EFFICIENCY AND COORDINATION

Efficiency refers to how economically or timely activities are conducted and to what extent they lead to the desired outputs. In the following, the efficiency of the project is assessed in terms of delivering international and national expertise, conducting trainings and study tours, purchasing equipment and with regard to internal and external coordination mechanisms.

Most interviewees considered the technical assistance provided by UNIDO experts as useful. There are, however, some differences in technical capacities and usefulness. For instance, a footwear expert fielded in Anbessa and Peacock was highly appreciated and demonstrated significant results. On the other hand, another expert placed in Anbessa for costing and merchandise management was not fully appreciated and the outputs were not put into use. A key informant in another company mentioned that the assistance of a marketing expert had some merits although the objective of a more direct access to the customers is not yet achieved.

The efficiency of expert delivery is not only influenced by the competence of the expert but also by the delivery mode of expertise. Duration and frequency of contracts are key factors in this respect. In some cases, UNIDO relied on a few individuals who were repeatedly fielded for several rounds of missions. Some beneficiaries found that this practice can limit the transfer of experiences as it does not allow for a mix of people with different backgrounds and mix of creativity and innovativeness to come to the project. In other cases, when international experts came in only once and for very short periods, criticism arose that the efficiency of knowledge transfer could be limited because of that. As a matter of fact, there is no fixed rule for the optimum duration of expert missions but efficient and consensual decision making on that important matter is crucial.

The project relied on international experts for most of its activities. National experts were hired only in a few cases. A positive example has been the decision towards the end of the project to hire three local IT experts and a national IT consultant and to subcontract a local IT company for software training at Anbessa. Such use of local experts comes at a lower cost and may, at the same time, bring better results as these experts are locally embedded and can easily relate to the beneficiaries.

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The efficiency of trainings, workshops and study tours is difficult to measure. Most of the numerous trainings resulted in outputs. Marketing trainees passed a test with certification of recognition. The hands-on training in stitching, cutting, pattern making resulted in preparing samples. The efficiency of such trainings was increased when training manuals were provided, as in the case of leather garment design and marketing, as well as for the ERP manual. Unfortunately, these manuals were not always transferred to the LIDI library and Directorates for future use and wider impact. The timeliness of training and other immaterial project services was generally good. In one case, the recruitment of an expert for glove technology encountered considerable delays.

Procurement efficiency was more of an issue, although not much at stake because the procurement component of this project was small. However, problems at customs did lead to late delivery of equipment for LIDI, apparently because of communication problems between the project and the UNIDO Office. When the project manager moved back to UNIDO HQ, communication between the project and the UNIDO Office became difficult. At the time of the evaluation, both sides perceived a lack of cooperation and due diligence.

Implementation efficiency was also affected by coordination problems between the project team and the team of consultants from India who are implementing the benchmarking component at LIDI. There have been cases, when LIDI staff was unavailable for training sessions of the project because they had to attend other trainings. Quite clearly, the project management unit was not in day-to-day contact with the Indian consultants, although these are located in an office across the floor at LIDI.

External coordination has been taken care of by a committee of donors who are active

in the leather sector, although there is no evidence that this committee meets on a regular basis. There is also no evidence that a pro-active relationship took place between UNIDO and GIZ/CLRI/FDDI who are implementing the engineering capacity building program (ECBP). It seems that the decision of the Government to have the benchmarking activities for the leather sector executed by the ECBP has led to some unhealthy competition of the various parties. A positive exception in this regard seems to be the joint support to the Ethiopian leather industry association (ELIA) for the annual “East African Leather Fair”.

UNIDO has made very valuable contributions to South-South cooperation under this project. The Eastern and Southern Africa Leather Industries Association (EASLIA) was contracted to provide expertise to open up the Kenyan market. The sub-contracting of the National Institute for Standards (NIS) in Egypt for training laboratory technicians, of the South African Accreditation Body SANAS for the accreditation to the laboratory and of ACCORD for the customization of ERP software for Anbessa provide ample evidence along this line.

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