaching

services to top-managers and board-members of the partner organisations; - The fact that DECP is backed by the Netherlands Employers’ Organisations, who are

internationally well respected, provides an immediate support and international legitimisation of the partner organisations in their own national and regional contexts.

The overall impression of the effectiveness of the DECP support thus is that most of the DECP services thus far have been focusing on specific activities or services of the partner organisations. These advices are well appreciated because they are very practical. However, the responses of partners as well as interviews with special advisers also indicate that relatively limited time has been invested in strategic issues, particularly those related with external positioning and lobby and advocacy of the partner organisations. Partners did not consider this problematic, as their expectations were primarily focused on short-term and visible in organisational changes in-house. It is also quite logic that in the start-up phase of a relationship between DECP and partners the first attention goes out to more concrete issues. Longer-term partners, such as VSB in Surinam, now indicate that they feel time has come to move towards more strategic issues in the partnership with DECP.


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Contribution of DECP and DECP/ITC-ILO training to capacity development of partners Also training programmes conducted by DECP itself and in cooperation with ITC-ILO in Turin have resulted in concrete effects among partners: - As a result of central and de-central training activities of DECP/ITC-ILO with several

APINDO branches, in some regions branches have developed and implemented more structured work plans;

- Training on effective employers’ organisations has helped FNPAIA to strengthen its efforts in fees collection to raise revenues. The same course also contributed to more knowledge on collective negotiation processes. FNPAIA also participated in a training on Communication by DECP in the Netherlands and it states that the design of web-site has improved thanks to that training;

- Several organisations mention increased revenue collection thanks to improved fee-collection systems and methods promoted in training;

- Some partners also mentioned increased capacity for service delivery, including the introduction of new services to members, as a result of DECP/ITC-ILO training activities;

- One partner mentions that after a DECP/ITC-ILO training on advocacy it has now developed an advocacy action plan.

Partners in the survey and the partners visited during the field visits mention similar benefits from participation in training. They also state that training activities are very stimulating but separate from the daily work routine. Although they confirm (see also the detailed survey results in ANNEX 10) that the issues addressed in the training are relevant and applicable, they sometime miss more follow-up and on-the-job assistance to digest and apply the learning in real practice. Some training activities, such as the OSH workshops, have had a two-fold effect. In the first place these workshops contributed to increased awareness of employers’ organisations and their individual members of OSH issues. In the second place these activities have also contributed to an increased profile and external image of there local partners. VSB in Surinam confirms that the OHS workshop in 2008 has greatly contributed to an increased outreach and image of the organisation in Surinam. It now has planned with DECP another event for exchange and exposure on investment opportunities in Surinam. In this activity also the Netherlands Embassy is involved. Most important intermediate outcomes of the DECP programme Summarising we can state that the most important intermediate outcomes of the DEC Programme are situated at the level of improved organisational performance of employers’ organisations. These outcomes can be observed in: - Improved structure; - Improved income through collection of membership fees; - Increased membership registration and improved administration systems; - Improved communication systems and content. DECP’s own measuring stick, the spider web diagram, though promising in design, has not been applied systematically and in a uniform way, and therefore cannot yet shed more light on the objective of the DEC programme: 15% increase in performance on five dimensions (representativeness, strategy, lobby & advocacy, structure and finances) according to specific spider web diagram results on a base-line level and at the end of the programme. Given the development and use of the spider web until now, it cannot be expected that such information can be generated at the end of 2009 at programme closure. Additionally, some aspects, such


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as changes in quality of service delivery that are under-highlighted in this diagram cannot be compared over time. More limited is outcome at a more strategic level and in lobby and advocacy of organisations and therefore on influencing the business enabling environment, sustainable economic development and ultimately poverty reduction. This is not surprising as the programme is still very recent and changes in the external environment certainly require a significant amount of time. Some of the training and advisory services of DECP and DECP/ITC-ILO have catered for a wider audience and therefore have had wider impact. Most notably, this has occurred on the issue of OSH, where several partners and individual companies are applying insights and introducing new services. These are likely to benefit workers and therefore also contribute to improved labour conditions. Similarly attention for HIV/AIDS protection and prevention can have a wider impact on labour conditions and health of workers. The evaluators have encountered fewer activities on HIV/AIDS in the DECP programme than on OSH, but in interviews were able to observe a keen interest of employers (organisations) in this issue. Thus far the DECP has not had a direct effect on increased and improved social tri-partite dialogue. It is primarily focusing on strengthening employers and employers’ organisations. In Surinam, recently, the process of establishment of a Social Economic Council has regained some impulse and this possible can increase future opportunities to link programme interventions more directly with institutionalised forms of social dialogue. However, there are not many contexts where such linking is obvious or likely. 3.4. Efficiency The amount of activities realised by the DEC Programme is considerable in the light of the size of the DECP team. After the start up phase in 2006 with only a limited amount of identification missions and some first training and project activities, the programme gathered speed in 2007. The yearly budgets for the DEC programme in 2007 and 2008 were 1.37 and 1.53 Million Euro respectively.12 It is difficult to come to an assessment of efficiency for a programme that is still under development and therefore only a few aspects have been reviewed in more detail. Advisory and fact-finding missions are the most important component of the DECP programme. A comparison of direct travel and accommodation costs over the past three years is presented in table 5 below: Table 5: comparison direct costs of missions DECP, 2006-2008

Year # of missions

Average direct cost of mission in €

Estimate of average total cost of mission in €

2006 11 8466.364 15.500 2007 23 7995.652 15.000 2008 29 7241.379 14.250

Over the past years direct costs of missions gradually have come down from almost 8,500 € to almost 7.250 € per mission. The average duration of a mission is one week. If we consider the average costs of remuneration of DECP staff and advisers for one person/mission these costs can be estimated at approximately 7.000 €. 12 A detailed analysis of budgets and financial reports has not been conducted, given the limited time and budget for this MTR. Additionally an efficiency assessment would be more appropriate at a stage when the DEC programme is more consolidated.


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In total, a typical one week/one person mission of DECP advisers currently costs approximately 14.250 €. The costs of these missions are in the range of mission costs as conducted by organisations as CBI. However these costs are considerably higher than is the case in the area of NGO’s or in missions conducted by UN organisations Given the seniority and exposure of the special advisers in the area of international employers’ affairs and the fact that these advisers mainly interact with CEO’s and senior management in the partner-organisations, these costs can be considered reasonable. However, when we take into account that a considerable part of the activities and support given by the advisers is operational and practical on issues like membership administration, web-site management, communication, and these costs should be considered high. Such activities and support could be provided by less senior advisers, particularly of such support to partners can be combined in regional missions, or such support could be given by more senior partner EOs in the same region or by other locally available sources of TA. Additionally, costs of the technical assistance can be considered high as until present much of the support of DECP was provided by European based senior advisors. However, DECP (and ITC-ILO) also recruit local consultants, mainly for training courses and workshops. This has been done in the series of training-events in Indonesia and more recently in a regional DECP/ITC-ILO training course in Tanzania in February 2009. Some possibilities for cost-sharing and provision of lower priced technical assistance have been explored and applied, such as was the case with VSB in Surinam, that has been able to recruit and employ a communications officers from a Surinam Twinning Facility. Similarly expertise can be pooled from the PUM programme. This has until present taken place on an occasional basis: in a support programme for the Chamber of Commerce in Middelburg, South Africa, DECP has enabled the deployment of a PUM-consultant. A DECP adviser has conducted on organisational assessment of Chambers of Industry in Bolivia. From Bosnia and Macedonia requests for deployment of two PUM experts on food regulation matters are to be expected. The training courses realised by DECP in cooperation with ITC-ILO have had an average cost of approximately 77.000 €.13 These costs are shared by DECP and ITC-ILO on a 50-50% basis and therefore DECP contributes approximately 38.500 €. On 7 out of 14 courses data on number of participants are available and this gives an average of 35 persons per course. This brings the total costs of a course of DECP/ITC-ILO on 2.200 Euro per participant. This is a reasonable cost for international training activities, but it has to be observed that this cost is reached based on a rather high number of participants per training. DECP has been efficient and effective in planning and realisation of its activities and the depletion of its budget. It is fully on target in relation to these indicators. Monitoring of the progress and results of the DEC Programme DECP applies the following instruments and data for the monitoring of its programme: - Fact-finding mission reports 13 This figure is based on the total number of 14 courses realised from 2006 to 2008. It combines courses run in Turin and on location, because no separate data could be found on the costs of specific courses. However, it is likely that the cost-structure of courses on location is quite different than that of courses run in Turin.


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- Activity mission reports - Project reports - Financial reports All information on the programme development and on partners is stored digitally according to specific countries and per year. Under each year, specific folders are created for DECP missions and visits and for each specific activity (a training, seminar, or project). The information provided is easily accessible, concise and clear. However, most information provided is only narrative and activity-specific. Limited analytical information is provided that provides information on developments over time at the level of the partner-organisation. DECP, on its website provides short reporting accessible to the general public on most of these activities above. It furthermore produces yearly planning and budgets as well as yearly narrative and financial reports. Its overall yearly report to the public is also used for reporting to DGIS. Additionally there are twice-yearly meetings with the DDE social dialogue group in which also the trade-unions participated. On specific issues, email and phone-contacts between DDE and DECP are conducted on a needs- and case-by-case basis. DECP has announced in its business-plan to work with a more analytical programme monitoring tool to measure developments at the level of organisational capacity development of its partners. This tool is called the Spider web assessment diagram and it measures organisational performance in 5 dimensions. Until present it has not been applied widely. The figure below presents the results of those assessments that have been carried in the past period. Figure 3: Results Spider Web Assessments of DECP partners in 2006 and 2008

Comparison Average Scores Spiderweb Diagram in 2006 and 2008

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APBiH Bosnia Cam. Ind. YCom. Bolivia

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The figure above shows that the spider web assessment has been realised with seven different partners. Only in four cases the spider web analysis has been repeated. That was the use DECP foresaw with this instrument; to compare the organisational performance at a given moment with a base-line assessment. According to the original plan, the goal was to achieve 15% increase in performance on five different dimensions.14 The figure above shows that this been achieved with VSB in Surinam and CERM in Macedonia, but at the same time it shows that the results are difficult to compare, because organisational contexts are very different and in practice methods for the assessment have been varied from 14 For the list of dimensions and specific questions used in the spider web assessment, see ANNEX 5. For detailed results of the spider web assessments, see ANNEX 9.


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external assessments to joint assessments conducted by DECP advisers and managers of partner organisations. If we look at the different dimensions in the spider web diagram we can observe the following image in figure 4. Figure 4: Comparison of changes in the five dimensions of the Spider Web Assessments of DECP partners in 2006 and 2008

Comparison 5 dimensions of Spiderweb diagram in 2006 and 2008

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The figure above shows that on all five dimensions an average improvement in performance has occurred of 5 to 15 %. However, again it should be observed that the results of the assessment thus far are not yet very reliable. While the investments of DECP in developing the Spider web assessment tool is laudable and this instrument is certainly useful for base-line assessments and monitoring of the process of organisational capacity development, the figures 3&4 illustrate merely a potential of what these instruments could do, if they were applied more systematically and with a uniform method. The following weaknesses have been observed in the design of the spider web assessment diagram: - Although the five dimensions can be used for organisational assessment of different

member organisations in different context and therefore are widely applicable, it might be needed to focus the dimensions more on specific activities and mandates of employers’ organisations (related to the specific capacity support that can be given by DECP) in order to increase the link with concrete capacity development agenda’s and plans with partner organisations;

- Dimensions and questions under specific dimensions are not weighted, according to their respective importance and relevance in the analysis;

- The yes/no categories for responses, do not invite for a much nuance in answers, although it is technically possible to score between yes and no. The introduction of a gliding scale seems to do more justice to variety of organisations and contexts.

Additionally the evaluators could observe flaws in the application of the instrument: - In the case of VSB and CNPM base-line diagrams for 2006 have been developed retro-

actively, more as an exercise than a real-life task; - The application of the Spider web assessment in practice was done differently in specific

cases: together with the executive director or with chairpersons or with broader participation of board and management of partners;

- There are no guidelines for a uniform application of the tool.


