Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, the UN Women leads and coordinates the efforts of the United Nations system to ensure that commitments to gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) and its subsequent resolutions form the global Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Built on the four pillars of participation, prevention, protection and relief and recovery, it reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, humanitarian response, and in post-conflict reconstruction. The WPS agenda stresses the importance of women’s equal participation and full involvement in all efforts to maintain and promote peace and security, urges all actors to increase the participation of women in peacebuilding, and incorporates gender perspectives in all United Nations peace and security efforts. It also calls on all parties to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, in situations of armed conflict.

The primary responsibility for implementing the WPS agenda lays with the UN Member States. They are primarily responsible for ensuring that national policies, laws, and budget processes align with their global commitments and obligations to Women, Peace and Security. National Action Plans (NAP) are tools that guide the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. As of September 2021, 98 countries have adopted National Action Plan on WPS.  In April 2019, the Government of Ethiopia committed to developing a WPS NAP by August 2020. Though the NAP on WPS is not developed yet, the government, through the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs, is taking action to initiate the development of the National Action Plan.

To support the elaboration and adoption process of the NAP on UNSCR 1325, UN Women is supporting the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs (MoWSA) by conducting assessments and studies that will serve as a baseline and feed into the development and adoption of NAP on UNSCR 1325. One of the basic studies needed to be conducted is an Institutional audit, which assesses the work of relevant government departments on women, peace and security issues, existing human and financial resources, and persistent gaps and needs.

In addition to the institutional audit, two other assessments on the normative framework and a general context assessment will be conducted. The normative framework assessment will look into the identifying needs for legislative and policy reforms and advocacy interventions and provide knowledge on the legal and policy gaps regarding Women, Peace and Security. The context assessment will focus on providing a comprehensive overview and analysis of the current situation in Ethiopia. It will examine the intersection of gender and peace and security issues within different political, socio-economic and cultural contexts in Ethiopia. The assessment will inform the adoption of the National Action Plan in Ethiopia through the provision of analysis about the ways men and women are affected differently by security threats, discrimination and violence, the level of women’s political participation or lack of and the extent of gender-based violence in conflict settings. Specifically, it will provide evidence of women’s involvement in traditional conflict-resolution mechanisms, local governance and decision-making processes and identify opportunities for strengthening these good practices.

Through these assessments, the objective is to identify opportunities to bolster implementation efforts as well as areas that can impede the implementation of the WPS agenda in Ethiopia.

A global study conducted on UNSCR 1325 in 2015 showed a consistent, striking disparity between policy commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment and the financial allocations to achieve them. While the global military spending in 2018 was USD 1.8 trillion, gender equality and peace remained drastically underfunded.  It is the state’s obligation to avail the maximum available resources and invest in women, peace, and security.

As Ethiopia is initiating the development and adoption of NAP on UNSCR 1325, it is essential to look into the existing institutional capacities and have a basis to further engage on women, peace and security. Thus, the institutional audit will provide the government of Ethiopia with institution-specific information that addresses gaps that can be identified through the audit and back the NAP priorities on WPS through sufficient financial and human resources.

Objective

The objective of the institutional audit is to provide Ministry of Women and Social Affairs (MoWSA) and the government of Ethiopia with institution-specific information on existing capacities, priorities, risks, achievements, levels of commitment, and challenges related to WPS in Ethiopia. It aims to assess the gender policies of governmental institutions at the national, regional and municipal levels, availability of human resources, financial resources and organizational culture in institutions relevant to the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

Duties and Responsibilities

Main tasks of the consultancy includes:

• Prepare an inception report: The inception report should detail the consultant’s understanding of what the consultancy work is aiming to achieve and why; core tasks and proposed methods to carry out the tasks; proposed sources of data and data collection procedures together with data analysis techniques; proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables. The inception report should indicate whether additional support is required to ensure the institutional audit is comprehensive. The consultant should present the inception report to UN Women and Government and CSO partners for feedback.
• Undertake a comprehensive institutional audit on institutions working on Women, Peace and Security and women’s empowerment and gender equality in Ethiopia. The institutional audit must include an analysis of the data collected from all relevant institutions as well as the research phase.
• Submit a draft review report to UN Women and relevant stakeholders for input and incorporate those in the document.
• Present the institutional audit report during a consultation/validation workshop that will be organized to solicit inputs and feedback from relevant stakeholders, identify the remaining gaps, and further analysis if necessary. The consultant will chair the workshop, and UN Women will support the technical organisations.
• Incorporate the stakeholder’s feedback and submit the final report to UN Women.
• Prepare a policy paper/brief based on the audit report

 Scope of the consultancy

The consultant will undertake a comprehensive audit of institutions working on women, peace and security in Ethiopia. The institutional audit study/ assessment must cover the following topics:

• Analytical mapping of actors working/contributing to WPS with their specific mandates
• Analysis of financial resources allocated to WPS in the country and in the institutions as well as (donors/funding WPS)
• Gender policies of institutions and the effectiveness of their implementation
• Availability of human resources, specifically experts on gender, peace and security issues
• The existence and quality of gender training
• Financial resources
• Organizational culture
• Data on the number of women and their representation proportion in different leadership levels of security forces and political leadership. 

Competencies

Expected functional competencies:

• Ability to pragmatically apply in-depth knowledge and experience of issues and practices in the fields of judiciary systems; legal reform; gender equality; security; peacebuilding; and conflict resolution.
• Strong skills and experience in presenting evidence and ideas for policy.
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.

Expected core values and competencies:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism
• Awareness and sensitivity regarding gender issues
• Accountability
• Creative problem solving
• Effective communication
• Inclusive collaboration
• Stakeholder engagement
• Leading by example

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s degree in Peace and Security Studies, Gender Studies, Human Rights, Law, Public Policy and Administration, Sociology, Political Science or a related field. A PhD will be an added value.

Experience

• At least 7 years’ experience on gender, violence against women, peacebuilding, security, conflict resolution and/or other relevant fields.
• Sound knowledge and understanding of international best practices, tools and methodologies on institutional audit on WPS.
• Proven experience with conducting institutional audit and preparing reports for national governmental institutions.
• Advanced understanding of gender equality and women’s human rights.
• Experience in managing and facilitating round table discussions and consultations with stakeholders at both grassroots and national levels.
• Experience in working with civil society organizations and government stakeholders.
• Proven experience in collecting, analyzing and interpreting complex qualitative and quantitative data and computer skills.

Language

• Excellent command of English and Amharic (written and oral) is required.
• Previous professional experience with development agencies and the United Nations will be considered an asset.

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.
• Letter of interest explaining why they are the most suitable for the work
• Technical proposal of no more than 3 pages outlining the applicants understanding of the issue to be addressed in the study and proposed methodology for the assignment, including stakeholders to be met
• Sample work and contact details of clients for whom you have rendered similar services

Note:

In addtion to your CV/P11, applicancts must submit above mentioned required doucments via email  wpsha-ethiopia@unwomen.org with a subject " Institutional Audit  "