International Consultant

Background

The issue of aid effectiveness has been an agenda for the past fifteen years since the term coined in 2003 at the Rome Summit. Though there no specific definition of aid effectiveness it can be defined as achieving social and economic development agendas set out and harmonized by donor and recipient. Specifically, it is about meeting the agenda set out in the global SDGs, regional commitments and respective country priorities such as addressing gender inequality.

Gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) are powerful multipliers of development efforts. Reducing women’s poverty through access to education, improvement of health, broadening economic opportunities with land rights, employment and income, and participation in political decision-making contributes to well-being, quality of life and economic growth. As such, GEWE respect human rights and become a driver of sustainable development. The Paris Declaration (PD) contains the valuable principle of national ownership and promotes accountability between donor and partner countries as well as between citizens and the government. Through the inclusion of state and civil society in development planning and budgetary decisions, notably through participatory and gender budgeting processes, needs, interests and entitlements are voiced and incorporated in development strategies, frameworks and accountability mechanisms. The PD builds also on horizontal donor-partner country relationships and thus democratizes development cooperation. Based on the PD resource mobilization through grant and loan has a part and  contributed to  national budget in addition to national resource mobilization.

Government budgets are the largest single source of financing for gender equality and women’s empowerment in most countries. Although Official Development Assistance (ODA) only covers on average between 10 to 15 per cent of a recipient country’s budget, the way it is spent can show the accountability relationships, not just between donors and recipients, but also between government and citizens. It is through national and sub-national budgets that government’s promises are translated into policies and programmes.

Therefore, the extent to which gender is adequately mainstreamed in national budgets (which include both domestic and external resources), determines the level of financing that goes towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. So, both external and domestic resource mobilization are essential for economic growth and expanded opportunities. While in the short term, external resource can be  an important force for enhancing government resource mobilization for gender equality, in the medium and long term, government resource mobilization is central to financing for gender equality in a sustainable and predictable fashion.

Ensuring adequate financing has been a part of various commitments made since Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) to the recent breakthrough conferences on financing for development. They recommended the relevance of having a gender component in donors and recipients aid procedures. However, reports at global level showed inadequate financing (aid) made towards GEWE. This hinders the planning and implementation of gender responsive programs. According to Development Assistance Committee (DAC) guideline for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment “A focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment in development co-operation is a means to enhance the total effectiveness of aid”.

In 2005, during the second high-level forum on aid effectiveness, countries set five principles to manage the delivery and quality of aid. Despite various scholastic arguments made on the effectiveness of aid, the principles are considered as the frameworks of aid management. Gender equality as the major international development agenda, these principles have meaningful effect in ensuring that aid in support of gender equality is adequate. Therefore, linking aid effectiveness and gender equality is practicing a gender responsive aid scheme from both the donor and recipient side.

It is with this understanding that Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation (MoFEC) Gender Directorate in collaboration with UN Women planned to build capacity of MoFEC External Resources Mobilization and related Directorates and strengthen accountability system with in MoFEC to address gender gaps in international financing.

This initiative is also component of the Transformative Financing for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Programme of UN Women in partnership with MoFEC and Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWCA) as the programme aims to ensure equitable distribution of international financing to address gender inequality and empowerment of women as part of the efforts to ensure gender responsive National Planning and Budgeting System.  

To this effect, UN Women Ethiopia is seeking an International Consultant to develop a training Manual on Gender and Aid Effectiveness and provide training for External Resource Mobilization Directorate in MoFEC to enhance their capacity on gender and aid effectiveness and strengthen their accountability system.  

Duties and Responsibilities

The main tasks for this consultancy will be to develop a Training Manual on Gender and Aid Effectiveness and provide training based on the manual for MoFEC External Resource Mobilization Directorate.

Phase I

1. Review various international and national documents and frameworks on gender and aid effectiveness
2. Develop inception report including standard and contextualized training manual outline on Aid Effectiveness and Gender Equality
3. Present inception report including the draft outline of the guideline and sample country experiences in an inception workshop
4. Revise the inception report based on the comments from the inception workshop and UN Women   
5. Conduct consultation meeting with various MoFEC’s directorates and other relevant stakeholders
6. Present the draft training manual at a validation workshop
7. Revise the manual based on comments and inputs from the validation workshop and UN Women
8. Finalize and submit the training manual.

Phase II

1. Plans, designs, and prepare training schedule on Aid Effectiveness and Gender Equality based on the manual
2. Provide training for MoFEC External Resource Mobilization and Gender Directorates and organize learning activities
3. Prepares pre and post evaluation questionnaires to evaluate the knowledge of participants before and after the training
4. Gathers feedback from trainees on a daily basis and if necessary after each session
5. Develop training report and submit for review
6. Revise the training report and submit the final one

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Commitment to UN Women’s mission, vision, values and strategic goals;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
• Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications

• Master degree or equivalent or PhD in Social Sciences, Gender, Economics, Development Cooperation, International Studies, Political Science, or other relevant field;
• Comprehensive and documented knowledge of issues related to gender equality and women empowerment and aid and development, experience in Sub –Saharan Africa region will be considered as an advantage.
• Knowledge of training methods and techniques;
• Proven experience on presentation, training and facilitation skills for top government officials;
• Skilled in identifying the gaps of trainees during the training

Years of experience

• Minimum 10 years of experience working on gender equality and/or aid and development issues;
• Experience on manual development, conducting and facilitating high-level capacity building and training programs for government officials
• Previous experience working with the United Nations system, the African Union or other inter-governmental organizations will be considered an advantage;

Language and other skills

• Excellent knowledge of written and oral communication in English;
• Excellent communication skill;