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FIRST ITEM ON THE AGENDA

Effect to be given to the recommendations of the
Working Party on the Evaluation of the
Active Partnership Policy

Contents

I. Introduction

II. Proposed methodology for monitoring of the Active Partnership Policy by the Governing Body

III. Activities

I. Introduction

1. In 1993 the ILO adopted its Active Partnership Policy (APP) with the aim of bringing it closer to its tripartite constituency in member States and enhancing the coherence and quality of the technical services provided to them, within the mandate of the Organization and in pursuit of common objectives.

2. The Committee on Technical Cooperation has monitored the progress of the policy through Office papers submitted to its meetings in 1994, 1995 and 1996. In March 1997 the Committee on Technical Cooperation recommended to the Governing Body that an evaluation of the Active Partnership Policy be undertaken. This was approved and a Working Party, comprising three Government, three Employer and three Worker members, was constituted with the Chairperson of the Committee on Technical Cooperation as an additional member to chair its proceedings.

3. The Working Party submitted its report on the evaluation of the Active Partnership Policy to the Committee on Technical Cooperation in November 1998.⁽¹⁾  A Governing Body decision was taken during the November 1998 session that the Officers of the Committee were to be requested, together with the Deputy Director-General, to work out a proposal for the March Governing Body meeting for the follow-up of the report and to propose the establishment of an evaluation methodology for the APP and a system for ongoing monitoring of the APP by the Governing Body. A paper could then be prepared for discussion during the March 1999 Governing Body.

4. This paper has been prepared to give effect to the above-mentioned decision of the Governing Body. Part II presents a proposal for continuous monitoring of the APP by the Governing Body. Part III proposes an action plan as a follow-up to the report of the Working Party on the Evaluation of the Active Partnership Policy.

II. Proposed methodology for monitoring of the
Active Partnership Policy by the Governing Body

5. The involvement of members of the Governing Body in the implementation process of APP through direct contact and monitoring exercises at the field level would enable them to fully understand the process and provide the necessary policy guidance to the Office in the field of technical cooperation.

6. A light exercise is envisaged. For each of the four regions concerned, there would be a three-member team nominated by the Technical Cooperation Committee for a period of three years coinciding with the terms of the Governing Body. Every year, each team would visit one MDT/area office and one project in their respective region.

7. During each November session of the Governing Body, the ILO will provide the Officers of the Committee on Technical Cooperation with a list of projects that are earmarked for review, preferably falling under a thematic evaluation exercise carried out by the Office. After necessary discussions with their respective groups the Officers will inform the secretariat of their selection of the project and MDT.

8. For each region the monitoring exercise will involve a two-day visit to a project site and to the MDT and area offices covering the country hosting the project to be visited for another two days. Should the area office and MDT not be in the same city, the visit will be limited to the MDT where the area office director will be invited to come and meet with the monitoring team. Another day would be spent on report writing.

9. The regional and area/MDT offices concerned will provide the necessary logistics support. The final report will be presented to the following November Governing Body session of the Committee on Technical Cooperation. The Office will work as the secretariat to the Governing Body component of the evaluation exercise.

10. If the above is acceptable in principle, the terms of reference for the exercise will be prepared by the Office in consultation with the Officers of the Committee on Technical Cooperation.

III. Activities

11. Activities suggested as follow-up on the report of the Working Party on the Evaluation of the Active Partnership Policy are presented in the following table. This draws on the findings and conclusions, outlines the issues and problems to be addressed, and proposes action to be taken by the Office and constituents.

