Labour and Employment Agency took part in evaluation of UNDP's MDG-F Programme

As a member of the MDG-F Reference Group, the Labour and Employment Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina took part in the Participatory Evaluation of the UNDP's MDG-F Programme carried out from September to mid October 2011. 

As a member of the MDG-F Reference Group, the Labour and Employment Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina took part in the Participatory Evaluation of the UNDP's MDG-F Programme carried out from September to mid October 2011.  During this period, the group held several meetings and made field visits to municipalities in BiH involved in implementation of the Programme specifically related to youth employment and retention in BiH.

One of the main results referring to employment was establishing Centres for Information, Counselling and Training within employment services which were made available for the youth in BiH.

Participatory Evaluation (PE) implies a process involving all programme related stakeholders: providers, partners, beneficiaries and any other stakeholders. Participation takes part throughout all phases of the evaluation: planning and design, gathering and analysing the data, identifying conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation, disseminating results and preparing action plans to improve programmes/projects.

Immediate beneficiaries of this document are representatives of local, entity and state authorities, NGOs, public utility companies, statistical offices, schools and other local partners and participants involved in the implementation process of the MDG-F Programme in BiH, as well as the UN agencies and others which could benefit from this kind of documents in their future work so as to improve their own activities and effectiveness.

Experiences have shown that PE improves implementation of a programme/project.  By listening to and learning from programme beneficiaries, field staff and other stakeholders who know why a programme is or is not working, it has been concluded that PE represents a crucial basis for its improvement. Also, the more these stakeholders are involved in identifying evaluation questionnaires, gathering and analysing data, the more likely they are to use the information obtained to improve the entire process.   Hence, PE helps both programme leaders and beneficiaries to act on the basis of the knowledge gained during implementation of this process.

Out of the total of 70 municipalities involved in the Programme, PE was conducted as a case study in four municipalities: Banja Luka, Bihać, East Sarajevo and Mostar based on the following criteria: number of programmes implemented in the territory of the municipality, number of local entities – partners directly involved in programmes, adequate geographic and administrative (entity) representation, positive/negative experiences of the UN agencies in working with municipalities (direct proposals).

There are currently four programmes in implementation in BiH financed through the Millennium Development Goals Fund (MDG-F) of the Spanish Government:

1. Integrating environmental management, linking local and national activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Environment and Climate Changes);
2. Securing access to water supply through institutional development and infrastructure (Democratic Economic Governance);
3. Enhancing cultural understanding in BiH (Culture for Development)
4. Youth employability (Youth, education, employment and migration)

The Millennium Development Goals – MDGs represent eight international development goals which all 192 UN member states and 23 international organizations have pledged to achieve by 2015.  The adoption of the Millennium Declaration in September 2000 by 189 UN member states was a defining moment for global cooperation in 21st century.  The Declaration has set out the key challenges facing humanity at the threshold of the new millennium, outlined responses to these challenges and established concrete measures to assess progress towards inter-related goals and tasks in development, governance, peace, security and human rights.  

The Millennium Development Goals Fund - MDG-F – is an international cooperation mechanism with the aim to accelerate progress in achieving MDGs worldwide.  The MDG-F supports state governments, local authorities and civic organizations in their efforts to tackle poverty and inequality issues.  With the aim of improving effectiveness of aid provided through this fund, all MDG-F programmes operate as collective strength in their tackling concrete situations and problems occurring in the field, thus cutting across frameworks of their individual mandates (as UN agencies) increasing synergies and promoting partnerships.