ILO-Turin+Partnership

** ILO-TURIN Partnership on Capacity Development **
 * Decent Work Country Scans **

**Introduction**
The Programme and Budget 2012-2013 places special emphasis on information and knowledge management. One of the three key elements of the new Knowledge Management Strategy has the objective of developing a coordinated approach to ILO Decent Work country level analysis as a basis for improving services to constituents at the country level and more effective development of DWCPs. The specific objective is to develop and apply a common methodology for – referred to as Decent Work Country Scan - for analysing the gaps and polices related to the four pillars of Decent Work for All Women and Men. This methodology, which will incorporate the cross-cutting theme of gender equality, will build on existing good practices for integrated Decent Work Country analysis conducted by Country Offices, DWTs and ROs, the Global Jobs Pact approach, integrating it with Decent Work Country Profiles, using the Decent Work indicators, and other country level reviews. Thus Decent Work Country Scans will provide rapid, short, succinct, coherent, integrated and easy-to-read summaries of the Decent Work situation and policies and provide strategic policy options for the further promotion of Decent Work for All Women and Men. Having a brief just in time diagnosis document of Decent Work issues and policies available for member States will allow the ILO to better place decent work issues and policies at the national level, and relate them to the key national policy frameworks, reform processes, and cooperation frameworks. It will also allow the ILO to more strongly advocate and promote the centrality of employment, social protection, social dialogue and respect for rights – the Decent Work Agenda’s four pillars – and their in-separable, interrelated, mutually-supportive nature in national, regional and global policy debates and fora. The methodology to be developed for the Decent Work Country Scan is to be the ILO corporate template for a rapid, succinct, coherent, integrated and easy-to-read presentation of the Decent Work Vision in a given country.

The Decent Work Agenda provides the basic policy framework for ILO analysis and discussion of the challenges member states and social partners face in the world of work, in respect to social justice, fair globalization and equitable development. This was affirmed by the 2008 International Labour Conference when it adopted the //ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization//.
 * Why a Decent Work Country Scan? **

The DWCScan methodology will build on the core elements of the 2008 Declaration, the four strategic pillars of the Decent Work Agenda. It will present a short, comprehensive, technical sound narrative and subsequent diagnosis concerning the key issues and policies in the specific country related to employment, social protection, international labour standards and social dialogue.

For this reason the DWCScan will serve several possible uses in the relevant country member states:

(i) Provide the constituents strategic and technical input for use in national tripartite policy dialogue (ii) Serve as a programmatic instrument for the development, renewal and evaluation of the DWCP, (iii)Contribute to the analysis and planning frameworks including the CCA, UNDAF, UNDAP and those of other development partners, (iv) Offer technical input to the development of the national policy development frameworks.

It should be underscored that these four possible uses are mutually supportive and in many countries the constituents and the ILO may be engaged in all four purposes at the same time though possibly in different ways.

It is important to clarify that the DWC Scans methodology is not to duplicate existing country assessments nor is it to “reinvent the wheel”. This Assignment is to work in close collaboration with all the Regions and the four pillars of the Decent Work Agenda to develop a corporate standard for how to carry out a DWCscan. The Assignment will build on established good practices for integrated country level assessment of the Decent Work situation and policies. The Assignment will work with the field offices to develop a DWCScan template that is practical, feasible for the field to carry out, addresses the needs of the country and the ILO Constituents, is short, light, presents the Decent Work situation (“where do we stand”) and offers a vision (“the way forward”) on the Decent Work situation in the country.

Also, the Decent Work Country Scan does not replace the need for the four Sectors or other Departments to conduct in-depth and thematically focused analysis[1]. Subject to the specific Decent Work achievements and challenges in a given country, the need and demand for such focused in-depth analysis of a particular theme is still relevant.

“Users” of the DWCScans are:
 * For whom is the Decent Work Country Scan? **
 * Constituents in the country who will be provided such analysis and understanding of the Decent Work deficits and policies options, for enhanced contributions during development of the National Policy Frameworks;
 * Country Directors, country office teams (especially national Programme Officers) when preparing the DWCP, advocating within the UN and with other development partners, for mobilizing resources, and for advocacy and technical contributions on Decent Work for national policy development frameworks;


 * The DWT Director and his/her DWT specialists for guiding an integrated, coherent, collective systematic description and analysis of the DW deficits and policies. This will facilitate better technical support to the constituents and the country offices. Also it will stimulate and enhance the technical competences of the DWT Specialists in Decent Work policy integration and coherence. Subsequently, it will improve the knowledge base by systematically amassing information and experience on institutions and policies promoting Decent Work.