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3.5. Specific Issues Gender DECP does not systematically pay attention to gender-aspects in its activities. The evaluation sheets of the DECP/ITC-ILO training activities show that gender-aspects are most critically assessed by participants from all aspects of the training course. This indicates that participants do miss attention for these aspects or that the attention given is not considered good enough. The survey among partners indicates that gender (as well as HIV/AIDS) aspects receive limited attention in advisory missions, as most respondents have no opinion or cannot respond to the question of their appreciation of gender awareness of DECP advisers in their advisory relations. Some specific activities have been organised, such as workshops for female entrepreneurs on “women in business” in Indonesia and Kosovo, but these special courses were not frequent. Neither DECP, nor the partners visited during the field-visits indicate that gender-mainstreaming in activities and specific attention for women’s’ issues are matters of high priority. Although more attention for gender-aspects in training would be appreciated, such attention in general is not seriously missed in overall DECP activities. During the field visits to partner organisations, the evaluators could observe that women certainly participate in many activities and sometimes are the majority of participants, but they are less present in leadership positions in larger enterprises and representative organisations. The employers’ organisations visits do not maintain gender disaggregated information on their members and on the (results of) activities. Therefore it is impossible to know what are specific effects of DECP support on women in business and in employers’ organisations. Coordination and cooperation with other actors in private sector development DECP’s identity and mandate is very specific and it relates to employers’ issues. From this specific mandate DECP (and its partners) can very well exchange information and coordinate with other parties in private sector development. However, cooperation is not always an option and can only be developed when DECP and partners can engage in such cooperation, while maintaining their own specific identity and mandate. Over the past period DECP has coordinated and cooperated with many external partners: In the Netherlands and Europe: - The relations of DECP with ACT-EMP (ILO) and IOE in Geneva are frequent. Both DECP

and their host Dutch Employers Organisations have frequent working relations with these institutes in Geneva. While ILO has capacity for policy development and implementation, the IOE, though a relevant representative body of employers’ organisations, is not considered very strong in policy development and implementation and therefore relations mainly remain limited to exchange of information;

- The cooperation with the International Training Centre of ILO in Turin is very intensive and more training activities than originally planned are realised with this institute. From both sides the cooperation is highly appreciated and through cost-sharing both organisations can realise a larger target-audience for a limited cost;

- DECP has recently taken the initiative to contact development partners in Europe that are active in similar areas as DECP, with the invitation to start up a half-yearly of yearly meeting to exchange information and coordinate activities. The first meeting is planned for June 23 2009. The invitation was extended to sister organisations in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Germany and ACT-EMP (ILO);


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- MoFA/DDE: DECP and DDE realise twice-yearly monitoring meetings on the programme-progress and occasionally on specific issues. DECP participates in the Social Dialogue working-group that was set up by DDE in which also FNV, CNV and SER participate;

- DECP and PUM, both hosted in VNO-NCW maintain a close working-relation, including mostly exchange of information on missions, brokerage of relevant contacts and operational support in preparing missions. DECP in her missions to specific countries usually also includes the local PUM representatives to exchange information and coordinate activities. Until present, in three cases, PUM-expertise has been deployed in DECP partners or activities;

- DECP exchanges information with FNV and CNV on a half-yearly basis and does this pro-actively. In spite of the regular exchange, cooperation between DECP and the trade unions on the ground has remained limited to one joint project between DECP and CNV in Ghana, where a popular booklet on labour legislation was produced by both GEA and local trade unions. Information exchange has occurred on other countries. On Indonesia, cooperation has been frustrated by big differences in vision between the DECP partner, APINDO and the local FNV partner. Information also has been exchanged on contacts and activities in South Africa and Bosnia, but no joint activities have been developed;

- With other organisations in the Netherlands DECP has only maintained occasional contacts. At the country level: DECP’s support at the country level is mainly focused on the specific partner organisations and only in a few cases such support is coordinated or co-conducted in cooperation with other development partners. Information exchange with other partners occurs more regularly: - With regional ILO offices: DECP coordinates activities with regional ILO offices and

sometimes enables its partners to participate in regional training activities (such as with VSB in a Caribbean training event). Together with the ILO office in Nairobi, DECP has enabled its partners in East Africa to explore cooperation and exchange on the process of development of the East African Community. DECP considers existing technical capacity at regional ILO offices not sufficient for pooling of resources in TA provision to local partners;

- DECP partner ATE in Tanzania since 2008 is receiving funding for its organisational development. A Danish consulting firm contracted by DANIDA, COWI is providing Technical Assistance to ATE and has requested support from DECP. DECP and COWI have established working relations and currently DECP is providing assistance to ATE within the framework of the DANIDA/COWI support programme. However, DECP maintains its own specific dialogue and cooperation agreement with ATE;

- In some countries, such as Tanzania, where a wide range of development partners is active in Private Sector Development, active coordination and exchange of information with these other partners was expected, but only occurred on a limited scale. Because of the risk of overkill and contradicting approaches of external support organisations more alignment would have been desirable;

- DECP maintains frequent contacts with the Netherlands’ Embassies in its partner countries, but these contacts remain largely limited to exchange of information and courtesy calls to embassies. There are some exceptions such as in Surinam where DECP and VSB have joined forces with the Embassy to organise a seminar on investment opportunities in April 2009. The embassy was also involved in project for ISO certification of companies in Surinam, in which VSB was one of the implementing parties. Also in Nicaragua the Dutch Embassy maintains close ties with DECP partners, COSEP and CADIN.

With local stakeholders at country level As observed earlier DECP in the partner countries mainly focuses on organisational development of its partners. Although it touches upon strategic planning and external communication it does so with a direct focus on the management and staff of its partners. As a result it is difficult to assess from DECP reports in what degree partner organisations in the partner countries are involved in networking, lobby and advocacy on economic policies. Looking at feedback from some partners in the survey and from the country field visits, the


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evaluators can state that there is a large variety in institutional level activities of partners, depending on the local political context and on the current capacity of the respective partner-organisation. In some countries there are no favourable conditions for private sector organisations to raise their voice, for example in Guatemala. In other cases this context is much better, for example in Mongolia, where MONEF has been active in policy influencing. VSB in Surinam is a strong actor that frequently interacts with the government and it develops activities with other actors. ATE in Tanzania is not yet that strong and not always noted in the country context as a representative of employers’ organisations: here the Confederation of Industries (CTI) and the Chambers of Commerce15 are more widely known than ATE. 15 The Chambers of Commerce in Tanzania are a private sector association.


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4. Conclusions This Mid-Term Review, only 2 and half years since the start of activities of the DEC Programme, does not yet allow a systematic analysis of the accumulated experiences in the programme, as many activities have just recently started and are currently still ongoing. This MTR, therefore, is on the one hand looking at implementation and operational aspects during the first years of the programme in order to identify relevant issues in the area of efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the DEC Programme. On the other hand this MTR also focuses on identifying trends and developments that can shed more light on the relevance, effects and impact of this programme in the future, as it is in the current situation not yet possible to give a balanced assessment of these aspects. The first section in this chapter presents the main overall conclusions of this MTR. A second section will address specific conclusions on the research questions of the ToR of this review. A final section presents conclusions on other relevant findings in this MTR that were not requested in the ToR. 4.1. Main overall conclusions The DEC Programme is a relatively small programme funded in the area of Sustainable Economic Development, but it addresses an important stakeholder group in economic development; the employers’ organisations. Strengthening of Employers’ Organisations in developing countries is beneficial for raising the voice of entrepreneurs to influence their business enabling environments. DECP has the potential to contribute to poverty reduction, through improving doing business indicators that lead to economic growth and by contributing to decent work opportunities for people. The DEC programme has a clear and focused mandate on strengthening employers’ organisations and by doing so it contributes to both World Bank’s “Doing Business” and ILO’s “Decent Work” agenda’s, although there is a logical focus on “doing business” aspects, from the perspective of employers’ organisations. This focus and clear mandate and identity of DECP are very important and cannot be diluted by forcing “Decent Work” agenda items in the programme. However, through linking the programme with other development efforts within the framework of Sustainable Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Policy of DDE, more opportunities can be found to increase the effects and impact of the programme not only on “doing business” but also on “decent work”. The best possibilities hereto lie in the area of labour productivity and conditions, where there is a clear win-win possible for employers and employees. DDE is challenged to include in the policy framework on sustainable economic development a clearer vision on how “Decent Work” and “Doing Business” can be combined. This vision can serve as the basis to identify and decide on how existing and new programmes and instruments in Sustainable Economic Development can be mutually reinforcing and thus increasing their impact on economic development and poverty reduction. The DEC Programme is most relevant and has the best potential for impact on sustainable economic development and poverty reduction in those countries with a vibrant economic development and a stable political climate that favours social dialogue. This is not necessarily the case in MoFA’s list of partner countries, particularly not in the fragile state settings. MoFA’s current attention for fragile states does not seem the most appropriate for DECP because the success of this programme depends on sufficient room for dialogue and cooperation between partners, which is usually absent in these contexts. Typical labour aspects within the employers’ organisations receive more attention when basic economic and political conditions for private sector development have been effectively addressed. A stable political climate that favours social dialogue is beneficial for employers’ organisations to raise their voice and to


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engage in dialogue with other actors and eventually to move forward to tri-partite social dialogue. In fragile states, these conditions should first be created by other interventions. DECP has rapidly developed in a broad programme spread over 28 different countries. In many countries only incidental activities are carried out and the likeliness of effects and impact in the further future is remote and it poses a risk of diverting attention from those countries and regions in which a more in-depth and programmatic approach shows better potential for sustainable impact. DECP has not yet developed a programmatic approach with most of its partners, based on a sound organisational assessment within a broader institutional environment. Most programmes and partnership agreements with partners until present have still a somewhat “ad-hoc” character, moving from one specific subject and/or project to another and not so much on longer-term, strategic and externally focused support interventions. 4.2. Specific conclusions on research questions in ToR On relevance In the framework of MoFA’s policy on sustainable economic development the DEC Programme is relevant. Support to employers’ organisations in developing countries contributes to a stronger voice of the business sector in issues related to the business enabling environment. Through capacity development support, members of employers’ organisations are supported to improve the quality of their businesses, labour conditions and social conditions such as Occupational Health & Safety and HIV/AIDS prevention. All partners confirm that the support of DECP is extremely relevant and that it fits well with their specific organisational needs. The focus of the DEC programme, during the first years, has been on strengthening the employers’ organisations in internal and operational issues of individual partners. Therefore the effects of the DECP support in the wider external environment: on policy frameworks, on changes in the external enabling environment and on improved performance of member enterprises in their own contexts are still limited. Although this organisational focus is understandable in the start-up phase of the DEC programme, an increased focus on strategic and institutional issues will increase the relevance of the programme at the level of the business enabling environment and employment conditions and thus its possible effects and impact on economic development and poverty reduction. Although DECP realises fact-finding missions before engaging in a partnership relation with its partners, a thorough context-analysis, where DECP assesses the capacity of its partners, compared to other possible partners, is not realised in a systematic way, nor is it well documented. DECP recruits its partners in the IOE membership, but this alone is not sufficient guarantee that the most relevant partners can be selected at the country level, particularly when looking at decent work and poverty reduction criteria. It may be the case that better fitting partner candidates with DECP’s mandate can be found at sector or de-central level or among organisations of women’ entrepreneurs. On results obtained (activities) The DEC Programme, after a start up phase in 2006, has gathered speed in 2007 and 2008. The activities realised in the programme are roughly as planned or exceed original planning. In very limited time, DECP now has developed incidental and more structural activities in 28 different countries. If no unexpected developments occur, DECP will be able to reach or exceed the number of 15 partnership agreements that were originally planned. Training courses conducted with the ITC-ILO have exceeded planning by far and this cooperation has proven to be very useful and well appreciated by the partners. The number of advisory missions per


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partner was not planned in original planning. It is now approximately at three to four yearly missions for those partners that have or are in a process of establishment of a PA. Financial support to partners has remained limited and only supportive to other activities, as was foreseen in DECP’s business plan. Partners’ appreciation of DECP support is invariably high for training courses and advisory and coaching missions. Partners are less satisfied with the financial support modalities of the DEC programme, but the financial support facility of DECP was meant to be modest and only supportive to other activities. Although partners are aware of this, some of them still hope for more possibilities to recruit new staff-members and to invest in hard- and software. DECP sometimes has to “compete” with other development partners that do provide such financial and material support. A context-analysis of which organisations provide which type of support is important for DECP in order to enable it to effectively position itself to partners and other stakeholders. An immaterial, but direct result of the DECP support to partners, which is highly appreciated by the partners, is the identity and political weight of the host of the DEC Programme, VNO-NCW (and through them the Dutch Employers’ Organisations in general). This international relation provides credibility to the local partner, which is of direct value in strengthening their image in external relations, particularly local governments. VNO-NCW’s active participation and inputs in the programme is well appreciated. On effectiveness (outcome) The programme is still in a too early phase to be able to come to a sound assessment of outcomes obtained in the programme. The DECP business plan stated that the support given to partners should lead to an improvement of performance of partners of 15% in five areas; representativeness, strategy, lobby & advocacy, internal revenues and organisational structure in a period of 3 year, to be measured with the Spider web diagram instrument. This objective is rather ambiguous and can be interpreted quite differently by different actors. Additionally, no systematic assessment of these five areas of organisational performance has been conducted. As a result it is impossible (and still will be at the end of 2009) to assess the effectiveness of the programme based on this objective. Although DECP looks at activities of other development partners in the Netherlands and at the local level that are directed to similar objectives and similar partners, linking up with such actions of other partners is not yet common (and also not always possible). However particularly in those contexts where more development partners develop comprehensive actions in Private Sector Development and Business Enabling Environment, more synergy can and should be strived for. DECP in this environment is a relatively small player that focuses on individual organisations in the IOE network and therefore is not always noted as a relevant partner in private sector development efforts. In some contexts, DECP and their partners operate in national and/or regional environments that can provide a good framework for a programmatic approach, where actions of DECP, local partners and other development actors can be linked in order to achieve broader and deeper impact. Such possibilities are explored by DECP in a limited way (through regional activities in East and West Africa), but are still at an initial stage. Particularly the East African Community and the Balkan region provide good opportunities for such programmatic and multi-actor approaches. On efficiency The DEC Programme is one of the smaller programmes supported by DDE. In spite of the limited resources in this programme, in a short period of time a lot of activities have been


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realised with partners in 28 countries. The choice of DECP for the first initial period clearly has been to achieve a broad coverage in stead of more in-depth and more limited scope of the programme. The support provided by DECP is provided by very senior and internationally experienced top-advisers with a long history and exposure in circles of employers’ organisations and ILO. This allows the programme to tap on extended international networks and high quality contacts. This experience enables DECP special advisers to interact at the highest level in partner organisations and external stakeholders. However, this high-level potential is sometimes used for support activities at the operational and sometimes even logistic level. As a result, the current mix of strategy advice and operational support, provided by DECP should be considered relatively expensive. The DEC Programme operates with a small pool of special advisors, directly tied to the DECP structure. Occasionally, additional expertise is hired from VNO-NCW and AWVN, but overall the programme has not yet pooled significant resources from other international programmes such as PUM and at the local level through exchange between partners, linking with regional sources of expertise. It has to be observed that some of these regional sources of expertise are not yet existing or still limited in capacity. South-South exchange at the regional level will not only decrease costs, but it can also ensure better linking with relevant local knowledge and experience. The cooperation with the International Training Centre of ILO in Turin is based on a cost-sharing agreement of 50-50%. This enables the DEC Programme to obtain high quality international training experience for its partners for a better price. However, the cost of training-courses provided by ITC-ILO is relatively expensive, compared to other training providers. The reporting provided by the DEC Programme both at the level of specific activities and in the yearly reports, although generally clear, is quite limited and basic. On all missions and activities short specific reports are provided. Summaries are made available on DECP’s website and all reports are compiled in a yearly report. This reporting contains all necessary information at output level, but at outcome level, no information is provided. The most important instrument for measuring outcome of the programme has not yet been applied in reporting and no analytical information on the progress of the programme has been generated by DECP thus far. On specific issues Gender-issues are not a priority in DECP activities. In practice many women participate in activities, but no specific attention to gender-aspects is mainstreamed in activities. There have been a few activities targeting female employers. Although the limited attention for gender-issues has been noted by partners and DECP staff, it has not been considered a weakness in the programme. HIV/AIDS has proven to be a more relevant issue in practice for employers as it directly affects labour productivity and conditions on the work-floor. For employers’ organisations this is an obvious concern. Therefore it is easier to include issues of HIV/AIDS in the programme. A related area is OSH that for labour productivity reasons is an important area of intervention for employers and DECP has provided many support activities in this area. Finally, no specific attention for environmental sustainability, has been observed yet in the programme, but considering the inter(national) pressure on companies, this area seems an opportunity for the DEC programme to include in support actions. Cooperation with other relevant Netherlands actors, particularly PUM, FNV and CNV, exists, but thus far has remained mainly at the level of exchange of information, coordination and operational cooperation with PUM. DECP has clearly made an effort to invest in these


