INTERNSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT

Transcription

1 Ref. Internship Date: 9 June 2015 Announcement No. BKK/INTERNSHIP/2015/04 INTERNSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT Post Title: Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Intern Organization Unit: Decent Work Team in Bangkok Duration: 24 weeks Duty Station: Bangkok, Thailand Introduction The ILO, a specialized agency of the United Nations, provides countries with a wide range of technical assistance related to labour issues and labour markets, including policy development, research, direct service provision, and private sector development support. Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. The primary objective of the ILO DWT Bangkok is to provide technical support to Governments, Employers' and Workers' Organisations in their efforts to promote decent work. Bangkok is home to the ILO's largest office outside of headquarters, providing technical support to countries in East Asia, Within the work of the ILO, the Enterprise Department has always been concerned with tapping the employment generation potential of the SME sector which in most countries accounts for the vast majority of firms and most new jobs. Specific priority has been given to support the development of markets for Business Development Services (BDS), primarily through the capacity building of intermediary service deliverers but also through interventions to improve the way markets work. The ILO has developed considerable expertise, credibility, networks, tools and experiences in this area that can assist governments, employers, workers and other development practitioners in their work. In Asia and the Pacific ILO Enterprise Development and training experts have designed a new and innovative approach to support the expansion of BDS for SME in underserved markets and those contexts where funding and capacities are limited. The intervention model builds upon the ILO s existing know how and capacity but addresses the dimensions of scope and scale, which have limited the ability of past approaches to overcome some of the key problems faced by workers and employers in SMEs, and the ability of constituents to achieve impact at scale. The innovative approach, presented in the new product lines of Community-Based Enterprise Development (C-BED) and Enterprise Development, Growth and Enhancement (EDGE), differs from conventional training program models by relying on peer to peer facilitation and activity based social learning techniques that develop critical and analytical thinking skills alongside core business competencies. By dramatically lowering the time, resource and ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team for East and South-East Asia and the Pacific United Nations Building, 10 th Floor, Rajdamnern Nok Avenue, Bangkok 10200, Thailand Tel Fax bangkok@ilo.org

2 capacity requirements for programs to be taken to scale and sustained, the methodology mobilises new providers of BDS that are better placed to reach SME in undeserved markets, and allows BDS providers to improve their impact by going beyond the traditional supply of trainers and experts through extension of services to the supply of market information and business intelligence, promotion of enterprise and industry networks, and connecting enterprises with finance. Under the supervision of the Regional Enterprise Development Specialist, the intern will assist in monitoring and evaluation on enterprise development and job creation efforts pursued by the ILO through the C-BED and EDGE programs in Southeast Asia and the Pacific to ensure the theory of change is effective and achieving the desired impact. The intern will also conduct continuous research to identify needs, improve program design, and measure program impact. Specifically, the intern will assist in three key areas of work: 1. Harmonization of measurement indicators and development of M&E tools The ILO C-BED and EDGE training programmes each provide a suite of tools related to access and control over livelihoods, and productivity and working conditions in micro and small enterprises. A sub-suite of C-BED has also been developed, known as SBC, and is tailored to various sectors common across ASEAN. The prototype for all training tools that now exist were the C-BED tools for Aspiring Entrepreneurs (AE) and C-BED for Small Business Owners (SBO). While instruments for training evaluation and impact assessment are currently available for the AE and SBO tools and have been harmonized, instruments for the remaining training tools in all three suites have not - and in many cases still remain to be developed. Under this component of the assignment, the intern will be expected to review the ILO decent work indicators, the training materials, existing survey instruments, and the program database to better understand the theory of change and identify appropriate measurement indicators. The intern will lead the work to then define an expanded set of core measurement indicators, not specific to any tool, target group or programme that can be embedded in all C-BED and EDGE evaluation instruments. New evaluation instruments will also be developed for the remaining training tools and the intern will assist in harmonizing these with those that already exist. During the internship these survey tools will be deployed to partners across the region and data will be returned to ILO on a regular basis. On analysis of this data the intern will then assist the program in identifying gaps and making improvements to the instruments. More background on the C-BED program can be accessed here: More background on the EDGE program can be accessed here: 2

3 Tasks: Review of program objectives and key M&E documents (Logframe/Theory of Change, M&E plans, pre and post training surveys, tracer study evaluations, existing database etc ); Consult with ILO program staff in Bangkok, Philippines and Indonesia, in addition to review of ILO monitoring and evaluation guidance; Deliver an inception report presenting the proposed indicators and their logical sequence; Define SMART indicators and embed in survey instruments to measure the learning, livelihood, and enterprise outcomes of trainees; Define SMART indicators and embed in survey instruments to measure the institutional impacts of C-BED and EDGE for business development services; Monitor the deployment and use of survey instruments, analyze returning data, and make improvements as required; 2. Database development and validation of business intelligence and analytic platform Although the peer-to-peer, training-without-a-trainer methodology of the ILO s tools is what allows project partners to take programs to scale and sustain services more easily, the free, open-source access provided and hands off role played by ILO in programs presents unique challenges to monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment. As the ILO provides no financial support to partners and the program does not demand technical assistance or expertise from ILO for successful implementation, reporting implementation data to ILO is currently voluntary, ad-hoc, and inconsistent. Recognizing these challenges and the need to document results, the ILO began work with key partners in 2014 to design an incentive-based Shared Measurement Platform (SMP). The SMP is a technology-driven process for analysing data and presenting actionable information that helps project partners make more informed programming decisions. Specifically, the platform will facilitate online data collection and allow users to retrieve, analyse, transform and report data related to their training programs. Through the application of standardized indicators used by all partners that implement C-BED and EDGE training tools, the SMP will allow users to benchmark their programs performance against the aggregated SMP database and will provide the insights needed to accelerate and improve program decision making. Under this component of the assignment, the intern will be expected to undertake a review of the ILO program objectives and key M&E documents (outlined in Task#1) to better understand the theory of change and identify appropriate evaluation approaches for statistical analysis and reporting. Review of the SMP design and mapping of how existing online surveys pipe users will be important preparation for the intern to assist the programme in further developing the database and SMP dashboards using business intelligence software. Once the SMP is operational, the intern will liaise closely with ILO country offices and project partners to support evidence-based planning, monitoring and advocacy initiatives under the ILO C- BED and EDGE programs. 3

