National Consultant- to conduct a study on the status of Women in Leadership and Decision-Making Positions in the Legislative, Judiciary and Executive Branches of the Government of Ethiopia

Background

Women’s right to participate in leadership and decision-making is a human right. The full and effective participation of women in leadership and decision-making positions is essential for the achievement of equality, sustainable development, peace and democracy. It is acknowledged in all major international and national documents including the Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing declaration, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) Constitution, the growth and transformation plan (GTP II) and others. In line with this, the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth (MoWCY) has set targets in its sector plan for 2016 – 2020 to enhance women’s participation in leadership both at federal and regional levels, in all branches of government.

Ethiopia has made significant progress towards increasing women’s representation in decision making positions. At the federal level, women’s representation in the legislative branch of government has reached 38.9 per cent and at the cabinet of ministers’ gender parity has been achieved. Similarly, there are some improvements in the regional governments. However, this development observed at the very top is not yet replicated at all levels and in all branches of government. Women continue to be under represented in different levels of both federal and regional governments.

In order to increase the participation of women in leadership and decision making, to understand the reasons for their underrepresentation and to plan informed interventions, there is need to have nationwide data and analysis on the status of women in leadership and decision making. Such study will be instrumental in understanding the potential and practical barriers for women’s inclusion and equal participation. Equally important is an analysis on the effective participation of women in leadership and decision-making positions.

In 2014, MoWCY has conducted a national study on the status of Ethiopian women in leadership and decision-making with the objective of collecting a baseline on representation of women, identifying challenges that hamper the increased in participation and effective representation as well as identifying the priority areas and strategies to be employed for meeting MoWCY’s goals.

Considering the recent reforms in the country, MoWCY is seeking to conduct and disseminate another national study on the status of women’s leadership and decision making at all level to avail current data and analysis. This study will provide nationwide data on the number of women represented at all levels of federal and regional government and the cultural and structural as well as emerging barriers hindering women from participation and effective representation. In addition, it will analyze potential opportunities to enhance effective representation of women.

OBJECTIVE 

The main objective of the study is to assess the current status of Ethiopian women representation in leadership and decision-making positions. The study is expected to lead to adoption of tailored strategic actions which will increase their participation and achieve the goals identified in Ethiopia’s national and international commitments towards increasing the equal and effective participation of women in leadership.

The specific objectives are:

• Gaining a national sex disaggregated data on representation in leadership and decision- making positions in the legislative, judiciary and executive branch of the Ethiopian Government
• Identifying the measures undertaken by the federal and regional governments to narrow down gender inequality in decision making in the above-mentioned government organs and the challenges confronted in the process
• Identifying the multifaceted challenges constraining women from being equally represented across the various levels of decision making and leadership positions in the above-mentioned government organs
• Recommend strategic and tailored measures which can be undertaken to increase women’s national representation and participation in leadership and decision-making positions. In doing so, identify international, regional and national best practices to achieve results in terms of increasing women’s participation and representation.

Duties and Responsibilities

The following activities will be carried out:

• Review laws, policies, reports, strategies and other existing documents that should be included in the study
• Collect qualitative and quantitative nationwide data from the federal government, nine regional states and 2 administrative cities and analyse the data
• Assess international, regional and national experiences on women leadership and decision- making
• Identify structural and cultural barriers to participation and effective representation of women and provide necessary interventions;
• Conduct validation workshop with all stakeholders to present findings, reflect, discuss and provide inputs
• Prepare an executive summary of the study in Amharic and English.

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling UN Women values and ethical standards.
• Demonstrates a commitment to UN Women’s mission and vision.
• Able to work effectively within a team.
• Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability.
• Able to multi-task and juggle competing demands.
• Can assess and prioritize work needs quickly.
• Able to relate to external partners, including other international organizations and agencies, NGOs, grassroots community groups, etc.

Required Skills and Experience

Educational Background

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in Law, Gender Studies, Political Science, Sociology, International Relations, or relevant field and/or equivalent practical experience

Experience and Skills 

• A minimum of 5 years relevant experience in development work and particularly on issues of women’s empowerment and gender equality in leadership and political participation related professional work; a comprehensive background in consultancy work with high level outputs especially women in leadership and political participation.
• A proven track record in designing and conducting analyses that use participatory methods.
• Experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative data analysis and synthesizing information into concise, analytical written documents.
• Knowledge about/ familiarity with the governance structure of the country and strata of leadership position.
• Ability to carry out gender focused research and analysis that are able to contribute to the formulation of policies, procedures and guidelines on gender equality and the empowerment of women.
• Ability to conceptualize and analyze problems and to identify key issues and underlying action-oriented recommendation,
• Experience working with Governments at national, regional or local level is essential
• Ability to establish and maintain productive relationships with partners and other stakeholder’s and responds positively to critical feedbacks and differing points of view.
• Demonstrated ability to produce well written, well researched and high-quality reports is essential.

Language

• Fluency in oral and written English and Amharic is required.
• Working knowledge of other local languages is an asset.

Note

1. Applications Process:

Please submit the following to demonstrate your interest and qualifications. Qualified and interested candidates are hereby requested to apply (either as a team  of two or individually). The application should contain the following:

Technical Proposal

• Two -page methodology (full methodology will form part of inception report if selected) Annex 1 below for guidance).

Financial Proposal

• Professional fee for 50 Working days (All-inclusive consultancy fee)
• Cost implication for Field works
• Interested individuals are kindly requested to submit an all-inclusive consultancy fee against deliverables.

Personal CV or P11

Interested individuals must submit their applications online through UN Women Online Recruitment System, deadline 01 September 2019.

Application Evaluation Process

Individual consultant/s will be evaluated based on the Cumulative Analysis methodology [weighted scoring method], where the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant/s whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

The following criteria will be used in Technical Evaluation:

• Educational qualification of a master’s degree in relevant field of social science or equivalent work experience (10)
• Relevant extensive work experience in undertaking qualitative and quantitative research (30)
• Expertise in gender equality and women’s empowerment particularly in the areas of women in leadership and governance (30)
• Financial proposal (30)

In addtion to your application, Techical and Financial proposals should be sent to Tsega Gebremeskel (tsega.gebremeskel@unwomen.org).Only applications with all items mentioned above will be considered