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relationships, but more time is needed before real cooperation can take place and in some cases only exchange of information and coordination is desirable. Coordination and cooperation can be further enabled and promoted by MoFA, who provides support to these different programmes. The social dialogue working group established by DDE is a positive step, but more effort needs to be invested in improving coordination between different actors, and where possible and relevant, bringing about real cooperation between these actors. DECP has built and is still expanding its network with other relevant development actors. With ILO (ACT-EMP) and IOE in Geneva and with ITC-ILO in Turin good working relations have been established. DECP is currently setting up a dialogue with Nordic partners that are also active in support to Employers Organisations to ensure better coordination and cooperation towards the future. At the country level, DECP is primarily focussing on specific partners, and no active coordination or cooperation is sought with other development actors that are active in the field of Private Sector Development and Business Environment, unless such support is coming in the same partner-organisations (e.g. DANIDA’s support to ATE in Tanzania). DECP invests in informing the Netherlands Embassies, but sometimes receives no active response nor is it actively approached by embassies. In other cases, such as in Suriname, VSB cooperates with the Embassy in a certification project and in the organisation of an investment seminar. Initiatives in the DEC Programme to promote international cooperation and exchange between partners thus far have been limited. A promising recent initiative in the first trimester of 2009 is the organisation of a regional meeting of employers’ organisations in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi by ILO/DECP to discuss the development of the East African Community. Some of the training programmes organised with ITC-ILO also brought together different EO’s in East and West Africa and VSB in Suriname was enabled to participate in a regional ILO training in the Caribbean. However, these training activities usually have no local or regional follow-up. 4.3. Other conclusions The Spider web diagram for organisational assessment seems quite useful, but there are still some flaws in its design and in its application. Dimensions and questions under specific dimensions are not weighted according to their importance. The tool favours yes/no responses, while a gliding scale in many situations seems more appropriate. In its application, the tool has been used differently, by special advisers and partners. We have not seen examples of where it has been used as a self-assessment tool or a participatory instrument in which management, staff and even members participate. DECP gathers and stores limited comparative information on its partner-community as a whole and therefore it is not easy to monitor developments and changes among the whole group of partners, in terms of number and kind of members of EO’s, sectors of members of EO’s, revenue generation, lobby and advocacy initiatives etc. A database with such basic characteristics would enable a quick overview on how and where DECP is obtaining results. It would also enable monitoring of aspects that are considered important by DECP’s donor, such as gender, representation of smaller enterprises etc. DDE’s support to DECP is provided in the framework of the DDE policy framework and instruments for private sector development. An important counterpart for DECP and its partners in developing countries are the trade unions and the trade union co-financing programme (VMF). The VMF, however, is managed by DSI and it follows a different agenda. Although exchange of information occurs in de the social dialogue working group established by DDE, the different “homes” of both programmes within MoFA does not seem beneficial for creating more synergy between them.


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5. Recommendations and Lessons Learned The recommendations are based on the conclusions in the previous chapter. Some of the recommendations address several different conclusions in combination. The evaluators have attempted to keep the number of recommendations to manageable proportions so they can be properly followed up by DECP and DDE. The recommendations are divided between main recommendations at the strategy level and specific recommendations at the operational level. A third and final section of this chapter will introduce some general lessons learned in the evaluation of this programme that are more widely relevant to similar programmes in the areas of private sector development, economic development and poverty reduction. 5.1. Main Recommendations DDE and DECP are recommended to explore the continuation of the DEC Programme after 2009, based on the experience and results obtained thus far. For the continuation of the DEC Programme the following aspects need to be included in agenda between DDE and DECP: - Work on a proper policy framework for DDE support to the DEC programme to ensure that

the DECP is well aligned with other programmes and instruments in the area of sustainable economic development and poverty reduction. This framework should include the Trade Unions co-financing programme managed by DSI and the partnership with ILO, managed by DVF. Within this framework concrete synergies and opportunities for more coherence and an increased programmatic approach could be found in areas such as: - Those employers’ organisations that have close ties or are active in the export sector

(such as VSB) and with links to the European Union, could benefit from coordinated efforts from DECP and CBI in certification of their businesses and products (ISO, HACP, GlobalGap) and possibly social and/or fair trade labelling;

- DECP and the Netherlands trade unions could explore possibilities for support around the recently installed SER in Surinam and Labour Councils in other countries;

- DECP and the Netherlands Trade Unions could explore coordination and information exchange around processes of regional integration in East Africa and South East Asia as well as Pre-accession in the European Union in the Balkan;

- DECP and Trade Unions could explore synergies and cascading training and awareness raising activities in OSH and HIV/AIDS, where joint efforts of employers and employees could increase impact of such measures.

- Enable and prioritise those interventions of the DEC Programme, so that it can work in those countries with positive economic development indicators, a vibrant private sector and an enabling political climate for social dialogue. It is in these countries were most impact can be reached in economic growth, equity and poverty reduction, through a stronger voice of employers’ organisations towards their governments and a more active dialogue with other actors in private sector development.

DECP is recommended to apply a stronger focus and a programmatic approach on a limited number of countries and partners in order to achieve more sustainable effects and impact of its interventions. The most promising countries and regions identified during this MTR are: - East African Community: This region has a vibrant economic development and there is an

ongoing process of economic and political regional integration. In this context DECP can work with several partners in five different countries around common issues in the region. Parallel it could link up with other initiatives to influence the economic integration process in favour of further private sector development. Trade Unions in the region are active in this area and for example CBI is supporting associations of exporters in this region, also facilitating exchange at the regional level. Additionally, the geography of the region permits advantages of scale for the organisation of joint and regional events;


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- Balkan: (Pre) Accession to the European Community is a mayor point on the agenda in the Balkan and is of enormous importance for private sector development in this region. More exchange and cooperation between employer’s organisations in this region could benefit joint strategies and lobby and advocacy at the national and regional level as well as towards the European Union. Additionally, the geography of the region permits advantages of scale for the organisation of joint and regional events;

- South East Asia (Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam): linking up with Thailand and Malaysia (this would establish a new region for DECP). This region is in a process of increased regional and international integration and development of the private sector is moving with a great speed. This produces challenges and opportunities for employers’ organisations that could be addressed at the regional level. Additionally, the geography of the region permits advantages of scale for the organisation of joint and regional events ;

- Indonesia and Surinam: These countries present good potential for impact of DECP’s support, because of the special relationship between these countries and the Netherlands and the common characteristics of organisations on both sides of the ocean. Additionally, the longer-term experience of DECP in these countries is a good basis for further development and growth;

- Ghana: This country provides as specific opportunity to DECP because of its political guidance function in PSD in the rest of the African continent. Depending on contacts with other organisations in West African countries, DECP could also consider a regional programme for this region. Advantages of scale have already been explored in DECP/ITC-ILO regional training activities in this region (but only focusing on French speaking countries).

Apart from a number core-countries and/or regions, a limited amount of other countries with more occasional contacts could be considered, particularly if the scope of the DEC programme were to be expanded. DECP is recommended to review its identification and assessment process of possible and existing partners to ensure that they are most relevant for its direct mandate of strengthening employers’ organisations to influence their business enabling environment and private sector development and doing so to maximise their contribution to sustainable economic development and poverty reduction. This should include a broader recruitment pool than only IOE members. DECP is recommended to improve its tool for organisational assessment and to increase its effective use in the translation of needs into a comprehensive and longer-term programmatic planning of activities in stead of specific and incidental projects with its partners. This programmatic planning, in the next phase, should include a strong focus on influencing external institutional arrangements in Private Sector Development. MoFA (DDE and DSI) is recommended to review how the synergy between different MoFA funded programmes can be promoted and strengthened and how embassies can be involved in this process in order to raise the level of cooperation, from exchange of information to joint activities, where possible and relevant. The place of the Trade Union co-financing programme might be more relevant in the policy framework of DDE than under DSI and this would contribute to more possibilities for synergy between the DECP and VMF programmes. 5.2. Specific recommendations DECP is recommended to shift the balance of its current advisory services more towards strategic support, lobby & advocacy and networking with external stakeholders. Its current special advisers should focus on these aspects, while for more operational and specific support to partners, other forms of more cost-effective technical assistance need to be developed; e.g. through expanding the pool of advisers with more operational advisors, linking-up with regionally and locally based service-providers (and where possible with regional ILO offices)


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and looking for possibilities for exchange and mentoring relations between more experienced and weaker partners. DECP and ITC-ILO are recommended to continue their cooperation in the provision of training courses for DECP partners, exploring how local follow-up support, through local training, replication and train-the-trainers activities and through advisory services and coaching can be strengthened. This is needed to ensure that training activities with ITC-ILO are not stand-alone activities, but that they are well integrated in a programmatic approach. DECP is recommended to reflect upon the political value of the support of the Dutch Employers Organisations to local partners in developing countries. This could be done by mobilising support from the Dutch Employers on a more regular basis. Although the own contribution of the Dutch Employers has been considerable thus far, DECP is recommended to look for opportunities to increase this support, particularly in kind, through the provision of technical expertise from Dutch Employers. The original objective of 15% increase in performance of partner organisations needs to be reviewed by DECP and it will need to negotiate with DDE other relevant and less ambiguous indicators to measure the progress of the programme. DECP is recommended to use the final year of the current programme to revise and further develop the spider web diagram and produce instructions for its proper and uniform application, in order to ensure that it can be applied during the whole following programme period. The following concrete suggestions are made: - come to a weighting of the different dimensions: the strategy dimension of the tool is more

encompassing than the other four dimensions; - weight different questions under dimensions in order to reflect better their importance; - consider introduction of a gliding scale (e.g. from 1-5) to enable partners to provide answers

that better reflect their situation; - Consider introducing an additional dimension on quality of service delivery, which is now

hidden under other dimensions - Consider adding a dimension in the spider web: commitment to CSR and Decent Work

aspects (not as a criterion for DECP selection, but to monitor how strengthening employers’ organisations is linked to these aspects and to identify possibilities for linking up with other organisations and/or initiatives related with CSR and Decent Work).

In the guidelines for application of the instrument it is recommended to apply the spider web in a participatory way, involving management, staff, members and maybe even external stakeholders in the organisational assessment. In order to facilitate a better understanding of developments in the programme, DECP needs to increase its efforts in reporting, particularly in analysing processes and effects and impact of its work and that of its partners. It also needs to relate these developments to broader Private Sector Development issues and economic growth and equity in the countries where it works. More attention to gender issues in the programme can be given by DECP through adding a female special adviser to the pool of advisors. This will bring a different dynamics in partner-relations. Additionally some specific partners that represent the interests of women entrepreneurs could enrich the gender experience and exchange in the programme. DECP is recommended to strengthen and explain the links between specific decent work related issues that it addresses in its training and advisory services, such as OSH and HIV/AIDS with an overall vision and framework on Corporate Social Responsibility and Decent Work.


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DECP is recommended to develop and maintain a database with basic data on its partners in order to be able to rapidly generate overviews on the programme development and to compare developments between partners. DECP needs to review its project administration and reporting system in order to accommodate possible future growth and longer-term developments in the programme. This will require appropriate numbering and name giving to specific documents and a proper and logical filing system. Social tri-partite dialogue is still far from common in developing countries. DECP and DDE could consider, in specific countries and/or contexts, where different partners and development actors are involved in a social tri-partite dialogue, to set up pilot-projects with joint interventions involving multiple partners and stakeholders. These pilot projects could be used to generate more understanding, critical success factors and bottlenecks in social tri-partite dialogue to feed into policy development at DDE, ILO and other interested development partners. 5.3. Lessons Learned Some of the insights, conclusions and recommendations developed in the framework of this evaluation bear relevance to the broader field of sustainable economic development and poverty reduction: Private sector development in general and social and tri-partite dialogue more specifically have more chances of sustainable results and impact on poverty reduction, when they take place in contexts with a vibrant private sector, positive economic perspectives and favourable political environment. For specific instruments and interventions of DDE and the trade union co-financing programme under DSI, the current partner-country list and particularly the focus on fragile states might be too limited. Doing Business and Decent Work are two related but separate agenda’s. The current policy framework of DDE embraces both agenda’s, but it has not yet come to an integration of these agenda’s. Such integration might benefit more synergy between different programmes (such as DECP and VMF) and instruments. Moving from exchange of information to more concrete cooperation on the ground is not automatic and it needs to promoted, enabled and awarded. This calls for an active role of DDE and of embassies at the country level to broker in contacts between different organisations and to play an active role in coordination in those cases where the embassies themselves are actively involved in private sector development support.


