LO - Norway- CETU Final Evaluation Report, 2015-2018

Background

CETU and LO-Norway have since 2014 cooperated on a project entitled “Educating Trade Unions and Developing Social Dialogue in Ethiopia”. The purpose of the project is to strengthen CETU on collective bargaining and social dialogue.

Purpose/objective

The purpose of the evaluation was to assess the achievement of objectives, project management, implementation and coordination. The main purpose of the evaluation was to document higher-level results from the project, and to contribute to further development and project improvement and learning in CETU and LO-Norway.

Methodology

The evaluation followed the OECD approach focusing on following criteria:
i) Relevance ii) Effectiveness iii) Efficiency iv) Impact and v) Sustainability
The evaluation was based on qualitative research design method, where the data collection, analysis and presentation were mostly focused on qualitative elements, except for the document review which contained quantitative data. The evaluation included interviews with the elected leadership and staff, stakeholders, affiliated unions, beneficiaries including the Ministry of Labour, Employer`s organisations and CETUs Auditor.

Key findings

The conclusion of the evaluation is that the project activities were implemented largely as planned and that the project was relevant and beneficial to the organisation. Positive high level results were recorded in terms of increased number of enterprise-based unions organised, union members recruited and collective bargaining agreements signed. The collective bargaining agreements had society-wide impact. Apart from this, the evaluation found that a significant proportion of workers in Ethiopia remains unorganised and that CETU appear not to be pro-active in organising youth and workers in the informal economy.

The project also included policy impacts as it helped CETU input effectively into the labour law reform process which culminated into a new Labour Proclamation that is anchored on the fundamental principles and rights at work and thus consistent with international labour standards. Social impacts of the project can also be seen in improved wage incomes through collective bargaining which has had social welfare enhancing effects on livelihoods of urban households.

CETU established through the project period 532 new basic trade unions, an increase by 45 percent at the end of the project period. The increase of basic trade unions has resulted in organising and mobilisation of unorganised workers that brought on board 95,568 new union members during the project implementation period. Available documentary evidence suggests a total of 295 new collective agreements were signed between 2015 and 2018, against a target of 126 collective agreements.

Women are still grossly under-represented in CETU. The proportion of women in basic trade unions was reported at one third in December 2018. The objective was to increase female trade union leaders by 30 percent within four years, implying that the proportion of female leaders was to be increased from 2,123 (baseline figure in 2014) to 2,759 in December 2018. There is no evidence to show that this was achieved.

Social dialogue has generally been improved and that the external impact of the LO-Norway project has been notable with associated welfare enhancing outcomes linked to improved wages, social benefits and terms of employment in newly signed collective agreements. With the labour law revisions process, participation in the National Tripartite Consultative Board and Minimum Wages Board Forum, CETU and the participating affiliates have been able to improve their performance on social dialogue. The improvements made to the labour law and development of a minimum wage road map are cases in point. The societal impact of the project cooperation, therefore, appears significant.

Recommendations

• There is need to strengthen the implementation of standard results-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework).
• It is important that CETU implements and prioritises a membership data management system that captures membership characteristics
• It is recommended to introduce a pro-active union organising agenda towards youths and workers in the informal economy.
• A pro-active gender mainstreaming approach should be implemented at both CETU and affiliate level in order to realise gender affirmative action, and that this pro-active approach must be linked to the overall results-based monitoring and evaluation of programme activities to ensure gender results at outcome and impact levels are achieved.
• CETU and affiliates should adopt and implement concrete sustainability plans.
• To address project coordination gaps, there is need to establish a project committee consisting of people from finance, women affairs, organising, and research and education departments. This committee could include a representative from LO-Norway who can be drawn in discussions via electronic participations in meetings (virtual presence) or actual discussions with physical presence whenever opportunities would allow.
• Leverage its education and training capacity building activities for improved union organising, social dialogue and decent work.