Final Programme Evaluation of Path to Economic Recovery: Facilitating Decent Jobs in the Gaza Strip

Project Overview

( UNDP/PAPP) launched the “Path to Economic Recovery: Facilitating Decent Jobs in the Gaza Strip” Programme hereinafter referred to as ‘programme’ with funding from and in partnership with the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) and other’s donors. The overall goal of the programme is to address the issue of unemployment in the Gaza Strip, by empowering youth4 to exercise their career choices and the potential to lead a better life using economic empowerment tools for creating short, medium, and long-term job opportunities. The proposed approach for implementation provided opportunities for skilling and employment of youth, particularly woman, and persons with disabilities (PwDs) in the Gaza Strip by using entrepreneurship, incubators, vocational training, and onsite intensive skilling in addition to supporting MSMEs and strengthening their capacities to sustain in the market. The programme targets youth and women, and other marginalized groups in the Gaza Strip by providing them with greater access to decent productive jobs in the private and public sectors and contributing to sustainable and inclusive economic development. The target beneficiaries possess different competency levels, including workers and graduates who were provided with opportunities for short-term jobs, apprenticeship, training, and incubation of new enterprises. While on the short-term facilitating opportunities for income generation, the programme is expected to contribute towards and improve access to more sustainable job opportunities and strengthened social cohesion. During the period from July 2019 to 30 June 2021, the programme has achieved the following results under the below listed outputs:Output 1: Gazans have greater access to short-term dignified job opportunities in private and public sectors (including C4W initiatives and internship/ apprenticeship opportunities)Output 2: Youth and PwDs have improved capacities in technical and vocational education and training.Output 3: Young entrepreneurs have greater access to medium- and long-term job opportunities.Output 4: SMEs have strengthened capacities in sustaining and growing their businesses in the market.Accordingly , UNDP/ PAPP is planning to have a final program evaluation in which it aims at assessing the UNDP’s results achieved through the programme’s output 2, 3 and 4 ( since output 1 was evaluated during a separated assignment in 2020-2021 by GCT) and to what extent they are contributing to 1) skills enhancement of youth, 2) increasing the employability of youth and 3) ensure increased sustainability and growth of existing businesses. By including the findings of the last evaluation conducted for output 1, the evaluation shall further assess the applied approaches and methods and their ability to enhance both the supply and demand side of the labor market and hereby address unemployment and economic underperformance. The evaluation is a final evaluation of the interventions implemented with funding from the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC).In this context, UNDP/ PAPP has contracted General Consulting and Training (GCT), to conduct this assignment according to their requirements and expectations.