TABLE OF CONTENTS ACRONYMS .......................................................................................................................................................................... ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................. iii I. BACKGROUND AND PROJECT DESCRIPTION ................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Project Context ............................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Project Description ..................................................................................................................................... 1 II. EVALUATION OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................ 4 2.1 Evaluation Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 4 2.2 Scope and Intended Users ........................................................................................................................ 4 2.3 Methodology .................................................................................................................................................. 4 2.4 Evaluation Limitations .............................................................................................................................. 6 III. EVALUATION FINDINGS ......................................................................................................................................... 7 3.1 Relevance and Validity of Project Design .......................................................................................... 7 3.2 Project Effectiveness ............................................................................................................................... 20 3.3 Efficiency of Resource Use .................................................................................................................... 27 3.4 Sustainability .............................................................................................................................................. 32 IV. MAIN CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................................................. 33 V. LESSONS LEARNED AND GOOD PRACTICES ................................................................................................ 35 5.1 Good Practices ........................................................................................................................................... 35 5.2 Lessons Learned ....................................................................................................................................... 35 VI. RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................................................................................... 37 ANNEXES ANNEX 1: Overview of Project Progress in Nepal ............................................................................................ 39 ANNEX 2: Evaluation Terms of Reference .......................................................................................................... 45 ANNEX 3: Evaluation Question Matrix ................................................................................................................. 66 ANNEX 4: List of Documents Reviewed ............................................................................................................... 81 ANNEX 5: Schedule of Field Visits and Other Stakeholder Meetings ....................................................... 83 ANNEX 6: Stakeholder Workshop Agenda and Participants ....................................................................... 84 ANNEX 7: Good Practice Case Study ...................................................................................................................... 85 i ACRONYMS ARCH Actions to Reduce Child Labor Project (Liberia) CEACR ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations CL Child Labor CLEAR II Country Level Engagement and Assistance to Reduce Child Labor II CLMS Child Labor Monitoring System CMEP Comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation Plan CRC UN Convention on the Rights of the Child CSO Civil Society Organization DMP Disaster Management Plan (Nepal) DoL Department of Labor (Nepal) GLP Global Learning Platform IAC International Advisory Council IAWG-CL Inter-Agency Working Group on Child Labor (Nepal) ILO International Labor Organization ILS International Labor Standards IO Intermediate Objective LI Labor Inspection ILAB International Labor Affairs Bureau LRC Legal Reform Committee LWOB Lawyers Without Borders M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MOL Ministry of Labor (Burkina Faso) MOLE Ministry of Labor and Employment (Nepal) NACOMAL National Commission Against Child Labor (Liberia) NAP National Action Plan NGO Non-Governmental Organization NMP National Master Plan (Nepal) NPC National Planning Commission (Nepal) NSC National Steering Committee (Burkina Faso) PAN/PFTE National Action Plan to Combat the Worst Forms of Child Labor (Burkina Faso) PMP Performance Monitoring Plan RAP Regional Action Plan SAARC South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation SAIEVAC South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children SFS Sistemas, Familias y Sociedad – Consultores Asociados SCA Solicitation for Cooperative Agreement SO Supporting Objective TA Technical Assistance TDA Trade and Development Act ToC Theory of Change TOR Terms of Reference TPR Technical Progress Report USDOL United States Department of Labor WFCL Worst Forms of Child Labor ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report documents the main findings and conclusions of an independent interim evaluation of Country Level Engagement and Assistance to Reduce Child Labor II (CLEAR II), a four-year, United States Department of Labor (USDOL)-funded project that aims to support a global reduction in child labor (CL). The project, with a total budget of US$7,000,000 not including an additional US$294,000 of cost sharing, was initiated on September 30, 2014 and is currently scheduled to close on September 29, 2018. It is being implemented by Winrock International and its partners Verité International and Lawyers Without Borders (LWOB). CLEAR II proposes to partner with the governments of at least eight countries to enhance their capacity to reduce child labor in four main areas: (1) Strengthening legal frameworks in harmony with International Labor Standards; (2) Improving monitoring and enforcement of laws and regulations prohibiting child labor; (3) Implementation of national plans on child labor; and (4) Strengthening social programs and services that address the root causes of child labor. The interim evaluation assessed the project’s implementation since its launch in October 2014 until the time of the evaluation (February/March 2017), covering approximately the first 29 of the 48 months of the project. The evaluation findings, good practices, lessons learned, conclusions and recommendations are primarily intended for USDOL, Winrock and its partners. A team of three international consultants carried out the interim evaluation using document review, performance analysis and face-to-face interviews with national stakeholders in three countries (Nepal, Burkina Faso, and Liberia), with project management and USDOL representatives in Washington DC, and through calls to other stakeholders in Honduras, Mozambique, India and Geneva, among other places. The evaluators used the following evaluation criteria in their analysis of project achievements and outcomes to date: (a) relevance and validity of project design, (b) project effectiveness, (c) efficiency of resource use, and (d) sustainability. The evaluation was framed by the key evaluation questions contained in the evaluation Terms of Reference (TOR) (see Annex 2). Summary of Evaluation Findings At the time of the interim evaluation, CLEAR II had made limited progress against its overall objectives. The project was operational in one out of the eight countries planned to receive CLEAR II support. In Nepal, it had made moderate progress despite the massive earthquake that struck the country one day after the project’s official launch in Kathmandu. In contrast, in Burkina Faso, the other country that the project planned to provide with assistance early on, start-up was delayed for over two years due to political instability and security concerns. CLEAR II carried out a short intervention in one other country (Honduras) that was ended prematurely. Out of the five additional countries slated to receive project assistance, only Liberia has been formally approved to be added to the project with other beneficiary country candidates still in various stages of negotiation at the time of the evaluation. iii Relevance and Validity of Project Design Consistency of project objectives with national stakeholder needs: Although CLEAR II’s multi- country Theory of Change and results framework are coherent, the interim evaluation findings highlight the need to adapt project interventions to the opportunities, constraints and priority needs of stakeholders in each recipient country. Moreover, the project design’s entry point for establishing country level assistance strategies, which proposes