International Consultant-Final Evaluation of Programme on Making Every Woman and Girl Count in Ethiopia: Supporting the Monitoring and Implementation of the SDGs through better Production and Use of Gender Statistics

Background

Ethiopia has manifested its commitment in the last decade to advancing the rights of women and girls and promoting gender equality by the adoption of national and international conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BDPfA), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Africa Agenda 2063. The country has also adopted policy frameworks that focus on the rights of women such as the National Action Plan on Gender Equality (2006 -2010) and the Women Development and Change Strategy and Package (March 2017). The Government of Ethiopia (GoE) has also put in place an institutional framework to foster the implementation of laws and policies, including a dedicated ministry responsible for women and social affairs that coordinates, facilitates and monitor progress and hold sectors accountable on their performance on gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE).

Ethiopia currently adopted a Ten Years Development Plan to guide the country’s development agenda following the conclusion of the implementation of the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) II in 2020. The Ten Years Plan, similar to its predecessor, stipulates the participation and empowerment of women as one of its strategic pillars. The national policy and strategy frameworks on gender equality and women’s empowerment are strengthened by the international commitments the country has adopted. Ethiopia has adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which sets out 17 Goals with 169 associated targets. Goal 5 focus on the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. This builds on the success registered in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), whereby the Country achieved most of the MDGs.

 

Ensuring the implementation of these national and global commitments on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls requires an implementation, accountability and monitoring mechanism supported by quality data and statistics. As such, data and statistics have become an indispensable tool for devising policies to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment, assessing their impact and ensuring accountability. Statistics, in general, and gender statistics, in particular, play a dual role to meet SDGs and the national development plans. On one hand, the availability of gender statistics promotes evidence-based decision making to augment their implementation. On the other hand, it serves as a measurement and accountability tool to monitor and evaluate the impact and effectiveness 

of said policies.

With the aim of responding to the data needs under the SDGs, the Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (UN Women), launched a global flagship programme initiative (FPI) on Making every woman and girl count: Supporting SDG monitoring and implementation through the production and use of gender statistics (MEWGC) in 2016. The programme has an overall goal of ensuring that Gender statistics are available, accessible, analysed and used to inform policymaking, advocacy and accountability for delivering on gender equality and women’s empowerment commitments. UN Women identified 12 countries (pathfinders) to develop and support the implementation of the programme between 2016 and 2021. In the meantime, other Country Offices adopted the programme as a self-starter based on the data needs in their respective countries. Ethiopia is one of these self-starter countries implementing MEWGC with the national statistical office and other relevant stakeholders.

The programme on Making Every Woman and Girl Count in Ethiopia was launched in January 2019. The programme was due to run until 2021 and has been extended until June 2022. It envisions the undertaking of an end evaluation upon the conclusion of the programme. The end evaluation exercise has the objective of capturing lessons learned in programme implementation to inform the strategies for future programme implementation and will support for organizational learning and accountability.

Therefore, UN Women Ethiopia Country Office is seeking a team of consultants to conduct the end evaluation of the programme. The evaluation should follow the guiding documents for evaluation at UN Women, including the Evaluation Policy, Evaluation Chapter of the Programme  and Operations Manual (POM), the Global Evaluation Report Assessment and Analysis System (GERAAS) evaluation report quality checklist, the United Nations System-wide Action Plan Evaluation Performance Indicator (UN-SWAP EPI) and the UN Women Evaluation Handbook on gender responsive evaluation. These documents serve as the frame of reference for the Evaluation Task Manager and the evaluation consultants for ensuring compliance with the various requirements and assuring the quality of the evaluation report.

II. Description of the programme

The three-year and half years Programme "Making Every Woman and Girl Count in Ethiopia: Supporting the Monitoring and Implementation of the SDGs through better Production and Use of Gender Statistics” was launched in 1 January 2019 with an end date of December 2021  with a no cost extension until 30 June 2022. It has run for three years and half with an actual budget of 1,726,931 USD as of 2019  From which the actual expenditure to date is USD 1,566,931. The programme is being implemented at the federal level with government partners and with selected CSOs that are working on SDG goal 5.