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ANNEX 1: Mission Programme and List of people interviewed

Stakeholders in the Netherlands, Dec 2008 – March 2009 Name Function Organisation Date In DECP/VNO-NCW Management DECP (briefing meeting with whole

management DECP) DECP 22 Dec 2008

Mr Bernard Wientjes Chairperson Board DECP/Chairperson VNO-NCW

VNO-NCW 15 Jan 2009

Mr Jan Karel Bout Director (until 1-1-2009)/Special Adviser (from 1-1-2009)

DECP 15 Jan

Mr Bram van Overbeeke

Special Advisor DECP 15 Jan

Mr Thieu Korten Deputy Director DECP 15 Jan Ms Christine Rehbock

Office Manager DECP 15 Jan

Mr Jeroen Schellekens

Financial Officer VNO-NCW 15 Jan

Mr Andrew Moore Special Advisor DECP 18 March Mr Jan-Marie Standeart

Special Advisor DECP 19 March

Mr Ronald de Leij Director (from 1-1-2009) DECP 17 March External stakeholders

Ms Sabine J. Blokhuis

Head Business Environment (DDE/NB) MoFA/DDE 18 Feb

Ms Esther Tessemaker

Policy Officer MoFA/DDE 18 Feb

Mr Thijs van Praag Chief Executive Officer, Netherlands Senior Experts (PUM)

PUM 16 March

Mr Jan Gerrit van Norel

Programme Leader CNV Internationaal CNV 17 March

Ms Dian van Unen Head of Department FNV Mondiaal FNV 20 March Ms Ruth Vermeulen Policy Adviser FNV Mondiaal FNV 20 March ILO International Training Centre, Turin, 28 January, 2009 Name Function Organisation Date Mr Arnout de Koster Manager Employers Activities

International Training Centre ICT-ILO 28 Jan

Ms Jeanne Schmidt Officer Employers’ Activities ITC-ILO 28 Jan Mr Peter Rademaker Chief Programme Development and

Regional Cooperation Service ITC-ILO 28 Jan

MS Stefania Turco Secretary Employers Activities ITC-ILO 28 Jan ?? M&E VSB, Surinam, February 7-13, 2009 Name Function Organisation Date Mr René van Essen Director VSB/Senior Policy Adviser

Minister of Planning and Development Cooperation

Vereniging Surinaams Bedrijfsleven/PLOS

8,9,10,11,12 Feb

Mr Marcel A. Meijer Chairman/President Vereniging Surinaams

9 & 12 Feb


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Bedrijfsleven/Carribean Em’loyers' Confederation

Mr Tim van Ommeren

Local Entrepreneur and Representative PUM

PUM 9 Feb

Ms J. Amarello Minister Ministry of Labour, Technology and Environment

9 Feb

Mr Peter-Derrek Hof Head of Development Cooperation Netherlands Embassy

9 Feb

Ms Lydia Breewster Policy Officer Cabinet Minister of Planning & Development Cooperation

Ministry of Planning & Development Cooperation

10 Feb

Ms Iris Sandel Vice Director of Ministry of Planning & Development Cooperation

Ministry of Planning & Development Cooperation

10 Feb

Mr Robby Berenstein

General Secretary RAVAKSUR 10 Feb

Mr Martin P. Loor Chief Financial Officer De Surinaamse Bank

10 Feb

Mr Michel J.A. Brahim

Chairman board of Directors Fernandes Group 10 Feb

Several people Meeting and celebration ISO certificates for Surinam Enterpreneurs

Hotel Torarica 10 Feb

Mr Rabin Soechit Assistant Manager/Onderdirecteur Rijstpak N.V. 10 Feb Mr Ernie Isselt General Manager/National Programme

Manager Surinam Business Council

11 Feb

Mr Ernesto Ugarte Long Term Advisor Surinam Business Council

11 Feb

Ms Sylvia S.H. Ang Managing Director ASFA 11 Feb Mr Waddy Sowma Chairperson/Managing Director IFONS/SENSO 11 feb Several people Meeting of Rotary Club, Paramaribo Hotel Torarica 11 Feb VSB staff, management and board

Debriefing meeting on results Field Visit Vereniging Surinaams Bedrijfsleven

12 Feb

FKE, Kenya, 9-12 February 2009 Name Function Organisation Mrs Jacqueline Mugo,

Executive Director FKE

Mr Jacob Onkunya, Principal Management Consultant

FKE, Head department of Training & consulting

Mrs Awuor Ochieng Executive assistant FKE, department of Training Mr Linus Kariuku Principal Executive Officer FKE, Head of Legal and Industrial relations

Department Mr Titus M. Waithaka

Senior research and policy consultant

FKE

Mr. Mugo Kibati Deputy National Chairman

FKE, board member of FKE ( KAM and KePSA)

Mr Martin Mati Research executive FKE Members of FKE Mr. Ben Chumo Chief manager, HRM Corporate member, Kenya Power & L.C.

Mr. John Maina Assistant HRM Corporate member, Ken Gen, Kenya


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Electricity

Mrs. Millicent Mwangi

GM HRM Corporate member, NHIF ( National Hospital and Insurance Fund)

External Stakeholders

Mrs Corinne Abbas, 2nd Secretary in charge of Private Sector Development initiatives

Dutch Embassy;

Mr Bernard Martens

shell PUM coordinator and Dutch Business Group coordinator,

Mr Fred Mwango

Senior Deputy Secretary Ministry of Labour and Human Development

Mr George Ondiko Assistant Secretary general Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) Mrs Carole Kariuki, Programme Manager Kenyan Private Sector Alliance, ATE, Tanzania, 6-13 March 2009 Name Function Organisation Aggrey K Mlimuka Executive Director Association of Tanzanian Employers ATE Ms Justina Lyela Board Member – HRM

Consultant ATE

Ms Joyce Nangai Communication officer ATE External stakeholders

Mrs Mirjam Tjassing 2nd secretary DA, private sector development

Dutch Embassy

Margreet Goedhard PUM coordinator Tanzania PUM Ben Christiaanse Chief Executive Officer/

Chairman Association of Bankers/Member TPSF

NMB

Nicholas Mgaya Deputy Secretary General TUCTA Trade Union Congres of Tanzania

Benni Bundsgaard COWI consultant Labour Market Advisor

DANIDA project

Upendo E. Mwakisisile

Memberschip Service Manager

Tanzania Private Sector Foundation

Tumaini N. Bakobi Chamber Development Officer Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and agriculture (TCCIA)

Mr Matchemba Director of Planning TCCIA Mr Alexio Musindo Director ILO Mrs Annamarie Kashaija Kiaga

National Programme Coordinator

ILO


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ANNEX 2: List of references - Advisory Council on International Affairs, Private Sector Development and Poverty

Reduction, AIV, No 50, October 2006, - de Bruijne G.A., Suriname: neem toekomst binnen de smalle marges. De uitdagingen van

Caricom en FTAA, VSB, June 2004 - Bureau for Employers’ Activities, Brochure, ACT-EMP/ILO, not dated - DECP, Bedrijfsplan DECP 2007-2009, DECP, November, 2006 - DECP, Programming, monitoring and evaluation of DECP-projects, 2006 - DECP, Activiteitenplan 2006, DECP, 2006 - DECP, Activiteitenplan 2008 DECP, DECP, 2007 - DECP, annual report 2007, DECP, 2008 - DECP, Minutes board meetings, 2006-2008 - DECP, Partnership Agreements, 2006-2008 - DECP, Synergy Reports, 2008 - DECP, Country and partner files on Kenya, Surinam and Tanzania, 2006-2008 - ECLAC, Subregional HQ for the Caribbean, Caribbean economies 2006: a preliminary

overview, studies and perspectives 1, Economic Development Unit, ECLAC, March 2007 - ITC-ILO, reports on Training Courses, 2006-2008 for DECP, ITC-ILO - ITC-ILO, Training Package Effective Employers’ Organisations: Guides 1-4, ITC-ILO, 2005 - Knorringa P, & Helmsing B., Beyond an Enemy Perception: Unpacking and Engaging the

Private Sector, (paper), ISS, 2008 - Koenders B., Inclusive growth in times of crisis, Speech by Koenders at World Development

Report 2009, Universiteit Maastricht, 26-Jan-2009de Koster a., The important contribution of business- and employers associations to development strategies, ACT-EMP/ILO, September 2007

- Meyer M., The Role of “Netherlands Senior Experts in the Development of the Domestic Private Sector of Suriname”, Speech June 2005, Torarica Hotel, VSB, 2005

- MoFA, Our common concern. Investing in development in a changing world, Policy note Dutch Development Cooperation 2007-2011, MoFA, October 2007

- MoFA, Beschikking MoFA, subsidy to DECP 2007-2009, MoFA, 25 January 2007 - MoFA/DDE, Memorandum on Dutch Employers’ Cooperation Programme (DECP),

MoFA/DDE, 7 December 2006 - MoFA/DDE, Private Sector Development: the key to economic growth, DDE working paper,

MoFA/DDE, May 2007 - MoFA/DDE, Terms of Reference voor de tussentijdse evaluatie van het Dutch Employers

Cooperation Programme (DECP), MoFA/DDE, October 2008 - Radjie R., Inleiding Corporate Social Responsibility at PolyTechnic College (PTC), VSB,

October 2006 - Refos E., CARICOM, Single Market & Economy ( CSME), VSB, 2005 - Smit R., Communicatieadvies aan de VSB, DECP, August, 2008 - Suriname Business Development Centre: Basic Information, SBF, February 2009-03-24 - Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal, Vaststelling van de begrotingsstaten van het Ministerie

van Buitenlandse Zaken (V) voor het jaar 2008, Nr. 1 Voorstel van Wet, Tweede Kamer, Vergaderjaar 2007–2008

- Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal, Vaststelling van de begrotingsstaten van het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken (V) voor het jaar 2009, Nr. 2 Memorie van toelichting, 31 700 hoofdstuk V, nr. 2Tweede Kamer, vergaderjaar 2008–2009,

- VSB, The impact of Minimum Wages on the Business Community, VSB, 2005 - VSB, Rol en positie van de domestic private sector in Suriname, VSB, January, 2007 - VSB, Country report Surinam to Caribbean Employers’ Confederation, June 2007 at the 47th

Annual General Meeting of the CEC, VSB, June 2007 - VSB, Beleidsvoornemens voor het jaar 2008, VSB, March 2008 - VSB, Annual Report 2007, VSB, 2008 - VSB, Beleidsvoornemens voor het jaar 2009 (draft), VSB, January 2009


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ANNEX 3: Terms of Reference Mid-Term Review DECP (in Dutch) and Profile of MDF consultants

1. Aanleiding tot en doelstelling van de evaluatie

De Stichting Dutch Employers Cooperation Programma (DECP) is in 2005 opgericht op initiatief van de Nederlandse werkgeversorganisaties en het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken (BZ), met als doel de positie van werkgeversorganisaties in ontwikkelingslanden te versterken. Voor de periode 2006 – 2009 ontvangt Stichting DECP van BZ een subsidie van in totaal € 4.925.654,-. In de subsidiebeschikking over de periode 2007 – 2009 is opgenomen dat in 2008 een onafhankelijke evaluatie van het programma zal plaatsvinden. De doelstelling van de evaluatie is het verkrijgen van inzicht in (i) de tussentijdse resultaten van het programma vanaf de start tot op heden (ii) mogelijke verbeteringen wat betreft de beleidsrelevantie, doelmatigheid, doeltreffendheid en impact van het programma voor de toekomst. Gezien het nieuwe karakter van het programma, zal het ministerie de uitkomsten van de evaluatie gebruiken voor besluitvorming over de toekomst van het programma en vervolgfinanciering. De onafhankelijke evaluator is eindverantwoordelijk voor de inhoud van het evaluatierapport Het conceptrapport zal aan DECP en BZ worden voorgelegd voor commentaar.

2. Beschrijving en afbakening van het onderwerp van evaluatie Beleidskader DECP past binnen het Nederlandse beleid voor ontwikkelingssamenwerking. Het versterken van de private sector in ontwikkelingslanden is een belangrijk onderdeel van dit beleid. De private sector in ontwikkelingslanden zorgt voor werkgelegenheid en investeringen, en draagt op deze manier bij aan armoedebestrijding. Een gunstig ondernemings- en investeringsklimaat is hiervoor een belangrijke voorwaarde. Sterke werkgeversorganisaties die hun achterban goed kunnen bedienen en invloed kunnen uitoefenen op het economische beleid van de overheid kunnen hierbij een belangrijke rol spelen. Doelstelling DECP DECP wil de capaciteit van nationale en sectorale ondernemingsorganisaties in ontwikkelingslanden versterken door de overdracht van kennis en vaardigheden. De structurele vermindering van armoede is een daarvan afgeleide doelstelling. Het is van belang dat de partnerorganisaties als doel hebben het ondernemersklimaat te verbeteren en zich daarbij onafhankelijk opstellen ten opzichte van de overheid. DECP streeft ernaar dat de partnerorganisaties waarmee DECP een Partnership Agreement heeft gesloten zich gemiddeld met 15% verbeteren op de terreinen strategie, representativiteit, lobby, inkomsten en organisatiestructuur over een totale periode van 3 jaar. Activiteiten Voor de periode 2007 – 2009 heeft DECP de volgende specifieke activiteiten geformuleerd (bron: bedrijfsplan DECP 2007 – 2009): • Het opzetten en onderhouden van een actief nationaal en internationaal netwerk voor het

ondersteunen van nationale en sectorale ondernemersorganisaties in de OS-partnerlanden. • Het afsluiten van Partnership Agreements (PA’s) met partnerorganisaties. Een PA is het

kader voor meerdere projecten met de partnerorganisatie die in 3 à 4 jaar kunnen / moeten worden uitgevoerd. DECP streeft ernaar in de periode 2007 – 2009 15 PA’s af te sluiten. Per PA worden met de partnerorganisatie verbeteringen afgesproken aan de hand van een zogeheten “spinnenwebanalyse”. Aspecten waarop wordt getoetst zijn: strategie, representativiteit, lobby, strategie, inkomsten en structuur.


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• Incidentele projecten in de vorm van advies of een workshop. Regelmatig worden ook projecten uitgevoerd bij partnerorganisaties waarmee geen PA is afgesloten, bijv. een adviesmissie of het uitvoeren van workshop of seminar. DECP verwacht in de periode 2007 – 2009 20 van dergelijke projecten uit te voeren.

• Financiële bijdragen. Voor kleine projecten kan DECP financiële bijdragen verstrekken die gericht zijn op kwaliteitsversterking en het zichtbaar maken voor de leden van de toegevoegde waarde van een werkgeversorganisatie.

• Trainingsprogramma’s. Met medewerking van ILO Turijn, De Baak en de International Employers Organisation wordt een trainingsprogramma ontwikkeld over het management en functioneren van een werkgeversorganisatie. DECP verwacht in de periode 2007 – 2009 10 trainingsprogramma’s uit te voeren.