 * The Regional Offices who will have substantial comprehensive and continuous input for regional DW policy trends analysis. This is essential for maintaining a strong technical foundation at regional level and for forging also regional strategic alliances with international development partners and regional fora.


 * HQ Sectors and Program will have stronger national policy narratives as inputs into the technical knowledge base and the flagship publications and as information for better definition of Outcome strategies, CPOs and indicators.


 * For ILC and GB discussions and background documents


 * For ILO to maintain and strengthen its global leadership on policy and advocacy for the Decent Work Agenda.


 * What will a Decent Work Country Scan will look like? **

The DWCScan is an analysis of the national Decent Work situation and policies based on desk review of already available information, sex-aggregated data and statistics for the country. The Scan methodology will provide a common template for conducting such a review, the results of which will be summarized in a section entitled “Setting the Scene”. This narrative will be structured to reflect the four pillars of the Decent Work Agenda.

The Decent Work Country Scan will tell the story of Decent Work for All Women and Men, the availability of and access to productive employment, social protection, social dialogue and rights. It will provide a vision for how the growth and development can be made more inclusive on productive employment, social protection, social dialogue and rights.

Each DWCScan will have three parts: 1) Part I will describe the evolution of main, sex-aggregated Decent Work Indicators and other basic economic and social indicators in the country. It will present the Decent Work trends, the Decent Work achievements and deficits. It will present the “story” on the availability of and access to productive employment, social protection, social dialogue and rights. It will identify the main factors and causes behind the Decent Work achievements and deficits and it will identify the main Decent Work challenges ahead. This part will have no more than 5 pages. 2) Part II will – building on the main challenges identified in Part 1 - contain a rapid assessment of policies and institution from the perspective of Decent Work. It will, through the perspective of Decent Work: equal access to and inclusion for all women and men to productive employment, social protection, social dialogue and international labour rights. It will also assess how the policies and institutions are integrated, coherent and working towards the overall objective of providing Decent Work for All Women and Men, especially for the vulnerable groups. This part will have no more than 10-15 pages. 3) Part III will contain gender-responsive suggestions on policy options for how the Decent Work for All Women and Men can be further promoted. This part will be strategic and forward looking. It will provide an overall vision for coherent and integrated promotion of the Decent Work Agenda. This part will have no more than 5 pages.


 * What is the process envisaged to produce the scans? **

The DWCScans will build on key inputs consisting of the existing knowledge base in each country generated by the ILO, the government, social partners, local academia and research as well as other international organizations. More specifically, as Diagram 1 suggests, they will be based on desk-reviews of the following inputs: For each of the above mentioned inputs a generic template will be developed for amassing and presenting the information. Also, dummy tables and graphs will be developed for the statistics to be collected.
 * 1) Rapid review the country’s policies and targets related to economic and social development
 * 2) Inventory of existing reports, analysis and studies relevant to the four pillars of the Decent Work Agenda including by ILO and other UN Agencies, International Finance Institutions, International Development Agencies, INGOs, NGOs, national academia or other national institutions. The inventory will also build on the country policy descriptions of the Gateway.
 * 3) Available statistics, disaggregated by sex, on Decent Work issues, including those available in the Gateway and from Decent Work Country Profiles where applicable.
 * 4) Summary of ILO outputs in the country and outcomes that be at least partly attributed to the ILO. Where DWCP Reviews have been conducted, these will form the basis for this input summary.
 * 5) Summary of UN and other key international development partners outputs in the country and outcomes that can be at least partly attributed to these. This summary will be structured around the main decent work policies.
 * 6) A standardized checklist of the key policy areas relevant for promoting decent work (this check-list – which will state that gender equality must be a cross-cutting issues – is very close to that in the GJP and includes: employment policies, growth, macro-economic, productive transformation & enterprise development, skills and labour market policies--; social protection; social dialogue and international labour standards. To the extent possible it will draw from the policies amassed in the Gateway.

The preparatory work and stock taking will be carried out by a national team under the immediate supervision of the Country Office and according to predefined corporate templates and guidelines. These templates and guidelines will be developed by the DWCScan Assignment team in close collaboration with the multi-sectoral HQ based technical task team and the COs and DWT teams of the initial countries. Please see separate documents “Developing a Decent Work Country Scan” and “Preparing a Decent Work Country Scan Step by Step”for an illustration and description of how the collaboration between the Assignment, the Regional Office, the DWT and the Country Office is envisaged. The DWCScan will be requested by the Country Office. The ILO Constituents support that the DWCScan will be conducted. The compilation of the key inputs – as per the template – will be amassed by the Country Office or by a national partner under the coordination of the Country Office. The technical assessment and the drafting of the Scan narrative will primarily be the responsibility of the DWT.

