Antecedentes

Democracy, responsible governance and human rights which embeds women’s rights is crucial to peace and development. Significant part of promoting inclusiveness in governance is ensuring women’s rights are upheld and they equally participate in politics and hold positions of power in government. In Ethiopia, there is a significant improvement in the number of women attaining leadership positions notably in the legislative branch of the government. Conducive normative framework combined with the political will to set aside a voluntary internal quota during national and local elections have contributed to this gain. The increase in number, however, is challenged by a discrepancy when it comes to other branches of the government where the participation women remains low, such as in the executive branch both at national and regional level. Apart from numerical increase in representation, the level of effective representation and capacity of women leaders to influence decision making is an area where clear evidence are lacking. The challenge women face in holding decision making positions and - once they hold these positions - influence decision making is a combination of practical, cultural and attitudinal barriers. In general men have higher levels of educational attainment, greater access and control over financial resources and better health outcomes, which places women in a disadvantage situation. There is also a widely held belief that men are natural leaders and traditions dictate they are entitled to make decisions in both family and workplace. On the other hand, women are associated with home-making and their value is closely correlated with their status and performance as wives and mothers. These practical, cultural and attitudinal factors obstruct women’s equal and effective participation in political life and enjoyment of their political right

Against this background, an initially  three-year programme was initiated with the aim o contributing to the overall goal of increasing the participation and effective representation of women in leadership in Ethiopia focusing particularly on the legislative and executive branch of the government. The expected outcomes are: a pool of interested, diverse and capable women leaders and decision makers is formed; women are perceived as equally legitimate and effective political leaders as men; and women are promoted as leaders in gender sensitive political institutions. 

The programme has been implemented since September 2017 at the federal level and in regional states including Amhara and Oromia. The programme is expected to expand to Afar, Gambella, SNNPR and Tigray, in partnership with the House of Peoples Representatives, regional councils, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and its regional counterparts, Ethiopia Broadcasting Authority, media houses, higher education institutions at federal and regional level, Community Based Organizations and CSOs among the main stakeholders. The focus is on enhancing the leadership competencies of women leaders through institutionalized capacity building intervention in addition to providing support to the legislature both at federal and regional level to build its capacity to be gender sensitive and responsive both internally and while playing its legislative and oversight role. Facilitating mentorship opportunity to lower level women leaders cultivate their leadership ability and enable them to climb the leadership ladder is also a strategy that will be intertwined with the capacity building intervention to ensure sustainability of impact and increase the pool of able upcoming women leaders.

With a view to create an enabling environment for women to increasingly hold leadership positions, building the capacity of media professionals both in print and broadcast media in gender sensitive reporting and positive portrayal of women, awareness promotion campaigns and community mobilization to fight negative stereotypes towards women’s leadership role are some of the interventions that will be implemented in collaboration with media regulation entities, media houses and grassroot organisations. Under the purview of UN Women’s HeforShe solidarity movement, promotion of male champions together with female role models is another strategy that will be employed to bring attitudinal change in the society. The program will continuously generate data and knowledge products as one of its strategies is to influence intervention, facilitate discussion and debate on the need to provide space for 50/50 representation of

lanned to be launched at January 2017 and run until December 2019 for three years. However, it was launched in September 2017 and later the programme duration was revised to run up to 2021 following the increased demand in intervention in the area and support from development partners.

The programme responds to the concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on participation of women in political and public life (27 July 2011) and 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 is 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 programme document, which was launched in September 2017 envisions the undertaking of a midterm evaluation after one and half year implementation of the programme. The midterm evaluation exercise beyond what it was planned to do i.e. providing feedback to improve programme management and results framework, is expected to improve based on practical observations and findings the result framework of the program specially output and outcome indicators. It is also expected to support the development of a standard Impact assessment tool to measure progress towards the main goal of the project. This midterm evaluation is strategic in terms of realizing the main goal of the project which is enhancing the equal representation and effective participation of women in leadership and decision making in Ethiopia. The findings of the midterm evaluation will be used to improve the result framework and strategies of the program in addition to being used for organizational learning and accountability. In addition to this, the midterm evaluation will be used to identify any required adjustment to be done to the Programme Document to respond to the changes in the context and to reflect the increase on budget availability.

Therefore, the UN Women Ethiopia Country Office is thus seeking a team of consultants to conduct the midterm evaluation of the programme. The evaluation should follow the guiding documents for evaluation at UN Women, including the Evaluation Policy, Evaluation Chapter of the POM, the GERAAS evalution report quality checklist, the United Nations System-wide Actin Plan Evaluation Performance Indicator (UN-SWAP EPI) and the UN Women Evaluation Handbook. These documents serve as the frame of reference for the Evaluation Manager and the evaluation consultant(s) for ensuring compliance with the various requirements and assuring the quality of the evaluation report.

Purpose (and use of the midterm evaluation)

As per the Programme Document where it is stated the need of conducting a Midterm review after a year and a half of implementation, UN Women ECO is initiating a mandatory midterm evaluation of the entire WILG programme document. The purpose of the evaluation is to provide an in-depth assessment of the results against the three outcomes of the programme and performance in term of the relevance, effectivness, effiecency, sustainability, impact, incusiveness, partciipation, equality, non-discrimination, and social transformation. It further aims to adjust the result framework of the programme through concrete recommendations to respond to the changes in the context, availability of funds and to ensure effective result measurement for the rest of the programme implementation period.