Doelgroep De doelgroep van DECP wordt gevormd door ondernemersorganisaties in de OS-partnerlanden (36 landen bij aanvang van het programma). Uit deze landen is een selectie gemaakt op basis van drie hoofdcriteria: • De overheid moet bereid zijn het ondernemingsklimaat te stimuleren. • De partner moet bereid zijn met DECP samen te werken. • De ondersteuning van DECP moet effect kunnen ressorteren. DECP heeft op dit moment een structurele relatie met partnerorganisaties in 16 landen16, en een ad hoc aanwezigheid in 6 landen17. Mogelijk zullen nog contacten worden gelegd met 10 andere landen. Middelen Voor de periode 2006 – 2009 ontvangt Stichting DECP van BZ een subsidie van in totaal € 4.925.65418,-. Het bureau van DECP wordt gevormd door zes stafleden: de directeur, plaatsvervangend directeur, drie speciale adviseurs en een office-manager. Het bestuur van de Stichting bestaat uit de bestuurders van de belangrijkste Nederlandse werkgeversorganisaties. Evaluatieperiode De evaluatie beslaat de periode van 2006 tot heden. De actualiteit van de evaluatie zal zo optimaal mogelijk zijn.

3. Evaluatievragen De evaluatie beoogt de onderstaande onderzoeksvragen te beantwoorden. Hierbij wordt aangetekend dat het DECP programma pas twee jaar operationeel is. Het is in dit stadium dus nog moeilijk om de effecten en mogelijke impact van het programma te meten. Beleidsrelevantie en ontwikkelingsrelevantie 1. In welke mate sluiten de activiteiten aan bij de OS-doelstelling om de private sector in

ontwikkelingslanden te versterken in het kader van armoedebestrijding? 2. In welke mate hebben de gerealiseerde activiteiten en tussentijdse resultaten beantwoord

aan de behoeften en prioriteiten van de doelgroep? 3. Richt DECP zich op de relevante organisaties in het kader van armoedebestrijding? Activiteiten (output) 4. Welke en hoeveel activiteiten heeft DECP in de evaluatieperiode uitgevoerd? 16 Albanië, Armenië, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgië, Ghana, Indonesië, Kenia, Kosovo, Macedonië, Moldavië, Mongolië, Rwanda, Suriname, Tanzania, Uganda en Zambia. 17 Benin, Bolivia, DRC, Ethiopië, Mali en Vietnam. 18 Het gaat om twee subsidieperioden: € 591.879,- in 2006, en € 4.333.775,- in de periode 2007 – 2009.


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5. Wat is de kwaliteit van de projecten, adviezen en trainingen die via het DECP worden gegeven?

6. Op welke wijze heeft DECP invulling gegeven aan de selectie en begeleiding van partnerorganisaties?

7. Is de organisatie van DECP in kwalitatief en kwantitatief opzicht voldoende toegesneden op het werk (inclusief werkverdeling)?

Doeltreffendheid (outcome)19 8. Wat zijn de tussentijdse resultaten van het programma? In hoeverre kan worden verwacht

dat de partnerorganisaties in de praktijk beter (zullen) functioneren dankzij de assistentie van DECP?

9. Wat is de bijdrage van het gezamenlijke trainingsprogramma van ILO Turijn en DECP aan capaciteitsversterking van partnerorganisaties (i.e. de specifieke modules voor werkgeversorganisaties)?

Doelmatigheid20 10. In welke mate zijn de beoogde outputs (advies, trainingen, projecten) optimaal geleverd met

de daarvoor beschikbaar gestelde inputs (financiën, personeel, deskundigheid)? 11. Op welke wijze is invulling gegeven aan de monitoring van het programma en in hoeverre is

dit systeem goed ingericht? Specifiek: 12. Op welke manier besteedt DECP in haar activiteiten aandacht aan capaciteitsversterking

van vrouwelijke werkgevers en hoe vindt monitoring hiervan plaats? Waar liggen mogelijk kansen voor opschaling?

13. Op welke wijze werkt DECP samen met andere organisaties in binnen- of buitenland? Op welke terreinen en met welke actoren zou deze samenwerking kunnen worden versterkt?

14. Op welke wijze werken partnerorganisaties van DECP samen met overheidsinstellingen en werknemersorganisaties in hun streven het economische beleid in hun land te beïnvloeden? Waar liggen mogelijk kansen voor verbreding en/of opschaling?

15. Hoe is de werkrelatie van DECP met BZ, zowel met DDE als met de ambassades?

4. Methodologie Voor de evaluatie zal de volgende methodologie worden gebruikt: • Voorgesprekken met BZ en DECP. • Deskstudie van projectdocumentatie. Deze omvat in ieder geval het projectvoorstel,

projectrapportages, jaarplannen, evaluatieverslagen van specifieke activiteiten, en relevante correspondentie tussen DECP en BZ.

• Interviews (telefonisch / email) met de werkgeversorganisaties waarmee DECP op dit moment een relatie onderhoudt (structurele en ‘ad hoc’ partners).

• Interviews (telefonisch / email) met andere relevante partners van DECP in binnen- en buitenland.

• Veldbezoeken aan twee werkgeversorganisaties waarmee DECP een structurele samenwerkingsrelatie heeft opgebouwd, waarvan in ieder geval éen organisatie in Afrika. De keuze van de twee landen wordt vooraf ter goedkeuring voorgelegd aan BZ. De veldbezoeken behelzen eveneens een interview met de Nederlandse Ambassade in het betreffende land, en interviews met relevante partners van de lokale werkgeversorganisatie, zoals de overheid, vakbonden, Kamer van Koophandel etc. (nader te bepalen).

19 De mate waarin de activiteiten van DECP (output) hebben bijgedragen aan capaciteitsversterking van partnerorganisaties (outcome). 20 Doelmatigheid heeft betrekking op de verhouding tussen de kosten en kwaliteit van de ingezette middelen enerzijds en de gerealiseerde outputs anderzijds.


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• Bezoek aan het trainingscentrum van de ILO Turijn, dat cursussen aanbiedt voor werkgeversorganisaties uit ontwikkelingslanden.

• Opstellen draft- en eindrapportage.

5. Rapportage De evaluator levert een evaluatierapport van maximaal 30 pagina’s (bijlagen niet meegerekend). Het rapport is geschreven in het Engels, volgens het stramien zoals gepresenteerd in bijlage 1 van deze ToR. Een conceptrapport zal voor 15 februari 2009 aan DECP en BZ worden voorgelegd voor commentaar. De evaluator zal dit conceptrapport tijdens een debriefingsbijeenkomst mondeling presenteren. Het eindrapport dient voor 1 maart 2009 te worden opgeleverd.

6. Planning en organisatie De Directie Duurzame Economische Ontwikkeling (DDE) van het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken is, in de persoon van mevr. S.J. Blokhuis, hoofd van de afdeling Nationale Beleidsomgeving, opdrachtgever van de evaluatie. Gedurende de evaluatie zal voortgangsoverleg plaatsvinden met de opdrachtgever. De evaluatie vindt plaats in de maanden december 2008 en januari 2009. Het eindrapport van de evaluatie dient voor 1 maart 2009 te worden opgeleverd. De evaluatie duurt 30 à 40 dagen.

7. Selectieproces Uw voorstel, inclusief offerte, dient vóór 15 november 2008 in het bezit te zijn van BZ en dient te bestaan uit de volgende componenten: • Begeleidende brief, met hierin aangetoond op welke manier de teamleider en het teamlid

voldoen aan het profiel geschetst onder punt 5. • Presentatie van evaluatieaanpak en mogelijk commentaar op de ToR. • Gedetailleerde offerte en planning (aantal dagen en tarieven). • C.V.’s van teamleider en teamlid. • Outputs van tenminste twee vergelijkbare evaluaties die de teamleider en het teamlid

eerder hebben uitgevoerd. Voor de opdracht is een budget beschikbaar van maximaal € 49.000,-, inclusief BTW en reis- en verblijfskosten. Uw complete voorstel dient voor 15 november as. te worden gestuurd aan Mevr. E. Tessemaker van het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, bij voorkeur per email, via [email protected]. Insturen per post is mogelijk via het volgende adres: Mevr. E. Tessemaker Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken Directie Duurzame Economische Ontwikkeling Postbus 20061 2500 EB Den Haag


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Profile of MDF consultants: Frans van Gerwen (Lead Consultant): Current position: Senior trainer/consultant Institutional Development and Organisational Strengthening and Institutional Sector and Organisation Analysis. Professional experience in Development Cooperation: since 1988 Geographic experience: Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Chile, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Macedonia, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, The Netherlands, Nicaragua, Peru, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Surinam, United Republic of Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, United States of America, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe Key Qualifications: - Strong skills in leading complex evaluation and review processes in international and multi-

disciplinary teams. Thorough knowledge of recent developments in Monitoring & Evaluation approaches and instruments;

- Thorough but at the same time quick and efficient in organisational and institutional mapping and analyses. Ability to conduct complex analytical researches in sector-wide and multi-sector settings;

- Strong process approach and skilful in facilitating multi-stakeholder processes and developing public, private and civil dialogue and partnership processes;

- Competent and experienced in providing advisory and facilitation services to clients in strategic planning, scenario planning and organisational change processes;

- Able to apply knowledge of trends in competency-based HR management, knowledge management and capacity building approaches;

- Experience as project manager and coordinator in the management of medium and longer-term advisory processes in multi-disciplinary teams;

- Extensive training experience in the above areas for international audiences. Frans van Gerwen has a strong track record showing a wide range of clients in many different countries in all continents. Jolanda Buter (Consultant for Kenya and Tanzania country studies) Current position: Senior trainer/consultant Project and Programme Management Professional experience in Development Cooperation: since 1992 Geographic experience: Holland, Niger, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Afghanistan, Great Britain, East Timor, Pakistan, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Portugal Key Qualifications: - Able to apply knowledge of trends in competency-based HR management, knowledge

management and capacity building approaches; - Competent and experienced in providing advisory and facilitation services to clients in

organisational change processes; - Extensive training experience in the above areas for international audiences. - Strong process approach and skilful in facilitating multi-stakeholder processes and

developing dialogue and partnership processes; - Strong skills in analysing complex situations in international and multi-disciplinary teams. - Thorough knowledge of recent developments in Monitoring & Evaluation approaches and

instruments; - Able to conduct and facilitate organisational and institutional analyses. Jolanda Buter has a strong track record, which started in the business enabling environment of Holland, showing a wide range of clients in many different countries and continents.


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ANNEX 4: Presentation of main findings and conclusions of

field visits to DECP partners Vereniging Surinaams Bedrijfsleven (VSB) The Association of Surinam Businesses (VSB) was founded in 1950. VSB is promoting free entrepreneurship in production and service delivery for all business people in Surinam. Its goals are to promote the interests of its members on the one hand and to promote the economic and social wellbeing of the whole Surinam society. VSB is member of the IOE and its president is currently chairing the Caribbean Confederation of Employers (CEC). VSB operates in three policy areas:

- Dialogue with social economic partners (on investments, labour policies, employment, etc.)

- Strengthening the domestic private sector (small and medium enterprises);

- Cooperation with civil society (clustering of micro-enterprises). VSB currently has approximately 180 members and it represents more than 75% of the private sector activities. A second more specific and sectoral association is ASFA, who is representing the interests of Manufacturers. The Chamber of Commerce of Surinam is also active in promoting interests of business people in Surinam, but it is not a private sector organisation. Surinam has undergone a period of relative stability and economic growth, but still the country faces many challenges. A particular challenge is the political and ethnic compartmentalisation of organisations, which makes representation of organisations in broader institutions quite difficult. An example is the establishment of the Social Economic Council in Surinam; while this council was already established by law a few years ago, the installation of its members has been stalled for a long time, due to continuous struggles about the distribution of the seats in this council. On February 27, 2009, finally, the installation of the SER became a fact, which provides an interesting arena for the Surinam Employers in the near future. VSB has acquired a reasonable image in Surinam society and it is well know in different circles and among entrepreneurs in Surinam. However, the organisation mainly is based on activities of its board- and commission members as its executive apparatus is very small. In the office of VSB a small team of four persons and a director are responsible for day to day activities. The relationship with DECP was started in 2007, after a fact-finding mission of DECP to Surinam in 2006. After a counter-visit in February 2007 of VSB to the Netherlands, the partnership gained speed and since then regular missions and support activities have been carried out. The most important findings of the field visit to Surinam and VSB are presented below: On Policy and Development Relevance

- The DECP support is considered very important by VSB. VSB notes that the initial support of DECP was focused on internal issues (such as newsletter and membership registration), but that it gradually expanding to more external and strategic issues (such as the investment conference in April 2009). The political aspect of support of DECP is at least as important as its technical support;


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- Private sector development is not considered in the sector-wide policy of the Netherlands in Suriname (as sector in the “verdragsmiddelen”). There is no strong presence of other international development actors that support private sector development (except for a significant support of the EU for the Surinam Business Forum). DECP is one of the few sources of support;

- Surinam institutions are very similar to Dutch institutions and this makes exchange and cooperation between likewise organisations in the Netherlands and Surinam very relevant. Particularly, related with the SBF and SER, such Dutch support is relevant;

- The support of DECP to VSB has not been programmatic. It has been rather ad-hoc, where specific issues have been identified in subsequent missions and addressed accordingly. It appears that not all support has been demand-oriented. DECP has brought useful support based upon what it could supply at certain moments (OSH, Communication);

- There are many ties between Suriname and the Netherlands that can be used to support and strengthen private sector dynamics and relations. An example is the use of the Twinning Facility to recruit a communications staff for VSB during one year;

- VSB operates actively at Caribbean level and its presidents chairs CEC. For private sector development it is also important to enable Surinam entrepreneurs to access the Caribbean market (CARICOM), but little support for this goal has been provided at the national and international level.

