Ilo evaluation

1.3SCORE implementation arrangements

1.3.1Stakeholders in SCORE implementation

The SCORE programme has a tripartite advisory structure. Its role is to advise the project on strategic issues such as potential new countries, good practices and programme contents. Members of the tripartite advisory committee are representatives of government, trade unions, employers’ organizations, ILO and donors. They monitor the progress of activities and give strategic advice during bi-annual advisory meetings. SCORE’s ultimate beneficiaries are managers and workers in SMEs in sectors with a high growth and job creation potential, that participate in domestic and international supply chains and have significant work related deficits, including workplace cooperation, gender discrimination and health and safety issues. The targeted SMEs have approximately 50 to 250 employees, a size where most SMEs start creating a middle management layer and have the necessary capacity to absorb new approaches and methodologies in their operations.
An important focus of SCORE in the second phase is to build the capacity of a coordinating organization. It wants to take steps to institutionalize SCORE by transferring programme management to a national organization, which would be responsible for developing and adapting training materials, training and certifying SCORE trainers and managing the distribution of SCORE trainings. These are, in most cases, employers’ organizations and industry associations, which serve as a voice for SMEs and represent and promote their business interests. In some cases this role can be fulfilled by government agencies. Employers’ organizations, industry associations and government agencies have also an important role to play in the endorsement and marketing of the training programme to their constituencies.
Organizations that market the programme will rely on the expertise of service providers to conduct the trainings and enterprise coaching. These can be commercial consulting firms as well as vocational training centres or government training agencies. Some industry associations and chambers of commerce with attached training institutions can also take on a role as service provider. SCORE will train and coach service providers in selling and delivering training and counselling to SMEs.
Service providers, industry associations and other partners are not the only ones to sell the programme. SCORE is also training labour inspectors, policy makers and journalists to use mass media and other forms of communication to spread the message that good working conditions can help to improve productivity and competitiveness.

1.3.2Milestones and steps in SCORE implementation

Phase I focused on the introduction of the SCORE training programme to partner organizations through the rollout of the SCORE modules (steps a) to c) in figure 3 below). Programme activities started in 2009 in South Africa, China and Indonesia. Countries where the rollout started a year later were Colombia, Ghana and India, followed by Vietnam in 2011 and Peru in 2013. A project with separate funding using the SCORE methodology in Bolivia also reports under the global SCORE project.

figure : Step-by-step SCORE implementation strategy

Focus of SCORE Phase II

Focus of SCORE Phase I

In April 2013, based on a positive evaluation of the first phase, the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) approved a five-year extension for SCORE, to work in the seven existing countries and to expand into one new country: Peru. Following the recommendations made in the evaluation report of the first phase, the main focus of the second phase lies on reaching programme sustainability. Emphasis is now being placed on the institutionalization of the training programme with partner organizations and the development of a marketing and communication strategy to communicate good practices and programme results to raise awareness of the SCORE product and increase demand.

1.3.3Management and Coordination Arrangements in SCORE implementation

SCORE is implemented with a global component at ILO headquarters in Geneva, decentralised country components and global as well as national tripartite advisory committees. These committees have an advisory role. Small ILO teams manage and implement the SCORE project at the national level. These teams consist of a national project manager and an administrative support officer. In most score countries a third national project officer. The national project manager reports to the global SCORE team, but parallel to this also reports to the director of the closest ILO country office from which it can receive in country support. The SCORE teams can also resort to regional Decent Work teams for additional support and in Latin America there is a special SCORE officer at the regional office in Lima to support implementation in Colombia and at the same time the expansion process to two new SCORE countries in Latin America. SCORE at the global level, is coordinated by a small team at ILO headquarters that consists of a chief technical advisor, two project officers, one half-time communications officer and one administrative support staff member. In addition to coordination and monitoring, the global team also serves as a knowledge hub and it engages in external communication with global stakeholders and the donors of SCORE.

1.3.4Development of budget and expenditures in SCORE Phase II

The overall budget for Phase I was 9.7 million US dollars.⁴ The total budget in Phase II is 18.1 million US dollars for the period of 4 years and two months (2013). With support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and extra-budgetary resources, SCORE is now also expanded to Bolivia. According to planning 39% (almost 7 million US dollars) will go to the global component at ILO headquarters, which will spend 40% on costs of project personnel. A part of this budget is a provision to flexibly top-up country budgets where SCORE activities can make most impact. At the country level the average budget for Phase II oscillates between 1,1 and 1,6 million US dollars; Ghana and Vietnam have the lowest budgets of around 1,1 million US dollars. The budgets for China, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Africa are only until the end of 2016. In most countries about 40% of the planned expenditures in Phase II of the SCORE programme are associated with costs of the project team. The bulk of the remaining funds are for the costs of training trainers and enterprises.⁵ In addition to the country and global budgets, a statutory 13% for programme support costs is charged and for the period 2014 - 2017 5% contingencies are included. For each country, SCORE has developed a funding model that combines support from national public institutions, private sector partnerships and SME user-fees. This is to work towards a gradual reduction of support from donors and become financially sustainable after the support from donors for the programme will end in 2017. It is foreseen that in addition to the budget, 1 million US dollars additional support will be obtained from third parties and an additional 1 million US dollars will be obtained as in-kind contributions from partners in the project.