Providing high-level policy analysis to advance economic development internationally:
The Multilateral Investment Fund engaged Millennia Consulting to conduct a review of its skill standards projects, focusing in-depth on six projects in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Mexico and the Caribbean.
The MIF is a $1 billion granting entity with funding from many countries that was established to support private sector development in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Over a 10-year period, the MIF had invested $25.5 million in 15 grants supporting the development of skill standards and worker certification programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Fund wanted to continue developing new programs and expanding existing programs. But before making more grants, the MIF wanted to know what lessons had been learned from the projects to date and what changes, if any, were needed in it future grantmaking.
To assess those goals, which required expertise in program design and research and policy analysis, Millennia facilitated a one-day workshop with grantees to initiate the review process. Subsequently, the MIF provided support for a skill standards network focused on facilitating information-sharing among the grantees. Millennia's analysis identified where the projects had success and where challenges remained, in particular relating to the participation of employers in driving the market for skills certification.
Millennia found that the programs supported by the MIF in various countries needed opportunities to exchange information. The MIF adopted specific recommendations from Millennia's report to design future projects. When the grant fund was replenished, skill standards remained one of the MIF's grantmaking areas.