On Quality and Quantity of output (activities):

- As observed above, the small activities and advisory missions were quite ad-hoc and had had a largely internal VSB focus

- Some activities for the external public have been organised, such as an OSH training and a seminar on funding opportunities in Surinam. These are very are important for external visibility of VSB. In April 2009 a larger scale investment seminar will be organised in cooperation with the Netherlands Embassy;

- The most important strategic issues on the agenda of the business sector in Surinam are: a) the investment legal framework, b) legislation for annual accounts and c) financial sector deepening (credit for larger and longer term investments). Although VSB is active on these areas, its lobby and advocacy outreach in Surinam is still limited. Such is also extremely difficult in the small but divided community of Surinam. Much influence is exercised behind the screens and not in formal open channels for dialogue and communication.

Effectiveness of the programme (outcome):

- DECP’s Communication advise and its advise on restructuring the VSB Board have had clear effects: VSB is currently implementing both and in 2009 a new communications officer is added to the team (through the Suriname Twinning Facility);

- The DECP support has not followed a programmatic approach: small and specific support activities have been carried out with some effects on the VSB organisation, but not so much on its external image and positioning. VSB indicates it now is ready for such more regular and comprehensive support by DECP;

- Working with the trade unions, employers and maybe even Government around the SER might constitute a good possibility for such longer-term programmatic cooperation. However, it still needs to become active. Once such support is mobilised, DECP and VSB should watch out for too much “Dutch interference in Suriname affairs”;

- Though small, VSB is widely considered the legitimate representative of the Surinam business community. More confusion exists around ASFA and KKF, their political connections and historic profiles are not recognised by all business people, but these organisations are trying to acquire influence and compete with VSB. This establishes a


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challenge for VSB, which needs to increase its own visibility and representativeness among the whole Surinam business community.

On Efficiency of the programme:

- The results within VSB compared to the inputs and activities through advisory missions and workshops are impressive. VSB has provided good follow-up with limited means. This points to a reasonable efficiency within the VSB organisation;

- The spider web diagram with VSB has been applied twice: it shows clear improvements (particularly in income generation), which are related with areas of DECP advise. However, the director of VSB recognises that the assessment has not been done very systematically and that the results of the two assessment do give a certain direction to the progress of VSB, but are not very precise;

- The VSB recognised the need to invest more in activities oriented to the external audience and its members in order to increase VSB capacity for real service delivery. Such activities should be included in the DECP support. The investment seminar of April 2009 serves as a good example of such activity.

On Other issues:

- In Surinam there are many women entrepreneurs, but in larger enterprises and in VSB they are not so present. Gender does not appear not to be an issue within VSB and among members. It is remarkable that there are no women in the VSB board and commissions;

- HIV/AIDS is an important issue in Surinam and it is embraced by the business community. A Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS prevention has been founded, in which VSB is actively involved since the start;

- All influential business people in Surinam have many personal contacts but at the institutional level these contacts are often not as good (and sometimes even blocked). These difficult relations exist for example with the Ministry of Finance, KKF and ASFA. These constraints in communication and coordination are sometimes due to poor commitment of some actors to dialogue but also sometimes lack of institutional capacity to engage in dialogue and cooperation. These are issues that could be addressed by the DECP in its support to VSB and its interaction with other stakeholders, by refocusing its attention from internal organisational issues in VSB to more strategic external issues;

- Institutionalised tri-partite social dialogue in Surinam for a long time has been stalled. After almost three years the SER finally became operational at the end of February 2009. This development can now be picked up by VSB and in the support of DECP to VSB;

- The Surinam Business Forum though it is an interesting initiative, seems heavily funded by the EU and its organisational model and mandate is designed by the EU and does not organically fit with Suriname institutions. Support to the SBF will stop at the end of 2009 and it is doubtful, if this institution will survive after that period;

- The relations of both VSB and DECP with the Netherlands Embassy are good. The embassy works with VSB and ASFA (through PLOS) in an ISO certification project and has provided support to VSB through some other small support projects (digitalisation of files). In April 2009 it will co-organise with VSB and DECP the Investment seminar in Surinam.


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Federation of Kenyan Employers (FKE) The FKE was established in 1959. Its vision is “to be the preferred centre of excellence in industrial relations services, management practices and advocacy of employers’ needs”. This vision is translated into the following mission statement: “To promote an enabling business environment and sound industrial relations in Kenya through effective representation, advocacy and provision of value added services that strengthens the ability of employers to attain competiveness.” FKE is represented in all main committees (22) related to governmental policy development where private sector development is an issue, including education and (parastatal) corporate agencies. They are also represented in 15 industrial training committees. In Labour issues under the mandate of ministry of Labour and Human Development FKE represents all employers. FKE is nominated by the minister or represented in all key bodies governing industrial relations and development of fair labour practices. According to IOE data the total membership of FKE, including members of the 18 affiliated associations is about 3,000, with an aggregate workforce of approximately 500,000. The FKE, although considered as the main employers’ organisation of Kenya in tripartite dialogue, developed an image of representing larger companies of Kenya and not yet of representing the small and medium enterprises. The last types of enterprises are offering 80 % of the jobs in Kenya. The last year these businesses created almost 450.000 jobs, whereas the formal sector only created an estimated 50.000 jobs. International development partners of FKE are DANIDA, DED, UNDP, IRISH AID, ILO and DECP. The DANIDA, DED and UNDP are strengthening the capacity of FKE in HIV/AIDS issues on the workplace: workplace policy development, training in management facilitation skills. They also support in Occupational Safety and Health development on the workplace, through the development of concrete training material and they are involved in the development of the service portfolio in New Labour Laws and Productivity Manuals. Irish aid programme supports FKE on women entrepreneurship and gender equality, the ILO child labour programme and the inter-firm linkage project. The last one links innovative products of SME with larger firms. The most significant characteristics of the external environment of FKE, during the past years, are:

- Its lobbying in the last two years and its continuing lobbying regarding the New Labour Law. The Labour Laws not being changed since 1953, results in a burning actual issue; the implementation of the new labour laws affecting heavily the cost/benefit ratio of the employers;

- The conflict raised after the elections, the absence of a well functioning Chamber of Commerce and as a response to that the reinforcement of the role of KePSA ( Kenyan Private Sector Alliance), created in 2003, joining all sectors/multi-sectoral institutions ( 32), associations (38) and corporations ( 181) under one umbrella. KePSA assures one voice to the government. KePSA also organised the first roundtable meeting (august 2008) with all ministries and the business community involved in to what is referred to as the National


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Business Agenda. The roundtable meetings are fully concentrated on resolving the bottlenecks in doing business in the country21;

- The tourism sector and affiliated enterprises declined due to the violence in the beginning of 2008;

- The overall economy is declining due to the political crises, international financial crises and the high fuel prices. Already since decennia government invested weakly in collective infrastructure like alternative energy sources, transport by road and railway and port facilities. The lack of investment put under pressure the competiveness of the Kenyan private sector in regard to other countries;

- The relationship between labour and employers is still based on old concepts where employers and employees behave competitive in negotiations and not as partners in human development;

- Although the business climate is improving rapidly, it still puts effectiveness of enterprises under pressure due to long waiting time in the harbour, high costs of transport by road, number of documents needed to start business22;

- Common actions are undertaken with Collective Trade Union (COTU), in areas like HIV/AIDS and SME development;

- Internationally present in; e.g. COMESA, East African Council, Pan African Employers’ Confederation, International Organisation of Employers, member of the ILO Board;

- FKE is represented in one of the pillars of Vision 2030. The most important findings of the field visit to Kenya and FKE are presented below: Policy and development relevance:

- The DECP support started officially in December 2008. The MOU does state the existence of the relationship with DECP and some specific areas for cooperation. No common objectives or desired outputs are described in the agreement neither the duration or conditions of partnership are mentioned;

- Support of DECP to FKE started in 2007, so before the partnership has been signed. It was spread over short advisory missions, 4 to 6 times a year, reaching a few people, mainly at the to-management level;

- DECP does not have an agreed activity plan for its support to FKE that is integrated with the overall development plan of the FKE. The link with objectives and results of projects of other funding partners of FKE is weak, which makes it difficult for DECP to clarify its own specific role in the support to FKE;

- Dutch companies know the FKE as a strong lobbying and network organisation of employers. Some are member, but not all Dutch companies. Most do not play an active role in the FKE;

- The Netherlands’ Embassy does not have a linkage with FKE. They funded once the Kenyan Private Sector Alliance. The Embassy recently started to participate in the Business Advocacy Fund, set up as a basket fund initiated with the support of the Danish cooperation recently joint by EU, Dutch Cooperation and DFID. The BAF is focussing on strengthening capacity of local associations and SME development. Other strategies are put in place targeting health and rural development through the private sector;

21 See also: Highlights on quick wins for the Prime Minister’s roundtable discussion with private Sector, KePSA 2008 22 See also figures of Doing Business 2008


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- DECP and the Netherlands’ Embassy did align their activities in Private Sector Development. This sector is not a priority sector in the Dutch support to Kenya, so involvement in private sector issues is low;

- Summarising, the relevance of the DECP is high for FKE, but the structural relationship is still recent: no comprehensive long-term strategy for the mutual cooperation has yet been developed. In the wider context the DECP programme is also relevant, but indirectly: FKE is an important private sector actor in Kenya and it represents many private sector stakeholders, but there are many more organisations that do so. In the framework of the Netherlands’ support to Kenya, the programme is less relevant, because the Netherlands Embassy does not focus on private sector development.

Effectiveness of the programme:

- The support undertaken by the DECP to FKE is mainly at the level of internal organisational aspects and not so much in its external institutional positioning;

- Members and staff of the FKE express the need for technical expertise of longer duration to develop professional capacity at staff level to increase capacity to respond to service needs of employers. DECP delivers at the moment advisory services on specific areas in the internal organisation FKE (membership fees, newsletter writing and training), but this is not yet responding to the need to upgrade the capacities of the staff for external service delivery;

- During the first two years of the relations between DECP and FKE, activities have been realised without a planning and sequencing, but contacts have been quite intensive. The cooperation has been effective in establishing a sound base for a longer-term partnership and for signing a partnership agreement. However it is still too early to assess what has been the effectiveness of overall support relation. This can only be done after another two years.

Efficiency of the programme:

- Training events are of very good quality, but a weakness is felt in the follow up support to the training activities. On the one hand this is because of lack of capacity (time, people and money) to provide such in-house follow-up support and on the other hand because not all stakeholders have been part of the training, which hampers the capacity to implement changes after the training by all stakeholders involved;

- Most of the activities thus far were training events and workshops in which more participants and also other partners participated. These activities have been efficient and effective. Since more links are now established with other DECP partners in Uganda and Tanzania, more efficiency has been achieved, because visits to partners in the region can be combined (also with activities). This enables the provision of more frequent follow up and coaching to FKE, but it is still to early to judge how efficient this support is in the recent more stable relationship.

Other aspects:

- PUM does not have yet any input in the DECP programme in Kenya;

- Alignment with other actors and with the Netherlands Embassy thus far has been limited, although contacts have been established and information is exchanged. The limited cooperation is due to the fact that the Netherlands Embassy is not focusing on Private Sector Development in Kenya and it has only limited support and cooperation modalities. Alignment with the Dutch enterprises has been explored by DECP and some activities have occurred in Uganda and Ghana. However, not yet in Kenya, while there are many Netherlands enterprises active in this country.


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Association of Tanzania Employers (ATE), Tanzania The Association of Tanzania Employers (ATE) formerly known as the Federation of Tanganyika Employers (FTE) is Tanzania’s apex Employers’ Organisation. It was formed in 1960 by number of companies, industries and association of employers. In 1976, the Federation of Tanganyika Employers (FTE) changed its name into the current one i.e. The Association of Tanzania Employers (ATE). The change was necessary in order to accommodate the majority of individual affiliate members and the few Associations into a single strong Association of all the Employers in Mainland Tanzania. ATE remains an apex national employers’ body representing employers in all sectors of the national economy excluding the civil service. Membership of the ATE is drawn from private business firms, companies and institutions and some parastatal organizations. The most significant characteristics of ATE are:

- One of ATE's core functions is to represent employers' interests in the formulation and implementation of national policies and legislation on labour relations;

- ATE represents all Tanzanian employers in LESCO, (Labour Economic Social Council);

- ATE participates in several other tripartite forums Tripartite HIV/AIDS Working Group, tri-partite Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) framework as a Member of the Ministerial Advisory Board of OSHA;

- COWI/DANIDA supports the Association of Tanzanian Employers (ATE) in enhancing its capacity to represent and service member companies. The aim is to improve their competitiveness and human resource management;

- ATE was working 3 years ago only with 3 staff members. Since the arrival of the actual Executive Director staff grew from 3 to 10. Activities are extended with the support of the BSPS/DANIDA programme, explicitly targeting strengthening of the key players within the social dialogue; so trade union, ATE and ministry of Labour;

- ATE has been the last three years very active in training stakeholders on the new labour laws. In the meanwhile her legal advisory services have been extended to prevent labour conflicts to be resolved in court (only 25 last year);

- Doing business figures shows that the business climate is weak and does not improve yet. So there are major challenges to be confronted. ATE is intervening in issues related to social dialogue based on tri-partite referring to the implementation of the international labour standards. This means that ATE as such is not directly intervening in the components which are related to the business climate indicators;

- ATE is representing 850-1000 employers (70 % from the Dar Es Salaam region); only in the Dar Es Salaam region there are 93.430 businesses (Business Survey 2007, NBS).

Many business associations in Tanzania are sectoral: Tanzania Chamber of Mines (TCM), Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA), Confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI), Tanzania Bankers’ Association (TBA) and Tanzania Confederation of Tourism (TCT). The Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) is an umbrella organization of the business associations with the objective of promoting private sector development by way of dialoguing with the Government directly or through the Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC).


