Monitoring the impact of the WageIndicat [...]

Duration: October 2015 – January 2017

Funded by: FNV Mondiaal

Partners:

Burundi,  Confederations des Syndicats du Burundi (COSYBU),   Association des Employeurs de Burundi (AEB)

Ghana,  Ghana Trade Union Confederation (GTUC),  Ghana Employers’ Association (GEA)

Kenya,  Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU),  Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE)

Rwanda,  Centrale Syndicale des Travailleurs du Rwanda (CESTRAR),  Private Sector Foundation (PSF)

Tanzania, Trade Union Congress of Tanzania (TUCTA),  Association of Tanzania Employers (ATE)

Uganda,  National Organisation of Trade Unions (NOTU),  Federation of Uganda Employers (FUE)

Project Management: Wage Indicator Foundation, Karen Kammeraat

Objective

The objective of this proposal is to have an insight of the impact of transparent labour market information on the users of this information. Was the information new to them? What did they use it for? How did it change/improve their lives? Did they share the information with other people?

The wish to have a better insight originates from the new phase WageIndicator Foundation is in, and from the external evaluation of the Enabling Social Dialogue that was executed in the last quarter of 2014 and funded by FNV Mondiaal. WageIndicator Foundation plans to increase the income that is commercially generated. In order to do so the foundation needs to have evidence of the value of the information that is presented and distributed. Knowledge of the impact will help in defining this value.

Introduction

From 2011 onwards the WageIndicator Foundation started establishing sites with information about wages and labour law in African countries. In order to promote the sites and the content of the sites a number of offline activities such as debates, campaigns and compliance interventions were also developed. The offline activities are implemented by national partners, normally trade unions and employers’ organisations and in some countries research institutes or journalists.

Current measurement of output, outcome and impact

WageIndicator Foundation knows how many people visit the site, how many people fill out a survey, complete complaint forms and submit questions through the legal helpdesk. It is also known which pages are visited best. This is all closely monitored through online systems. In almost all African countries we see that the number of visitors increases every year, sometimes numbers even double in a year time. Submitted surveys, complaint forms and questions also increase, albeit more slowly.

Furthermore, all project partners submit reports twice a year, a mid term report on the January-June period and an annual report on January-December. While the mid-term report focuses on progress of activities and outputs, the annual report is also meant to describe progress on outcomes. While anecdotal evidence is provided in these reports on the outcomes and impact, it is not systematic and complete.

The project

As the external evaluation pointed out correctly the monitoring of online development is done systematic and precise, but this is not the case when it comes to monitoring effects on the ground, i.e. how did the information provided through the websites and offline activities change the (working) life of the users?

The project consists interviewing a representative sample of those people who participated in debates or mediation sessions, or who asked questions through the legal helpdesk. The interviews will be guided by a structured questionnaire.

Activities

We will kick off with a regional meeting with all partners in the Enabling Social Dialogue project (Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda). To involve the whole East African Union we add Burundi.

In this meeting we will discuss what we like to achieve and how we plan to do this. With the input of the national partners we will finalise the plan, decide upon the questions we will ask, the size of the sample respondents, how the analysis and reporting will be done and which country will undertake which impact measurement. As mentioned we will start with monitoring impact of two activities: the debates and the questions through the helpdesk.

Each of the six countries will monitor impact of at least one of the activities and the activities will be monitored in at least three (in case of five countries) or four (in case of six countries) countries.

Results

The following results will be achieved:

• In three to four African countries there is a better insight of the impact of the debates.

• In three to four African countries there is a better insight of the impact of the assistance through the legal helpdesk.

• We will know whether the method of collecting information about impact through email and text message questionnaires works. Based on this we can improve and expand the method to other countries.

• We will have evidence of the value of the information and activities of WageIndicator, which can be used for attracting funders, sponsors and companies.

• The national organisations will build up capacity on online impact measurement tools, and will hopefully also have positive spin-off effects on their own websites.

Work plan

• October 2015: Regional meeting in East Africa with trade unions and employers organisations from Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and possibly Burundi in order to discuss and detail the plans and divide the tasks.

• November 2015 – June 2016: Collecting information through email and text messages, analysing the information and writing country reports.

• June 2016: Evaluation meeting in East Africa with the same partners.