The desk-review phase will be a reiterative process between data, information collection and assessment. Where quantitative and sex-aggregated data may not be available, qualitative data and information will be relied on. Availability of, access to and control over productive resources, benefits and policy development process of all men and women - especially the vulnerably groups of the population - need to be fully understood.

A continued tripartite consultation process – aiming to have at least one third female participants - will be an essential part of the methodology for the DWCScan. In-country tripartite consultations will take place:
 * prior to the conduct of the scan to ensure that the DWCScan is supported by the constituents; addresses the needs of the constituents; ensure their guidance and inputs to the benefit of the DWCScans, that the perspectives and needs of both women and men are reflected in the priority Decent Work issues in the country;
 * for final consultations on the draft Scan before it is published.

Capacity development for the ILO constituents and the ILO staff is an integral part of the Assignment to develop a corporate template for how the ILO offers its constituents a coherent, integrated, light and succinct assessment of the Decent Work for All Women and Men situation and policies. A strategic partnership between the Assignment, ILO HRD and TURIN is foreseen for the development and implementation of the two capacity development tracks: i) for the ILO staff, and ii) for the ILO Constituents in the preparation and use of the DWCscan.
 * ILO-TURIN Partnership on Capacity Development **

The overall objectives of the Partnership are the following:


 * 1) To joint develop and implement a participatory process for an incremental and consultative process for the development of the corporate DWCScan template and the associated guidelines
 * 2) To jointly develop and implement a capacity development plan for the ILO constituents’ use of the DWCScan so as to enhance the social partners’ advocacy for and role in promoting Decent Work for All Women and Men in national policy dialogue and policy development processes.
 * 3) To jointly develop and implement a capacity development plan for the ILO staff in applying the DWCScans template and associated guidelines.

In the development of these capacity development plans it will be important to also ensure appropriate linkage with the capacity development foreseen under the other two IKM assignments on the Gateway and the Research & Publications respectively.

Key components of the Partnership are: a) Develop a 2 day knowledge sharing workshop on how selected international organisations (e.g. WB, IFC, UNDP, DFID, EU, OECD, EU, IHS, EIU) carry out their country review and policy analysis. This will be a contribution to learning from others that also do country review and policy analysis. b) Organise and facilitate the first global meeting of the DWCScan Focal Points. This is expected to be a 2 ½ - 3 days workshop conducted in Turin in September 2012. The purpose is to revise current experience on country analysis and to revise the draft DWCScan template in light of what can be sustained and be value-adding for the field structure. It will have the following main programme items: 1) Good practices arising from DWCP evaluations, 2) Good practices from the regions on how to prepare the country review and analysis prior to the development of the DWCPs, 3) consultation on the draft DWCS template and review of country examples, 4) consultation on the draft DWCScan guidelines c) Present at the September workshop possible options for an electronic forum that can facilitate easy interaction and collaboration between the FPs as well as give easy access to relevant documents related to the DWCScan. The user-friendliness, the sustainability and the compatibility with other ILO systems of the modality will be primary criteria for selection. d) Organise a Learning Event for the experience on the preparation of the DWCScan when 4-6 countries have been drafted. This learning event must include social partners, national consultants and/or partners involved in the preparation of the DWCScan and the ILO staff who have been involved in the DWCScans. If logistics and funds allow, additional countries to have the DWCScan carried out should be invited. e) Carry out an assessment of the capacity development needs in close collaboration with the field offices and develop a generic staff capacity development “tool kit” consisting of the DWCScan template and associated guidelines, TOR for its preparation. These capacity development materials should be delivered at national, sub-regional or regional level subject to what is cost-effective delivery benefitting largest numbers of relevant ILO staff. f) Carry out an assessment of the capacity development needs of the ILO constituents for the use of the DWCScan in national advocacy and policy development processes. The development of the generic tool kit for the capacity development will take into account the need for translation and delivery in a national language. g) At the end of the assignment, organise in conjunction with a GB meeting (possibly March 2014) a global Knowledge Fair to present and exchange the experience of the 15 DWCScan countries. This Knowledge Fair will also include the development of a DWCScan resource persons that can be called upon for sharing experience for future DWCScans.

[1][1] For example: Employment Trends Reports, Employment Targeting, Employment Diagnostic Analysis, Wage Trends, Social Budgeting, Social Protection Expenditure Reviews, Rapid Assessment of Social Protection, Enabling Business Environment, etc.