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Some of the notable achievements is that TPSF and CTI are among Members of the Tax Task Force formed by the Ministry of Finance to review the Government Budget Estimates with a view to make the fiscal policy stable, predictable and investor friendly. The most important findings of the field visit to Tanzania and ATE are presented below: Policy and development relevance:

- ATE is a known and considered as trustful partner among the different (apexes) of employers organisations;

- The DECP support to ATE started officially in December 2008. The MOU does state the existence of the relationship with DECP and some specific areas for cooperation. No common objectives or desired outputs are described in the agreement neither the duration or conditions of partnership are mentioned;

- DECP is not yet active in a search for synergy and/or exchange in PSD among Dutch funded interventions in Tanzania or those of other development partners. Particularly relevant is a rather large support intervention of DANIDA/COWI in ATE, with whom DECP currently is relating;

- The relevance of the DECP support, again as in Kenya, is very relevant to ATE, who indicates that DECP is an important partner. However, this relevance is limited due to the fact that no clear long-term strategy for cooperation has been established and the fact that the MoU is still very recent. ATE receives a significant amount of support by DANIDA, which interferes somewhat with the partnership with DECP, particularly because of the fact that DANIDA provides significant financial means. The relevance of DECP needs to be further explored and discussed between ATE, DECP and DANIDA. The policy and development relevance of the DECP programme in the framework of Tanzania’s Private Sector Development strategy is high, particularly when one considered that Tanzania has stumbled backwards on the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking. However it should be noted that little exchange and coordination with other development actors, including the Netherlands Embassy has occurred, while this, in the light of the importance of Private Sector Development issues for the Netherlands Embassy, could be expected.

Effectiveness of the programme

- The support provided by DECP to ATE has almost entirely been in the provision of training. Other support activities have been limited thus far;

- In Tanzania, some DECP activities are integrated within the ATE work plan which is supported by DANIDA funding. The DECP activities are sub elements of a range of major activities and so can contribute to concrete outputs, outcome and impact within the framework of a broader DANIDA funding and technical support intervention. Regardless, DECP will maintain its own policy dialogue and relation with ATE and will develop its own activities. ATE values the DECP as being an European representative of employers, bringing its experience to their organisation;

- The workshops and training provided by DECP and DECP/ITC-ILO have been highly appreciated by ATE. ATE is also very satisfied with the possibilities for exchange with colleagues in neighbouring countries, such as the recent meeting that was organised in Arusha, Tanzania, to discuss issues of regional integration in the EAC among partner employers’ organisations.

- More regional cooperation is beneficial for a more continuous relationship between DECP and ATE and thus more sustainable effects in capacity development. Alignment of capacity development efforts with DANIDA are required to ensure a coherent support to ATE and thus achieve sustainable effects. As with FKE, the structural relationship between DECP and ATE is very recent and still more time is needed before an assessment of effectiveness


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can be conducted. However, ATE, compared to FKE, is less consolidated and it is not so strongly present on the scene of private sector development issues. It can easily be overshadowed by other actors and programmes. This is another significant risk factor that can limit the effectiveness of the DECP support to ATE.

On Efficiency of the Programme

- DANIDA/COWI is partnering with ATE in the same areas as DECP, which poses additional challenges to coordination, overlap and contradictions of approaches of DECP and DANIDA/COWI. For now a modus-operandi has been found in which DANIDA/COWI and DECP frequently coordinate and DECP is sometimes hired by DANIDA/COWI to provide specialised technical assistance in employers’ issues in which DECP is clearly more experienced;

- Little is documented about performance in lobby and advocacy. No indicators, targets or outputs are set within the partnership by DECP/ATE. This far only a training event has been realised on this issue;

- The spider web analysis for organisational assessment has not been applied and there is no corresponding plan for capacity development that is visibly part of the partnership.

- The remarks on efficiency of the DECP support are in line with the findings in Kenya. Activities thus far have mainly been training and workshops and these have been quite cost-effective because more participants and partners were catered for in these events. Through more regional cooperation a more continuous support relation can be built between DECP and ATE, for a reasonable cost, because travel time and costs can be shared between different partners.

On Other issues - A remarkable phenomenon can be observed in Tanzania. While international development

partners and many civil and private actors are very active in this country in the area of private sector development, business environment strengthening (BEST) and financial sector deepening, Tanzania has taken some steps back on the Doing Business Ranking of the World Bank. This is a cause of serious concern in this country, because it indicates that the overall support to the private sector has not delivered the expected results, but on the contrary a worse situation. This requires the attention of the Netherlands Embassy who should sit with international development partners and with other Dutch partners, among which DECP, what changes in strategy, programmes and cooperation are needed to continue support to this sector or to consider the ultimate consequence of withdrawing support from this sector and moving to other sectors.


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ANNEX 5: Dimensions and questions in Spider web assessment tool

1. Representativeness Do you represent the majority of the companies, turnover and employment in the business community/sector? Are you the only EO in the field/sector, i.e. are there no competing associations ? Are you participating in formal advisory committees or councils? Are you consulted by the government on a regular basis? Do you consult your members before entering negotiations? Do you have a mandate from your members to represent their interests in formal negotiations and committees? 2. Strategy Do you have a strategy (i.e. mission statement), agreed upon by the members? Has the strategy been worked out in a working plan with a time path? Is the strategy based on an internal (organisation and members) and external (stakeholders and developments) analysis? Do you have the financial means available for implementation of the strategic plan? Is the strategic plan periodically reviewed? Is the implementation of the strategic plan monitored? 3. Advocacy Lobbying Are the lobby targets identified? Are they agreed upon by the members? Do you have a lobby action plan, including priorities? Have you identified (possible) allies and opponents? Do you inform the members periodically about the success (or failure) of the lobby campaign? Services Do you provide services to your members on an individual basis? Are all members able to benefit from the services provided? Are members involved in the definition process of the services to be provided? Are services only offered to members? Do you provide retribution-based services? Communication and media presence Do you share information with your members on a regular base (through magazines, news bulletins, letters, emails, etc.)? Do you have an interactive website with a special member section? Do you have a policy for dealing with the press? Do you share information with external stakeholders (trade unions, politicians, NGO's) on a regular base? Do you organize meetings for your members on a regular base? Do you normally answer members’ questions within 24 hours? Social dialogue Do you have contacts with the national government on policy and legislative questions on a regular base? Does the government seek your views on labour-related questions or other important policy proposals? Do you have contacts with the trade unions on a regular base? Do you represent or assist members in collective bargaining? Do you cooperate in any way with other NGO's? 4. Revenues of the organisation Subscription fees Is the subscription system laid down and does it lead to a well-balanced and fair distribution of the


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costs among the members? Is the system clear and transparent and can members themselves calculate how much they have to pay? Do (all) members pay their fees according to the rules? Can you easily verify whether members are paying the correct subscription fee? Is the subscription system sustainable in the long run, i.e. is it vulnerable to economic fluctuations? Revenue mix Do you have, apart from subscription fees, other sources of income, making up at least 10% of the total revenues? Are you financially independent from the government? Are you financially independent from private institutions, funds, etc? Do you have income from services delivered? 5. Organisational structure Does the general assembly have at least 4 of the following powers:

approval of the annual budget, approval of the annual business plan, approval of long term strategy, approval of membership criteria and membership fee, approval of members of the board suspension of members?

Are both large and small members represented in the board in a balanced way? Are there criteria for the nomination of board members and are they applied in an open and transparent way? Does the board have at least 4 of the following powers:

nomination and suspension of the CEO, drafting of the annual business plan and the budget, plotting the strategic course or reorientation of the federation/association, approval of membership applications, approval of committee members?

Are the respective responsibilities of the board and its chairman and the secretariat/bureau clearly stated? Is there a CEO, responsible for the day-to-day management of the bureau including the appointment and suspension of personnel? Does the bureau have its own premises? Does the bureau employ highly educated professionals?


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ANNEX 6: Programmatic Activities in Partnership Agreements

KADIN/APINDO, Indonesia (2006): Only one generic item: investments and labour relations VSB, Surinam (2007): - het maken van beleidsanalyses - juridische ondersteuning van de leden - contributiesystemen en ledenwerving - suggesties voor verbetering van wet- en regelgeving - arbeidsomstandigheden en duurzaam ondernemen - sociale dialoog met de vakbeweging - de Sociaal Economische Raad. GEA, Ghana (2007): - preparation of policy analyses - Strengthening of the research and documentation capacity - recruitment drive of membership - suggestions for improving legislation and regulation - working conditions, Occupational Safety and Health, productivity and sustainable business - social dialogue with the Organised Labour - Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy PSF, Rwanda (2007): - training for PSF members and staff - developing communications with membership - contribution systems and acquisition of members - suggestions for improving legislation and regulation in Rwanda - working with social partners - working conditions and sustainable business CNPM, Moldova (2008): Points which will receive attention include the following:

- assistance in implementation of the new regulation on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH),

- in view of the decentralisation of wage policy to the sector level as proposed by CNPM, publication of a handbook with comparison of the wage policy in other European countries,

- organisation of a survey among the enterprises of the Republic of Moldova about the state of social dialogue in order to develop a new strategy by the Confederation and its sector association members,

- improvement of the communication strategy of the Confederation and its members by developing a newsletter, information bulletin and website,

for the Construction sector: - provide information on certification of construction enterprises following European

standards and norms, - development of skills of the workers of the construction sector - assistance in implementation of a social fund (“casa sociala”) for the construction

sector for the Food and Agro-Industry (FNPAIA):

- assistance to the development of a “starters” and entrepreneurship programme in the agro-industry,


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- assistance by providing expertise for the development of an investment fund for new equipments in the agro-industry enterprises.

ATE, Tanzania (2008): - training for members and staff - developing communications with membership - Development of ATE Advocacy role - Development of research capacity - developing training role - Developing revenue income and services FKE, Kenya (2008): - training for members and staff - developing communications with membership - Development of FKE Advocacy role - Development of research capacity - developing training & consultancy role - Developing revenue income and services FUE, Uganda (2008): • Membership services • Development of FUE Advocacy role • Social Dialogue with Trade Unions • Development of new FUE offices • Development of FUE Training & Consultancy • Development of FUE communication strategy MONEF, Mongolia (2008): - Defending interest of Business: policy analyis, development social security system, labour

laws issues - Provision of services to members: Communications (news bulletin), training programmes on

HRM and SME development


ANNEX 7: Detailed Budget and Budget-depletion analysis, 2006-2008

2006 2007 2008 2009 Total

Staff DECP 118.85% 431,980 363,466 122.85% 667,081 543,000 122.16% 680,420 557,000 115.59% 660,000 571,000 119.91% 2,439,481 2,034,466

Rent office space 78.54% 35,343 45,000 103.85% 48,811 47,000 101.56% 49,764 49,000 94.12% 48,000 51,000 94.75% 181,918 192,000 Services: Reception/HR/ICT

64.86% 19,459

30,000 113.56% 35,204

31,000 84.62% 27,077

32,000 69.70% 23,000

33,000 83.13% 104,740 126,000

Costs of DECP Board

0.00% 0

10,000 0.00% 0

11,000 0.00% 0

12,000 0.00% 0

13,000 0.00% 0 46,000

Administration costs

100.00% 10,000

10,000 66.67% 10,000

15,000 55.56% 10,000

18,000 62.50% 12,500

20,000 67.46% 42,500 63,000

Office costs 127.27% 50907 40,000 94.75% 37898 40,000 99.96% 39985 40,000 120.00% 48000 40,000 110.49% 176,790 160,000 Costs of hard- and software

123.10% 6,155

5,000 84.14% 6,731

8,000 250.00% 20,000

8,000 275.00% 22,000

8,000 189.26% 54,886 29,000

Facilitary services PUM

75.80% 7,580

10,000 0.00% 0

30,000 0.00% 0

30,000 0.00% 0

30,000 7.58% 7,580 100,000

Fees consultants 191.04% 9,552 5,000 0.00% 0 5,000 0.00% 0 5,000 0.00% 0 5,000 47.76% 9,552 20,000 Activities Partner organisations

14.83% 21,497 145000

42.82% 162,724 380000

52.63% 200,000 380000

75.53% 287,000 380000

52.24% 671,221 1,285,000

Training activities commissioned to ILO

60.62%

42,437

70,000 124.24%

211,213

170,000 167.77%

285,214

170,000 164.71%

280,000

170,000 141.18%

818,864 580,000 Travel and accommodation costs missions

159.54%

93,130

58,375 104.62%

183,900

175,775 105.00%

210,000

200,000 126.51%

272,000

215,000 116.93%

759,030 649,150

Auditing costs 100.00% 5,000 5,000 89.56% 7,165 8,000 83.33% 7,500 9,000 100.00% 10,000 10,000 92.70% 29,665 32,000

Start-up costs 57.88% 2,894 5,000 0 0 0 0 0 0 57.88% 2,894 5,000

Contingencies 88.43% 13,264 15,000 8.25% 1,238 15,000 33.33% 5,000 15,000 100.00% 15,000 15,000 57.50% 34,502 60,000

Total 91.72% 749,198 816,841 92.78% 1,371,965 1,478,775 100.65% 1,534,960 1,525,000 107.46% 1,677,500 1,561,000 99.11% 5,333,623 5,381,616


ANNEX 8: Detailed analysis evaluation sheets DECP/ITC-ILO training courses, 2006-2008

Eff. Empl. Org. Afganistan/ Turin (Nov 08)

Eff. Empl. Org. Ghana/ ? (?)

Eff. Empl. Org. Indonesia/ ? (?)

Eff. Empl. Org. Uganda/ ? (?)

Eff. Empl. Org. Mongolia/ ? (?)

Eff. Empl. Org. Rwanda/ ? (?)

Eff. Empl. Org. West Africa/ Senegal (Sep 07)

Eff. Empl. Org. Indonesia/ Indonesia (Jun 07)

Eff. Empl. Org. Africa/ Kenya (May 07)

Eff. Empl. Org. Indonesia/ Indonesia (Nov 06)

AV. EEO

Lobbying for East African Empl. org./ Turin (Sep 08)

Lobby & Advocay young Entrepr. Indon./ ? (?)

Lobby, Advocay & service capacity Empl. Org. Indonesia/ Indonesia (Mar 08)

AV. L&A

Eff. Service Delivery West Africa/ Senegal (Oct 08) AV.