4 Tasks: Assist with database design, cleaning and migration of existing data, and development of dashboards for analysis and report generation (synthesising technical information into simple, understandable graphs and infographics to present data in a user-friendly manner); Assist in the development of a project management dashboard in association with the SMP- a set of control read outs which, when viewed as a whole, communicate the performance of the project and give a visual snapshot of the overall status of the project; Develop a concept note outlining a business case and process for expanding the SMP to accommodate EDGE; Review and update existing monitoring frameworks for the project by ILO and implementing partners by recommending various additional data sources to support monitoring and evaluation; Follow up with the partners to ensure that the monitoring and evaluation tools are properly understood and implemented in the field, including data collection, data entry, database queries, and report generation; Assist in the development of quarterly fact sheets on achievements and reached figures, and draft inputs/reports for ILO and Donor review and planning processes; 3. Evaluation of program impacts and research into SME productivity and working conditions Evidence already suggests that programs applying the ILO s new training methodology can be effective and have a favourable cost benefit ratio for public, non-profit and private BDS providers of all sizes. The approach, which focuses on the better use of existing resources and capacities rather than ad-hoc investments in infrastructure and technical capacity for interventions of limited scale, is proving to have a higher chance of uptake and sustainability. Through rigorous results measurement and analysis the ILO can provide evidence of this and other impacts the program is having on beneficiaries, demonstrate to constituents and other stakeholders the value of ILO s mandate, obtain critical data that allows for informed public policy decisions, and share successful innovations and best practices from the field. Effective communication of these results and pursuit of research to deepen analysis and understanding of key issues will be one of the most important factors contributing to the planning and formulation of milestones for future work. It is expected to lay a much stronger foundation for policies by filling knowledge gaps, producing conclusive evidence and making practical tools available. In the area of impact evaluation, the intern will assist the program in developing reports and fact sheets to make quantitative and qualitative data easily understandable to general audiences. These knowledge products will serve as an important advocacy and fund-raising tool targeting policy and decision-makers (at international and national levels), the donor community, other UN agencies, and development actors (NGOs, private sector). This task will 4

5 involve running additional analysis on data sets and presentation of key findings in concise graphs and narratives. In the area of research, the intern will assist the program by collecting relevant economic and labour market data, doing bibliographic and background research on topics related to SME productivity and working conditions, and drafting parts of reports and papers describing the outcomes of the analysis. Tasks: Assist in the development of a resource system for ILO to access relevant program data, implementation reports and statistics on the intervention by location; Work closely with ILO project teams to follow-up on previous training, in ongoing monitoring of activities, and in implementing evaluative work to document progress toward impact; Identification and formulation of lessons learned from evaluations and studies; Conducting research (i) to evaluate SME training needs and improve BDS outreach methodologies, and (ii) on contextual factors impacting SME in the ILO s geographic areas of work; Developing research papers and fact sheets on productivity and working conditions in SME highlighting (i) persistent inequities in access to BDS along various dimensions of ethnicity, geography, gender and wealth (ii) illustrating trends overtime and across contexts by comparing program data; Qualification requirements: - Candidates must be enrolled in the final year of a postgraduate degree programme, or in a higher degree programme, in a development-related field (preferably in statistics, economics or social science) or have completed such programme in the year preceding the application; - A certain level of knowledge and experience in the field of monitoring and evaluation would be an advantage, including a working knowledge of quantitative data analysis and use of database applications, analytical tools and cloud-based business intelligence software; - Excellent writing and reporting skills and fluency in English - knowledge of a regional language and/or proficiency in another UN working language is an asset; - Familiarity with the ILO and rights based approach and/or experience in working with non-government organizations will be considered as an advantage; Please only apply for an internship if you fulfil the following three criteria: 1. You have no close relative serving in the ILO. 2. This is your first internship with the ILO (only one internship is permitted). 3. You are currently following a course of study (last year of Master degree or above), or have completed studies within 12 months prior to this application. 5

6 Additional Information: Where an intern is not financially supported by any institution or programme, such as a university, government, foundation or scholarship programme, a stipend intended to cover basic subsistence costs will be paid. In Bangkok the stipend is USD 550 per month. The ILO does not cover the cost of travel to and from the duty station. Please note that the ILO does not take responsibility for any costs arising from accidents and/or illness incurred during the internship. You will be responsible for your own insurance coverage for illness and accidents for the duration of the internship. For general information on ILO internships, please see: Closing Date: Interested candidates are requested to send their applications to the following address: bodwell@ilo.org by 23 June The ILO values diversity. We welcome applications from qualified women and men, including those with disabilities. 6