Background

Countries identify and articulate development priorities through national development plans and strategies. Often, gender equality commitments are not sufficiently considered or included during the design and financing stages of planning, which exacerbates gender inequality in many countries.Adequate financing of national development plans and strategies is a condition for the achievement of national development priorities. The implementation of gender equality commitments at country level requires governments to formulate policies and strategies that actively promote gender equality and guarantee women’s rights, while allocating sufficient financial resources for this purpose. Therefore, a gender equality perspective needs to be properly considered during the design and budgeting stages of the planning process in order to ensure that resources and interventions equally benefit women and men.

Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) aims at mainstreaming gender into public budgets, looking into how financial resources are collected and allocated with respect to women and men. GRB is used to shape policies, set priorities and provide the means to meet the social and economic needs of all citizens. It helps governments understand potential adjustments in resources needed to achieve their priorities and commitments to achieve gender equality and advance women’s rights as stipulated in international conventions, commitments and goals, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing platform for action and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Beyond ensuring accountability to women’s rights, GRB is also a step towards improved public transparency and economic efficiency.

Increasing financing for gender equality recognizes that planning, resource allocation and prioritization of development initiatives have to be disaggregated, by sex, among other parameters, to understand where the greatest needs are, to direct resources to those areas, and to monitor how resources and planning bridge gender gaps and contribute to the empowerment of women.

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) leads nationally in promoting Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and has mandated its Gender Directorate to engage relevant directorates within the Ministry, demonstrating political will and direction. While progress has been made in integrating gender in the revised financial administration proclamation and budget call, and building the capacity of experts and officials using the GRB guidelines, an accountability mechanism to ensure that gender is integrated in sectoral planning and budgeting processes is not yet in place. This limits the government’s ability to realize its commitment to uphold the rights of Ethiopian women, including through the financing of national programmes.  

The programme Transformative Financing for Gender Equality was initiated with the aim of contributing to the overall goal of adequate and effective financing of new and existing national and international commitments on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment.

The programme document has been implemented since  July 2017 at the federal level and in regional states including Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR  and Tigray in partnership with Ministry of Finance (MoF), Ministry of Women Children and Youth (MoWCY), Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Federal Job creation and Food Security Agency (FJCFSA) and their regional counterparts including CSO. The focus is on enhancing the capacity of experts on Gender Responsive Budgeting to enable them to consider gender during planning and budgeting through training and South-South experience sharing.  The program also generated a pool of knowledge products and data as one of the strategies to create discussion and influence intervention and also as sustainable mechanism for institutions to consider gender responsive budgeting when implementing their programs. In addition, in collaboration with international organizations such as International Monitory Fund (IMF) high level dialogue was organized on key findings of the gender inequality impacts to Ethiopia’s economic growth.  

The programme is in line with UN Women’s Global Strategic Plan 2018-2021 particularly outcome 2: women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems which contributes to SDGs Goal no, 1,2,3,5,10,16 and 17. At national level,  it was designed  in alignment with UNDAF 2016-2020 i.e. pillar 4 good governance, participation and capacity development and pillar 5 equality and empowerment, Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan II (2016-2020) i.e. strategic pillar 7 on promotion of gender and youth empowerment and equity; and the country strategy of UN Women Ethiopia. 

The final evaluation is expected to assess the performance of the programme based on the Theory of Change and Results     Framework of the programme, in particular output and outcome indicators.

The findings of the evaluation will also be used to prepare future programme document based on identified key lessons and challenges in the implementation of the programme. This programme final evaluation is strategic in terms of realizing the main goal of the project which is established a gender-responsive planning and budgeting system in Ethiopia to ensure that resources are allocated to adequately and effectively finance gender equality and women’s empowerment commitments.  

Therefore, the UN Women Ethiopia Country Office is seeking a national consultant who will be closely working with the international consultant to conduct the programme final evaluation of Transformative Financing for GEWE in Ethiopia.  

Duties and Responsibilities

The main roles and responsibilities during the process are:

Evaluation team

• To avoid conflict of interest and undue pressure, the members of the evaluation team need to be independent, implying that they must not have been directly responsible for the design, or overall management of the subject of the evaluation, nor expect to be in the near future.

• Evaluators must have no vested interest and must have the full freedom to conduct their evaluative work impartially. They must be able to express their opinion in a free manner.

• The evaluation team prepares all evaluation reports, which should reflect an agreed- upon approach and design for the evaluation from the perspective of the evaluation team and the evaluation manager

 

Evaluation manager

To maximize stakeholder participation and ensure a gender-responsive evaluation, the evaluation manager should support the evaluator(s) during data collection in the following ways:

• Consult partners regarding the evaluation and the proposed schedule for data collection

• Arrange for a debriefing by the evaluator(s) prior to completion of data collection to present preliminary and emerging findings or gaps in information to the evaluation manager, evaluation management and reference groups

• Ensure the stakeholders identified through the stakeholder analysis are being included and provide logistical support as necessary contacting stakeholders and arranging for transportation.