Preliminary Information 2.70 3.56 2.96 3.47 2.81 2.86 3.96 2.96 3.87 2.85 3.20 4.17 3.25 3.20 3.54 3.75 3.31 Clarity Objectives 4.75 4.48 3.92 4.65 4.31 4.09 4.45 4.18 4.69 4.20 4.37 4.78 4.50 4.14 4.47 4.68 4.42 Achievement Objectives 4.11 4.23 3.67 4.53 4.26 3.50 4.07 3.86 4.21 3.75 4.02 4.35 3.75 3.68 3.93 4.17 4.01 Contents is serving Objectives 4.75 4.28 3.85 4.57 4.30 3.59 4.00 3.96 4.33 3.80 4.14 4.28 4.26 4.00 4.18 4.44 4.17 Contents fits with your level 4.83 4.21 3.81 4.54 4.22 3.70 3.96 3.87 4.15 3.60 4.09 4.50 4.50 3.82 4.27 4.24 4.14 Gender in the Training 4.58 3.04 2.67 3.00 4.11 3.26 3.24 3.05 2.72 2.59 3.23 2.38 2.47 2.71 2.52 2.98 3.06 Learning Methods 5.00 4.16 3.80 4.49 4.28 3.73 3.76 3.89 4.26 3.75 4.11 4.61 3.90 4.09 4.20 4.22 4.14 Resource Person(s) 4.92 4.65 3.67 4.63 4.43 4.14 3.93 3.97 4.45 3.65 4.24 4.44 4.25 4.27 4.32 4.29 4.26 Group Working Relations 4.50 4.36 3.68 4.46 4.24 3.33 4.03 4.16 4.30 3.75 4.08 4.06 4.05 4.14 4.08 4.40 4.10 Material Quality 4.50 3.64 3.94 4.38 4.03 3.64 3.67 3.94 4.18 3.74 3.97 4.44 4.00 4.18 4.21 4.46 4.05 Quality Organisation of Activity 4.83 4.12 4.08 4.60 4.25 3.68 3.85 4.04 4.35 3.79 4.16 4.78 4.40 4.23 4.47 4.08 4.22 Secretariat 4.83 4.14 3.87 4.19 4.46 3.55 3.73 3.79 4.28 3.74 4.06 4.88 4.11 3.67 4.22 3.90 4.08 Relevance related to current function 4.25 4.32 4.10 4.49 4.68 4.00 4.46 4.36 4.64 4.32 4.36 4.61 4.50 4.27 4.46 4.63 4.40 Relevance related to organisational needs 4.82 4.32 4.12 4.68 4.68 4.00 4.57 4.40 4.69 4.37 4.47 4.78 4.45 4.41 4.55 4.60 4.49 Overall Quality of Activity 4.58 4.31 3.83 4.54 4.32 3.95 4.24 4.07 4.51 3.89 4.22 4.56 4.15 4.14 4.28 4.56 4.26


ANNEX 9: Detailed analysis results Spider Web analysis in 2006 and 2008 Results Spiderweb Monitoring 2006 and 2008

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

ZFE/Zambia

- 2006

ZFE/Zambia

- 2008

VSB/Surinam

- 20

06VSB/Surin

am -

2008

MONEF/Mong

olia -

2006

MONEF/Mong

olia -

2008

CNPM/Mold

ova -

2006

CNPM/Mold

ova -

2008

CERM/Mac

edonia

- 2006

CERM/Mac

edonia

- 2008

APBiH/Bos

nia - 2

006

APBiH/Bos

nia - 2

008

Cam. Ind.

Y Com

./Boli

via -

2006

Cam. Ind.

Y Com

./Boli

via -

2008

RepresentativenessStrategyAdvocacyRevenues of the organisationOrganisational structureAverage


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ANNEX 10: Results of Survey to DECP Partners

Nr. Name of organisation of respondent 1. APINDO (Employers' Association of Indonesia) 2. APINDO (Employers' Association of Indonesia) (2nd response) 3. National Federation of Agriculture Employers 4. Federation of Uganda Employers 5. Ghana Employers Association 6. Confederation of Employers Rep. Macedonia 7. Chamber of Industries of Nicaragua - CADIN 8. National Confederation of Employers of the Republic of Moldova 9. Kosovo Employers Confederation 10. Mongolian Employers' Federation (MONEF) 11. Georgian Employers’ Association

Nr. Country of organisation of respondent 1. Indonesia 2. Indonesia 3. Republic of Moldova 4. Uganda 5. Ghana 6. Macedonia 7. Nicaragua 8. Republic of Moldova 9. Kosovo 10. Mongolia 11. Georgia


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Legend A Focused Advisory and Coaching Missions B Tailor-made training seminars and workshops on location C Generic training courses on Employers Issues delivered in Turin by ILO/DECP D Generic training courses on Employers Issues delivered in your region/country by ILO/DECPE Financing of Small Scale projects F Other


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What is your assessment of the quality of services delivered by DECP programme staff and consultants on a scale from one to five


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Nr. On which issues have you received advise, coaching and/or technical assistance from DECP?

1. The major spheres of cooperation between GEA/DECP were capacity building, OSH – preparation of external experts, exchanging of experts. Study visits and trainings on communication in Holland and everyday consultations

2. - Capacity building of the organization (lobby, advocacy, membership) - Women Entrepreneurship Development

3. Making and keeping members Social dialogue and collective bargaining ongoing negotiations on OSH

4. Office Physical Capacity building, Advise on Lobbying & Advocacy, Weekly Communication to members, Membership Services repackaged, Advise on subscription remittances, Networking with other EO's in the region, Effective training programs,

5. MEMBERSHIP MANAGEMENT SERVICES LOBBY/ ADVOCACY 6. development of the organization, organizing surveys, issuing news letter, organising

seminars, joint establishing of branch association, trainings for the members 7. We are in the process of making our own Strategic Plan, coached by Mr. Korten from

DECP. 8. Occupational safety and Health, Communication 9. - Capacity building of employers' organization - Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) -

Lobbying - Legal advise - Capacity building of local employers' organizations - Improving information service to members and partners - Developing activities with members

10. Empowering Apindo's organization at district level, starting with 5 districts which are, Asahan, Krawang Bojonegoro, Tarakan and Makasar. Starting with survey to those 5 district and then design the training that are match with the organization need, Such as: Lobbying, generating revenue and membership improvement. The consultant also design the indicator for the ideal APINDO, monitor and evaluate the program


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Nr. On which subjects have you received training by DECP or ILO/DECP? 1. Training on Good Corporate Governance, Lobbying, Generating Organization Revenue,

Increase and maintain organization membership 2. Occupational safety and health (with translation of training manuals, materials) capacity

building for employee organisations and focus on regional development Communications and effective services for EO’s

3. Making and keeping members 13-14 Sept 2007 Social dialogue and collective bargaining 30 Jan - 09 Feb 2007 1 representative participated in the training on Communication by EO in the Hague in 2008

4. Effective Employers Organization Advocacy Training Member Services 5. HOW TO RUN EFFECTIVE EMPLOYERS ORGANIZATIONS 6. risk assessment, temporary workers, OSH, making and keeping members!! 7. 1. Social Dialogue 2. Attracting and Keeping members 8. how to draft a news letter and importance of the web-site 9. Workshop on "Efficient and Effective Employers' Organizations" 10. Lobbying, Generating revenue, increase the membership, create organization service to

member

Nr. For which items have you received financial support from DECP? 1. Organizing target trainings; translation of needed manuals and materials, publication of

materials. Trainings in Holland for locals 2. - Workshop on Effective Employers' Organization (EEO) - Management Training on

Women Entrepreneurship Development (WED) 3. Making and keeping members Social dialogue and collective bargaining and our

representatives participated in a national workshop on OSH 4. Computers, Printers, Power Converter system, Photocopier, camera, Training equipment,

Video camera, and training fellowships 5. SUPPLY OF IT EQUIPMENT SIMPLIFICATION OF THE LABOUR ACT INTO SMALL

BOOKLETS 6. Monthly news paper! Establishing founding conference of Association on Temporary

workers agencies!! Brochures!! Survey's 2006,and 2007!! Representative materials!! 7. We have not yet received any financial support, but they offered to support a small project

on the implementation in our organisation, of a Management System on ISO 9001-2008, that we are planning in 2009.

8. Organization of promotional conferences, and running cost for secretary. 9. - Workshop organization 10. DCEP plan to give support the organization at district in order the organization are able to

start by printing the organization brochure. But it is not given yet.

Nr. If you want to provide your explanation and comments on your assessment of the quality of DECP services, please use the space below

1. Very good 2. We can’t thank DECP enough for sending down Mr. Moore because his visits have really

assisted us in many things and in many ways. His personality and the rapport built over time and coupled with his understanding of how things work here automatically translate into quality deliverables because atleast he always has solutions for most of our work puzzles here.

3. OVERALL QUALITY OF SUPPORT AND SERVICES FROM DECP HAS BEEN VERY GOOD, TIMELY AND BENEFICIAL.

4. The services provided by DECP were of excellent quality, as well as the advice received from experienced and professional personnel.

5. The experts who worked in Mongolia were highly qualified and the activities organized were very effective. In further we assume that it is required to cooperate with the DECP to improve the capacity of the MONEF' activities especially in the local employers'


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organizations. 6. The support of DECP is exceptional for GEA. The DECP is experienced and process too

much knowledge in the sphere of Eos that is really very important for us. The experts and its management did their best to share their knowledge and gained skills that will finally contribute to the country development – for Georgia. They organize and conduct all the services provided at high level ensuring quality. The cooperation with DECP for GEA is outstanding and vital in the future as well.


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Nr. If you want to provide your explanation and comments on your assessment of the work approach and methodology of DECP, please use the space below

1. DECP has accommodated the needs of organizational capacity building of APINDO. However DECP should involve more local people either as trainers and facilitators in trainings/workshops held for APINDO in Indonesia as they know the local condition and could deliver the local context which is more applicable by regional APINDO.

2. The DECP methodology and approach is excellent. Our GEA comments are just positive and we look forward to further cooperation. This opportunity will enable GEA staff and regional branches gain more knowledge in many spheres of collaboration. This will serve to progress of social-economic development of the country.

3. The approach so far is hands on. When he comes here, he listens to our approach and what difficulties on the issue(s) then prescribes a number of approaches and by the end of the day, you always have an interesting idea.

4. I think that they are doing an excellent job, providing assistance to organisations from less developed countries and sharing their knowledge and expertise.

5. The work approach and methodology of the DECP is adapted to the MONEF's activities and we hope that the future cooperation and support of the DECP will be highly effective in future development of our organization.


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Nr. Can you give an example of how you have applied insights obtained from DECP advisory missions or training?

1. APINDO has formulated Balance Scorecard to measure and encourage the performance of the organization at all levels (national, provincial and district level).

2. We did not ask for advise on organisational structure and our member-associations have set some services to members, now we assess the possibility to set an OSH service at the level of FNPAIA

3. There was this idea of giving a discount to members who had not paid their subscriptions, once we sent the letters, there was a very big response because so many of them paid and we received a lot of income. There was the idea of the weekly updates to members. It was our best innovation of the year 2008 and up to now, members are


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very pleased with it. 4. THANX TO DECP WE IMPROVED SIGNIFICANTLY INFORMATION PUBLICATION TO

MEMBERS AND ALSO STRATEGIES FOR REVENUE COLLECTION. 5. Firstly via communication with DECP!! Exchanging information!! Then approach to the

main issue!! Some time DECP expert come to our country, on fact-finding mission related with the issue, than we start action!!

6. We are working in the preparation of our Strategic Plan with all the advice we received from DECP. We are studying the way of changing the calculation of fees and making it more appropriate to the type of companies, in order to make it more transparent to the rest of the associates.

7. we develop our web-site, new staff person responsible for communication 8. - Improved cooperation with governmental organizations For example: the MONEF

developed the Plan against Financial Crisis in cooperation with the Government and submitted to the State Ikh Khural (parliament). Amended the Vocational Training Law and had the Law approved. Organized various activities for protecting interests of members in cooperation with Independent Agency against Corruption and State Professional Inspection Authority. Expanded the advocacy and advice activities to local employers' organizations. As a result of these, the activities of local employers' organizations have been improved.

9 The trainings and services provided by DECP proved to be very effective as we use methodology as toolkits in our head office and regional branches as guides.

Nr. Can you give an example of how you have applied insights obtained from DECP/ILO training courses?

1. APINDO in some regions especially in the pilot-project districts have developed and gradually implemented more structured work plan.

2. 1) FNPAIA member-associations used the knowledge received during the training on keeping and attracting members and collected more membership fees 2) The knowledge received during the training on social dialogue and collective bargaining was new and interesting for members 3) The FNPAIA web-site was improved as a result of knowledge received during the training on communication

3. We developed an advocacy plan for this year following a training that we attended in Turin, and we are slowly implementing that plan

4. MEMBERSHIP DRIVE AND RETENTION HAS IMPROVED INCLUDING DELIVERY OF TRAINING SERVICES.

5. Firstly!! After the necessary discussion if need some help, advice or financial support for action ,we send official request to DECP expert with explanation and budget for action, then we wait for reply!! if it's approved than we get in action and realisation!!

6. We are changing the way of attracting and keeping members, and applying the examples that were taught by DECP training course.

7. - Applied to the expansion of the service activities for members: advise, consulting, seminar and workshop organizations

8. From sharing from Malaysia we get insight how we can determine the price of the service, and also the variation of employers organization services.


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Average: 8,7

Nr. Space for any additional comment on the DECP support and/or on this survey 1. To be more effective and efficient, APINDO would like to enhance direct cooperation

between APINDO and DECP. APINDO is also expecting that DECP could provide more support and technical assistances in other areas such as SME and women entrepreneurship development, Occupational Safety and Health, productivity, etc.

2. Much depends on our side in this cooperation, i.e. have to be more active. DECP responded every time to our requests for support

3. We just signed the partnership agreement last year so we look forward to so many more years of this fruitful cooperation.

4. DECP SUPPORT TO GEA HAS BEEN REMARKABLE IN IMPROVING THE OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ASSOCIATION.

5. DECP is our partner and unselfish supporter of CERM. Without help of DECP, CERM will never reach the image, respect and transparency have currently. DECP should continue it's work, because is Ambassador of Netherland.

6. We are very grateful to receive DECP support and hope to strengthen this alliance and cooperation in the coming years.

“enabling to enable” · 4/24/2009 · zfe zambian federation of employers . ... - 38 training...

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