 

The overall goal of the programme is to make gender statistics available, accessible, analysed, and used to inform policy making, advocacy and accountability for delivering on gender equality and women’s empowerment commitments.

The three-year programme has the following expected outcomes:

Outcome 1: Strengthened policy and financial environment is in place to enable gender-responsive national adaptation and effective monitoring of the SDGs and GTP II and Ten Years Plan;

Outcome 2: Strengthen the production of gender statistics to enable the monitoring of national policies and reporting commitments under the SDGs; and

Outcome 3: Gender statistics are accessible to all users (including governments, civil society, academia, and private sector) and can be analysed to inform research, advocacy, policies, and programmes and promote accountability.

With a view to achieving the expected outcomes, the programme has deployed the following strategies:

• Data management.
• Capacity development.
• Partnerships and cross-learning.
• Awareness creation, advocacy, dialogue forum and knowledge generation.

The programme operates at three levels.

• At policy level the legal and institutional frameworks that have an impact in the production and use of data have been reviewed, data gaps identified and enabling policy frameworks promoted.
• Secondly, the capacity building targeting the national statistical system as a whole aims at ensuring the availability, accessibility and use of quality, timely, regular, and user-friendly gender data in the country focusing on data producers.
• Lastly, the further analysis and dissemination of data will extend to the community level in an effort to improve the wider use of gender statistics.

As the goal of the programme is to facilitate the implementation of SDGs aligned with GTP II and Ten Years Development Plan, strengthening accountability mechanisms on the implementation of the GEWE commitments have been another focus area of the program. Multi-stakeholder coordination systems to bring accountability in the implementation of GEWE commitments are being strengthened.

The main implementing partners (IP) under this programme are Central Statistical Agency (CSA, now Ethiopian Statistical Service) and CSA branches, Planning and Development Commission (PDC, now Ministry of Planning and Development), Ministry of Finance and Economic cooperation (MoFEC), Ministry of Women, Children and Youth (MoWCY, now Ministry of Women and Social Affairs), Bureau of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs (BoWCYA), and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) among other.

Main donors of the programme to date include:

• Government of Sweden, through the Embassy of Sweden in Ethiopia through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency   
• Government of Norway, through the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia
• Government of Netherlands, through the Netherlands Embassy in Ethiopia

Under the overall supervision of the UN Women Representative to Ethiopia, Africa Union and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and with the technical guidance of UN Women East and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO), the programme was managed by the UN Women ECO Coordination Team. The team was composed of the following staff:

• Programme manager (PM) with the overall responsibility of providing technical support and capacity-building for high quality implementation and guarantying high-quality financial management and reporting to UN Women and donors.
• Programme officers with the role of supporting the PM and strengthen the programme's intended outputs in this area while also providing support to the programme partners.
• Programme associate with the role of providing technical support to CSO partners and ensuring UN Women financial and procurement policies are strictly followed and used for intended purpose.
• Short-term technical consultants based at CSA, PDC and MoWCY to support with the implementation, monitoring and reporting of the programme.

III. Purpose of the Evaluation

The purpose of the evaluation is to provide an in-depth assessment of the results against the three outcomes of the programme and performance, and to review the programme in terms of the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, impact, inclusiveness, participation, equality, non-discrimination, and social transformation.

The evaluation aims to contribute to results-based management through taking a participatory approach that documents results achieved, challenges and opportunities in ensuring the availability, accessibility, analysis and use of gender statistics in Ethiopia. The evaluation will identify lessons learned, good practices, and factors that facilitated/hindered achievement. Through this, it aims to contribute to accountability, learning and decision-making. The evaluation will also have a forward looking focus and will aim to provide key recommendations for the implementation and scaling up opportunities in drafting of the second phase programme document on Making Every Woman and Girl Count in Ethiopia and interventions on gender statistics, based on the lessons learned identified through this evaluation and will also provide forward looking recommendation on the roles of all key stakeholders to ensure linkages and mutual synergies between the different stakeholders.

