Workers' Education and Environment - Final Evaluation page 1 - Worker's activities

Departments and Offices

Workers' Education and Environment
Final Evaluation, 20-31 January 1999
Evaluation Worksheet

prepared by Else-Marie Osmundsen,
Chief Technical Adviser

DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVE

(a)	What is the development objective?
	"To put the cooperating trade unions in a position to participate fully in the formulation and implementation of national environmental and sustainable development policies which reflect the special needs and concern of the workers and their organizations."

(b)	What indicators of development objective attainment were identified in the design?
	The project document does not specifically identify indicators of development objective attainment. Instead it refers to indicators of objectives’ achievement. These indicators are found in sections 2 (b) and 2 (c).

(c)	Have any facts been observed which tend to confirm that the project is making a contribution towards the attainment of the development objective?
	Many of the cooperative national centres have now approved trade union policies on environmentally sustainable development issues including strategies and action plans. This is an important step in preparing them for full participation in advisory and decision making bodies. However, ensuring that they will be able to obtain a place on those bodies is the next step. For many participating national centres this is still an illusive goal which can be greatly facilitated by working together with other ILO efforts to promote bi- and tri-partism. For instance, workshops held in India and Malaysia in cooperation with the ILO/APPOT project led to the development of policies and action plans on relevant priority issues between the three social partners.

(d)	State whether the project has had the desired impact on the target group (intended beneficiaries).
	The project target groups are as follows:
	(i)	Trade union directors of education, administrators of workers' education institutions and programmes, senior instructors in workers' education, trade union policy-makers in the field of workers' education;
	(ii)	trade union leaders and representatives of unions on environmental bodies at various levels;
	(iii)	trade unionists and workers' educators at local and enterprise levels, including rank and file membership, both men and women.
	The target groups during missions were trade union leaders and policy makers, and directors and administrators of workers' education institutions and programmes. The forty-one national, sub-regional, and inter-regional workshops which have taken place thus far targeted a mixture of general secretaries and presidents of national centres and unions, trade union leaders and policy makers in the field of workers' education and senior instructors. Co-operation with other ILO programmes has made it easier to reach the target groups. Since the national centres can offer little financial support for the training of rank and file members, the Project operates through international trade union organizations and trade secretariats (ITSs) to reach this target group. Three more ITSs have had direct financial assistance from the project since the mid-term evaluation, ITF, EI and ITGLWF. It should be noted that at the time that Phase two of the Project became operational, very few, if any, trade union leaders and active members represented unions on environmental bodies at any level. This was mostly due to a lack of acceptance by ministries and regional/local authorities. Nevertheless, awareness among the target groups was very high, although very few centres/unions had any "active" policy on environmental issues. It can be said now that there has been improvement in their acceptance in a number of countries, although there remains much to be done. National centres and sectors in about 30 countries in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean have been involved in activities which were financially supported by the Project. The principal focus of these activities was to help the unions to form policies and action plans to influence the regional and national policies on environmentally sustainable development issues. The Project is now more visibly having the desired impact on the target groups. In fact the project has now had a widespread effect even beyond the target group countries. Unions in countries in Latin America and both Eastern and Western Europe are integrating environmental activities into their work, mostly due to the two folders of booklets developed during Phase two. Through the encouragement of the CTA, MDTs, ITSs, and ACTRAV staff, the booklets have had a positive impact on the trade union’s policy-making.

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