Suggested follow-up activities

Problem	Action by the ILO	Action by constituents
A. Further operationalization and strengthening of the APP
Constituents at all levels do not understand their role in the APP and cannot participate in it effectively.	Area office directors should organize workshops with constituents on their roles and responsibilities pertaining to the APP. Creation of permanent tripartite committees to be encouraged for regular meetings with the ILO. Constituents should be involved in the country objectives (CO) exercise from its commencement.	Participate actively in the process.
There is a need to expand the ILO's country-level contacts to ministries such as those covering finance and planning, whose portfolios have relevance for elements of the mandate of the Organization.	Area office directors to improve contacts; MDT staff to work more closely with such bodies. Multidisciplinary work in technical cooperation to be enhanced.	Assist the area offices in identifying the relevant bodies and in formally establishing (at the government and the national level) modalities for joint activities, communication flows, etc. Sensitize and inform such bodies that the ILO has a comparative advantage in its mandate areas and should be involved in or kept informed of relevant activities and policies.
There is need to establish partnerships between the ILO and other organizations in the framework of the APP, more specifically with the UN system.	ILO headquarters should maintain and improve contacts at the headquarters level of such organizations and provide feedback to the field on strategies and the action to be taken. Regional offices should similarly maintain contacts at the regional level and alert ILO headquarters and area offices on developments at the regional level. Area offices and, when necessary, MDTs, on the basis of the guidelines and information mentioned above should establish and improve contacts at the country levels.	Assist in ensuring that such contacts are operationalized at the country levels.
B. Country objectives (COs)
A large number have still to be completed.	Area office directors to ensure that, as a matter of top priority, they complete the outstanding country objectives.	Participate actively and assist in completing the exercise.
The completed ones need updating.	Introduction of a mechanism to review, update and adjust the completed COs as and when necessary.
COs continue to be unduly influenced by ILO staff and in many cases COs are not fully shared by constituents.	Prepare clearer general instructions and guidelines for area offices and MDTs on how COs should be prepared and on their main format and content. Area office directors to make special efforts for awareness-raising and making the objectives of the exercise clear to constituents so as to ensure a sense of ownership among them. Area office directors also to ensure a greater degree of balance in the ILO's activities in relation to different constituents.	Constituents should increase awareness of the purpose and modalities of the exercise among their members at all levels.
There is a need for greater reliance on tripartite mechanisms in the formulation of COs.	The capacity of social partners should be strengthened so that they can effectively participate individually and in a tripartite forum in the formulation of the COs.	Constitute a tripartite committee for the formulation of COs and monitoring of their implementation.
It is not clear how country objectives are translated into technical cooperation projects and programmes.	MDTs, in collaboration with the area offices and in consultation with ILO technical departments, should prepare operational programmes and projects. PROPAR/TEC to ensure that the documents developed are coherent, correspond to the format required by the concerned donor, and viable. PROPAR/TEC to assist in the mobilization of the required resources.
C. Personnel issues and restructuring
There are a number of vacant positions in the MDTs; associate experts are covering for ILO staff vacancies. There is a need to improve the quality of staff.	Vacant positions to be filled without delay; more use to be made of short-term national experts.
The composition, size and coverage of the MDTs do not always appear to match the constituents' needs adequately.	A review of staffing to ensure that the specializations continue to reflect current needs. A review of the distribution and geographical coverage of area offices and MDTs.
Necessary adjustments need to be made to correspond to the real situation and to demand.	The technical capabilities of MDT specialists should be constantly upgraded through training to enable them to provide quality advice to ILO constituents.
AO directors, especially those new to the field, do not seem to be fully briefed or suitably trained not only in the preparation of COs, but also on many of the key operational aspects of the APP.	Support and training to be provided to cater for the new and expanded dimensions of the area office director's role.
D. Roles and responsibilities
Considerable confusion over, or disregard of, the roles and responsibilities of the different components of the ILO as laid down in the APP.	Relations between the field and headquarters and the specific roles of the different components of the ILO should be further clarified, building on the work and review undertaken through Turin workshops and the observations made by the Working Party. Headquarters technical departments should not undertake technical cooperation activities or studies that can be conducted more efficiently from the field. (This aspect should be considered even for regional and interregional programmes.) MDTs should strike a balance between their work at the global level, upstream advisory work and technical cooperation activities. Review the Director-General's Circular No. 505 of 4 August 1993 on the functions, roles and responsibilities of ILO structures.
E. Multidisciplinarity, working together and coordination
There is at present very little interaction between headquarters and MDT specialists, especially on multidisciplinary subjects. There is very little interaction between area office directors and technical departments. Some technical departments have tried to organize meetings with their specialists. This has almost always been done in an uncoordinated manner, giving rise to a host of problems at the field level. Nor has this approach furthered multidisciplinary approaches to solving problems.	Increased dialogue and interaction between headquarters and field units should be established through periodical meetings between MDTs and area office directors, and between headquarters departments and MDT technical specialists.
PROPAR/TEC had been organizing technical meetings between technical departments and MDT specialists to discuss contemporary issues with a view to identifying priority areas for action and plan joint or complementary action. This programme had been discontinued because of the financial crisis.	This programme should be revived as soon as possible and the necessary budgetary allocation should be made. Joint activities should then be undertaken by headquarters and MDTs where specialists from headquarters will be working more with the MDTs as a team.
F. Information flows
There is a need to improve the Organization's visibility and to make the full range of services that it is able to offer better known. Dialogue with the ILO at times tends to be only at senior levels with a limited number of interlocutors.	The flow of information should be improved, and steps should be taken to ensure that the ILO can operate more as a corporate body. The possibility of using MDT newsletters and the Internet to improve information flows between the ILO and its national constituents should be considered. Country objectives should be distributed widely as a means of mobilizing resources.
Large communication and information gaps exist between the different components of the ILO structure.	Appropriate procedures and technical guidelines should be provided to support and facilitate exchanges and information sharing. Regular training should be provided to the staff of the field offices concerned.
G. Evaluation and monitoring of the APP
There is a lack of clearly established internal procedures for the evaluation of APP-related activities involving both ILO units and the tripartite constituency. The exact role of the Governing Body with regard to this important supervisory function is not clear.	The Office should prepare a comprehensive programme of work for continued assessment and evaluation of the implementation of the APP, and in that context evaluation machinery should be established as an integral part of the APP (and the possible establishment of a team in PROPAR/TEC specifically for that purpose). There is also a need for professional external evaluations in specific areas, and for self-evaluations.	Modalities for the continued involvement of Governing Body members in the evaluation process need to be established.

Geneva, 12 February 1999.

1. GB.273/TC/2.