The evaluation will follow a participatory approach that will include consultations with beneficiaries and key stakeholders including:

• Relevant staff from IPs, including federal government institutions
• CSOs and women organisations that have benefited from the capacity building initiatives and data and statistics produced through the program
• UN Women ECO programme staff
• UN sister agencies, such as UNDP, UNICEF and UNFPA
• Development partners

The main user of the evaluation is UN Women Ethiopia Country Office, who will use the findings of the evaluation to feed into the new planning cycle for the period 2023-2025. The evaluation will also be used by national stakeholders including sector ministries such as the Ministry of Planning and Development, Ministry of Women and Social Affairs and Ethiopian Statistical Service who are direct implementing partners of the project and mandated on statistics and GEWE related interventions and UN agencies and development partners who have been collaborating partners in the implementation of initiatives under this programme such as UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF for drawing lessons on programming for the collection, production and use of regular, comparable and reliable gender statistics for the reporting and monitoring of global and national GEWE commitments. UN Women ECO will disseminate the findings of the final evaluation to the Donor Group on Gender Equality (DGGE) and broader CSOs through UN Women CSO Advisory Group.

 

Duties and Responsibilities

Deliverables	Delivery date	Payment schedule
Deliverable 1: Draft Inception Report The Consultant must produce a draft inception report, displaying the results of the above-listed steps and tasks. The inception report must follow the structure as set out in Annex 1. Prior to submission to the Evaluation Task manager (ETM) (on behalf of the EMG), the Consultant must ensure that it was internally quality controlled. The EMG will control the quality of the submitted draft inception report to ensure quality of the draft inception report is satisfactory (form and substance); once the draft inception report is cleared, the consultant will submit the draft inception report together with the executive summary. In the event that the quality is unsatisfactory, the Consultant will be required to produce a new version of the draft inception report.  The draft report will be in English	5 working days	30%
Deliverable 2: Final Inception Report The Consultant must address all the comments and make appropriate amendments to the inception report prior to submission to the ETM on behalf of the EMG for review and approval. For all comments, the Consultant indicates in writing how they have responded (“trail of comments”), using the proposed format set out in Annex 2. The trail of comments document is to be submitted to the ETM on behalf of the EMG at the same time as the updated inception report. The inception report will be considered final upon approval by the EMG.  The Final Inception Report will be in English	2 working days
Deliverable 3: Data collection and In-Country Debriefing The Consultant will present preliminary data to key stakeholders, partners and beneficiaries, (in-person or virtually as needed) for discussion two days before completing the data collection phase in the field. Note: The debriefing is needed to review data with selected key stakeholders, beneficiaries and partners to increase the Consultant’ understanding of data accumulated so far and identify data issues or gaps that may be addressed/collected/revisited. The debriefing is not to be used to present preliminary findings as the data analysis is not yet completed and could mislead stakeholders. Presentation material is to be submitted to the ETM on behalf of the prior to the debriefing session. Minutes and any supplementary material provided during the session are to be submitted one week after the session	10 working days	30%
Deliverable 4: Post Data Collection Workshop The consultant will conduct a workshop session in Addis Ababa in blended modality (face-to-face and virtual) to present the preliminary findings of the evaluation to the EMG to seek comments and validation. The process will also support the formulation of the recommendations in a participatory way. Minutes and any supplementary material provided during the session are to be submitted one week after the session.	1 working day
Deliverable 5: Draft Report The draft evaluation report must conform to the UNEG (2017) Norms and Standards for Evaluation or the OECD/DAC (2010) Quality Standards for Development Evaluation and follow the structure and instructions as set out in Annex 3, include an executive summary and includes all the relevant annexes. Prior to submission to the ETM, on behalf of the EMG, the Consultant must ensure that the draft evaluation report has undergone an internal quality control process through the Consultant’s Evaluation Quality Assurance System (EQAS). If the quality of the draft evaluation report is deemed satisfactory by EMG (form and substance), the draft evaluation report will be translated will be circulated to the EMG and other stakeholders as necessary for comments. In the event that the quality is unsatisfactory, the Consultant will be required to produce a new version of the draft evaluation report.  The draft Report will be in English The EMG is responsible for sharing the draft report and collecting stakeholders’ comments including a validation workshop. The Evaluation Report shall follow the structure detailed in the UN Women Evaluation Handbook (Box 18 Outline of Evaluation Report)	5 working days	40%
Deliverable 7: Final Report The Consultants must address all the comments and make appropriate amendments to the evaluation report and draft work plan prior to submission to the ETM, on behalf of the EMG, for review and approval. For each and every comment, the Consultant indicates in writing how they have responded (“trail of comments”), using the format set out in Annex 2. The trail of comments document is to be submitted at the same time as the updated evaluation report.  The Final Report will be in English The evaluation report will be considered final upon approval by the EMG. The Final Report will include the actionable recommendations produced through the evaluation	4 working days
Deliverable 8: Final presentation Afterwards, the Consultant will prepare and conduct a workshop to present the findings, conclusions, recommendations and lessons of the evaluation in Addis Ababa/or virtual and at a time to be decided by the EMG. The Consultant will conduct the presentation after EMG approval of the Final Report.	1 working day
Deliverable 9: Evaluation communication The consultant will also produce a PowerPoint presentation of the final key evaluation findings and recommendations, and a 2-pager on the final key findings (English), lessons learned and recommendations.	2 working days