• Ensure that a gender equality and human rights perspective is streamlined throughout the approach, and that the evaluator(s) is abiding by the ethical principles outlined below.

 

Evaluation Management group

 

• To oversee the evaluation process and will be coordinated by the evaluation manager.

Provide substantive comments and operational assistance throughout the preparation of reports.

• Where appropriate, participates in meetings and workshops with other key partners and stakeholders before finalization of reports.

• Have the responsibility of final approval of the evaluation ToR, selection of the external evaluation team, inception report and final evaluation report.

Evaluation reference group

• Serve as sounding board and consultative body to ensure the active involvement of stakeholders

• Serve as the primary contact point for the evaluation team

• Provide a balanced picture of views and perceptions regarding achievements and limitations of the programme

• Provide inputs and feedback throughout the evaluation process

• Provide support to ensure ownership of evaluation findings and recommendations through prompting users of the evaluation and other stakeholders into action during and after the evaluation.

• Review ToR, inception report, methodology and data gathering tools;

• Take part in the evaluation inception and debriefing session and provide feedback on the different evaluation products (evaluation inception and draft report);

• Provide relevant background information to the evaluation team as relevant

• Review the draft and final evaluation report;

• Participate in stakeholder meetings and feedback sessions where deemed necessary;

• Participate in the validation meeting of the final evaluation report and support dissemination of evaluation results

• A ToR with detail roles and responsibilities can be drafted by the evaluation manager and agreed upon by the group themselves

Competencies

Key Performance Indicators

  • Timely and quality substantive inputs Programme strategies and activities;
  • Timely and quality substantive inputs to workplans and budgets;
  • Adherence to UN Women standards and rules;
  • Timely monitoring and tracking of Programme results and finances;
  • Relationship with partners and stakeholders;
  • Timely organization of events;
  • Quality of knowledge and advocacy products;

Competencies

  • Core Values
  • Respect for Diversity
  • Integrity
  • Professionalism
  • Core Competencies
  • Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
  • Accountability
  • Creative Problem Solving
  • Effective Communication
  • Inclusive Collaboration
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Leading by Example

Functional Competencies

  • Good Programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills
  • Good knowledge of Results Based Management
  • Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings and recommendations
  • Good analytical skills
  • Good knowledge of women’s rights and women’s economic empowerment as a technical area as well as familiarity with the national development agendas and gender equality
  • Ability to identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising
  • Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
  • Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Required Skills and Experience

Eduation 

  • Advanced Degree in Social Sciences, Development Studies, Gender, Women studies or other relevant field and with formal research skills. A professional training in Monitoring and Evaluation and Results-Based Management is considered an asset.
  • Ability to manage and supervise evaluation teams and ensure timely submission of quality evaluation reports

Experience

  • At least seven years of progressive experience in conducting evaluations as team leader Internationally
  • Strong knowledge of issues concerning women's rights, gender equality, women's empowerment and transformative financing for GEWE.
  • Specific technical knowledge of financing for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment and Gender responsive planning and budgeting,
  • Experience in working with UN agencies and UN programmes and evaluations
  • Excellent facilitation and communication skills
  • Experience with focus group discussions and key informant interviews
  • Ability to deal with multi-stakeholder groups; as well as displaying cultural sensitivity
  • Ability to write focused evaluation reports; as well as excellent writing skills (in English)
  • Broad experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection methods.
  • Willingness and ability to travel to the different project's sites in the country
  • Ability to work in a team

Language 

  • High proficiency in English

NOTE

  Applications should include::-

  Proposal

  • Brief summary (not more than 3 pages) of the proposed methodology for the evaluation, including the involvement of stakeholders during each step.
  • Proposed process for disseminating the results of the evaluation.
  • Team structure, roles and responsibilities and time allocation if applicable.
  • Detailed work plan.

   Attachments                

  The following items should be included as attachments (not included in the page limit):

  • Indicate whether you apply for the International or National consultancy.
  • Cover letter stating why you want to do this work, summary of consultant experience and background and available start date.
  • Please note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
  • UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
  • List of the most relevant previous consulting projects completed, including a description of the projects and contact details for references.
  • At least three sample reports from previous consulting projects (all samples will be kept confidential) or links to website where reports can be retrieved (highly recommended).

Applications with the above details should be sent to ethiopia.public@unwomen.org with a subject Programme Final Evaluation on Transformative Financing for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Ethiopia until latest  23 February 2021.

 

UNWOMEN is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence