Background

Recognizing that gender equality is critical to achieving the vision set out in the 2030 Agenda, Goal 5 is dedicated to achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. Under Goal 5, target 5.a directs countries to “undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws”. As such a gender asset ownership survey will play a pivotal role in collecting data needed to measure these and others related to the power to make decision on asset which goes beyond access. For instance, target 5.a focuses on the key economic resource land which is monitored by two indicators: indicator 5.a.1, a de facto indicator on women’s land tenure rights over agricultural land; and indicator 5.a.2, a de jure indicator on women’s land rights in the legal framework. The resource is highly linked to access, use and control of other economic and productive resources while ownership or, at least, control of land is critical for poverty reduction, food security, inclusiveness and overall sustainable development objectives (UN, 20191)

Above all, women’s ownership right over assets is increasingly recognized as a fundamental aspect of development policies and a key feature of women’s empowerment. Moreover, recent studies have affirmed the importance of women’s asset ownership including land, housing and other fixed assets for economic development and social security (ICRW, 20112). Cognizant of this fact, the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA) is planning to conduct a Gender Asset Gap Survey with the aim of furthering its effort towards regularly producing gender statistics that clearly indicates the difference among women and men.

Gender statistics creates the opportunity to evaluate the realization of equitable benefit from national and international commitments for economic growth and sustainable development. Addressing the gap in gender statistics will significantly resolve the challenges facing the National Statistical System (NSS) in producing statistics to fill data gaps in national, regional and global SDGs indicator frameworks. However, gender statistics in Ethiopia is at its stage of infancy.

Cognizant of this fact and the all rounded importance of gender statistics in influencing decisions concerning women and girls, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) is working in partnership with the CSA to improve data production, analysis and dissemination from a gender perspective that enables to monitor and measure the progresses and performances against the SDGs and the upcoming Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) targets.

One of these collaboration areas is the planned Gender Asset Gap Survey (GAGS) of Ethiopia. In line with the national and international guidelines, the survey strives to collect individual-level data on asset ownership that aim to measure the gender asset gap, or the differential distribution of asset ownership among women and men in a society. The United Nations Guideline for producing statistics on asset ownership from a gender perspective puts clearly that gender asset gap comprises, first, the prevalence of asset ownership among women and men, which measures the type of asset or property women and men own; and, second, the share of women among asset owners, which measures whether women and men are equally represented among the owners of the different asset types. Hence, the GAGS of Ethiopia, which will be the first of its kind for Ethiopia, needs to consider all national and international contexts to produce a standardized report of gender asset ownership disparities in the country.

In this context, UN Women is seeking to hire an international consultant to provide technical support to CSA to ensure that standard questionnaires and methodologies are developed for the Gender Asset Gap Survey, with an objective of producing a standard analytical report that clearly indicates gender disparities in asset ownership. The main tasks of the consultant will involve, among others, evaluating draft methodological preparations and tools of data collection drafted by the Gender Asset Gap Case Team (GAGCT) of CSA and test casing the tools developed and finalizing the Data Collection Tools and Methodologies with GAGCT.

 

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will be responsible for providing technical support to the GAGCT in the finalization of standardized and quality tools and methodologies for data collection for the Gender Asset Gap Survey, a statistical report that clearly indicates gender disparities and asset ownership in Ethiopia at national, regional, rural and urban levels. Overall, the consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

  • Preparation of an action plan to support the Gender Asst Gap Survey in consultation with the Gender Asset Gap Survey Case Team of the CSA: develop a complete action plan to support the finalization of the tools for data collection, refinement of the methodology, selection of key indicators for tabulation plan and lead the pilot testing phase which will inform the major gender asset gap survey in consultation with the team members while considering the under listed tasks.  
  • Revising Draft Survey Methodology: The Gender Asset Gap Survey Case Team (GAGSCT) of CSA has done a desk review of the survey methodology. One of the outputs of the desk review is a draft survey methodology. Hence, the consultant is fully responsible to revise the draft methodology in accordance with the recent UN Gender Asset Ownership Guideline, the nature of asset ownership survey, the demand for gender statistics and national context of Ethiopia.   
  • Revising Tools of Data Collection: The Case Team has developed a draft gender asset ownership questionnaire and instruction manual for GAGS. The consultant should revise the tools of data collection (survey questionnaire and instruction manuals) in relation to international standards (UN guideline), best practices and objective realities of the country.
  • Leading the selection of key indicators for tabulation plan and final analytical report of the survey report: The consultant in consultation with the survey GAGSCT is responsible to guide or lead the selection of key indicators of GAGS for tabulation plan preparation and final analytical report production.
  • Support the pilot test of the survey: The consultant in collaboration with the GAGSCT is responsible to support the pilot test undertaking and shape the final survey methodology, tools of data collection and procedures based on the findings of the pilot test.  
  • Knowledge Transfer: The consultant is responsible to capacitate the team from CSA through the process of the identified deliverables (see section III on the deliverables) to enable them to handle the remaining Gender Asset Gap Survey processes independently.

Competencies

  • Experience in leading, coordinating or supporting gender asset ownership surveys is compulsory.
  • Knowledge and Experience in gender statistics and gender issues in the international arena.
  • Knowledge of data and data management with previous experience of big data analytics.
  • Excellent communication, writing, and analytical skills.
  • Experience in research and compilation of data to show results desired.
  • Experience in consulting similar surveys related to gender will be advantageous.

Compliance to the UN Core Values:

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

Required Skills and Experience

Education

  • Advanced University degree (Master’s degree or PhD or equivalent) in Statistics, Welfare Economics, Economics, Gender studies, Development Economics, or related field.

Expeirence

  • At least 10 years of professional experience in the area of statistics, surveys, research, gender and related social development fields.

Language nd other skills

  • Excellent knowledge of written and oral communication in English is required.
  • Computer skills: full command and experience in Microsoft applications, statistical software applications and electronic data collection software such as SPSS, STATA, CSPro, Survey Solution, etc.