Competencies

Core Values

• Respect for Diversity.
• Integrity.
• Professionalism.

Core Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues.
• Accountability.
• Creative Problem Solving.
• Effective Communication.
• Inclusive Collaboration.
• Flexibility and adaptivity.
• Stakeholder Engagement.
• Teamwork.

Functional Competencies

• Excellent facilitation and communication skills, including experience in online data collection and facilitating virtual meetings   
• Extensive evaluation experience with UN agencies and programmes.
• Strong knowledge of issues concerning development frameworks, statistics, gender statistics, gender equality and women's empowerment.
• Good understanding of the context of Ethiopia, and ideally experience with the relevant government partner ministries
• Strong reporting skills
• Ability to manage and supervise evaluation teams and ensure timely submission of quality evaluation reports (international consultant)

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Advanced Degree in Statistics, Welfare Economics, Economics, Gender studies, Development Economics, or related fields in Social Sciences with formal research skills.

Experience 

• At least ten years of progressive experience in conducting evaluations as team leader Internationally.
• A professional training in Monitoring and Evaluation and Results-Based Management is considered an asset.

Language 

• High proficiency in English

Application:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) a completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment.
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment and candidates are required to include in the P-11 form links for their previously published reports and articles completed within the last two years. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Note

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials by email esete.berile@unwomen.org with a subject " Final Evaluation'

A technical proposal outlining understanding of the assignment and proposed methodology for undertaken the evaluation in line with the TOR. The proposal shall be no more than 15 pages and include:

• A summary of how the team meets the functional competencies and required background and experience, clearly mapped to the criteria set out above
• Understanding of the Terms of Reference
• A summary of the proposed approach, and justification for why this approach has been selected. This should include an indicative evaluation matrix, methodology for data collection and analysis, and communicating and disseminating findings limitations and how this will be mitigated

• Detail should be provided on how quantitative and qualitative tools will be developed and tested
• Fieldwork plans, and what travel may be possible
• Sampling frame proposed and assumptions
• How quality, validity and reliability of data will be ensured
• How data will be triangulated and analysed
• Stakeholder engagement plan
• Risks envisaged in the delivery of the evaluation, and proposed mitigations
• Data management plans and ethics, including how subjects will be protected and confidentiality guaranteed

• A financial proposal that indicates an all-inclusive ( The term “All inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel costs, living allowances, communications, consumables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal).

•  lump sum contract amount for the assignment in USD per delivery/output. UN Women will cover travel related costs to and from duty station to Addis Ababa where deemed necessary.
• Applications should only be made individually.

 

 

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