It should identify lessons learned, good practices, and factors that facilitated/hindered achievement. Through this, it aims to contribute to accountability, learning and decision-making including practical recommendations to inform the management and coordination of programme implementation leading towards the final evaluation and other related initiatives on women's participation in leadership and governance.

The midterm evaluation will be undertaken with the following key stakeholders in mind:

• Relevant staff from IPs, including federal and local government institutions
• Target beneficiary communities and individuals
• UN Women ECO programme staff
• UN sister agencies, such as UNDP
• Development partners

Objectives

The specific objectives of the evaluation are to:

• Assess the extent to which the results of the programme are achieved or are on track, including unintended results and examine to what extent the programme is aligned with relevant International agreements and conventions, national needs, government priorities as well as with the UNDAF.
• Revision of the programme's theory of change for each of the relevant impact areas.
• Check on availability of data and evidence to allow informed and credible analysis of performance, and the ‘evaluability’ of the programme with a view to make amends for the implementation of the rest of the programme.
• To take stock of changes in the programming context (including normative developments, new funding available) and programmatic response.
• Review the programme design, implementation strategy, institutional arrangements as well as management and operational systems.
• To analyze and reflect on the progress of the programme and the validity of its identified strategies.
• Assess effectiveness and organizational efficiency in progressing towards the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment results as defined in the intervention, with a special focus on innovative and scalable and replicable interventions.
• Assess the relevance of the contribution of the programme to the national measures to enhance the equal participation and effective representation of women in leadership and decision-making positions.
• Assess the sustainability of the intervention in achieving sustained gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Determine the impact of the intervention with respect to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Analyse how human rights approach and gender equality principles were integrated in implementation.
• Document good practices, innovations and lessons learnt and provide concrete and actionable recommendations for future programming.
• To provide recommendations and practical suggestions on how to revise the programme results framework  particularly focusing on indicators, baseline and targets document where necessary and enhance its ability to gauge change for the rest of the program implementation period (2019-2020/2021).

Below is a list of preliminary evaluation questions, the specific midterm evaluation questions and relevant evaluation instruments will be determined during the inception stage. The evaluation questions should be defined in consensus with the evaluation management group and the evaluation reference group. The evaluation should be based on the following criteria

Design Level:

Relevance

• To what extent is the intervention relevant to the needs and priorities as defined by beneficiaries? Are they aligned to national priorities?
• To what extent is the intervention aligned with relevant national, regional and international normative frameworks for gender equality and women’s empowerment?
• What is UN Women’s comparative advantage in this area of work compared with other UN entities and key partners?
• What are the main strategic components of the programme? How do they contribute and logically link to the planned outcomes? How well do they link to each other?
• Do the activities and strategies address the problems identified?
• Are the planned outputs and results relevant and realistic for the situation on the ground?
• Is the intervention logic coherent and realistic? What needs to be adjusted? (refer to the programme Results Matrix)
• How strategic are partners in terms of mandate, influence, capacities and commitment? To what extent had implementing partners an added value to solve the development challenges stated in the programme document?
• To what extent did the programme have a useful and reliable M&E strategy that contributed to measure development results?
• How appropriate and useful are the indicators described in the programme document in assessing the programme's progress? Are the targeted indicator values realistic and can they be tracked? If necessary, how should they be modified to be more useful? Are the means of verification for the indicators appropriate?

Process level:

Efficiency

• To what extent does the management structure of the intervention support efficiency for programme implementation?
• Have resources been used efficiently? Have activities supporting the strategy been cost-effective?
• Have programme funds and activities been delivered in a timely manner? If not, what were the bottlenecks encountered?
• Are there enough resources (financial, time, human resources) allocated to integrate human rights and gender equality in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the programme?
• Were there any constraints (e.g. political, practical, and bureaucratic) to addressing the rights of women efficiently during implementation? What level of effort was made to overcome these challenges?

Ownership in the process: Effective exercise of leadership by the country’s national/local partners in development interventions.

• To what extent did the targeted population, citizens, participants, local and national authorities make the programme their own, taking an active role in it? What modes of participation (leadership) have driven the process?
• Have the stakeholders taken ownership of the programme? If so, how?
• To what extent and in what ways has ownership or the lack of it, impacted in the efficiency and effectiveness of the WILG Programme?

Results level:

Effectiveness: Extent to which the objectives of the development intervention have been achieved.

• What has been the progress made towards achievement of the expected outcomes and expected results? What are the results achieved so far?
• What are the reasons for the achievement or non-achievement?
• To what extent did the programme contribute to achievement of results in terms of enhancing the equal representation and effective participation of women in leadership positions?
• How have stakeholders been involved in the programme implementation?
• How was the programme monitored and reviewed? To what extent was this exercise useful and used? Have any good practices, success stories, lessons learned, or transferable examples been identified and documented?

Impact

• To what extent was gender equality and women’s empowerment advanced as a result of the programme implementation?
• To what extent can the changes that have occurred as a result of the WILG Programme be identified and measured?
• How did the programme contribute to the identified changes?
• What were the unintended effects, if any, of the intervention?
• What are the notable impacts of the programme on the lives of women and men?
• How did the interventions of this programme impact the empowerment of women in leadership at all levels?

Sustainability: Probability of the benefits of the intervention continuing in the long term.

• Did the intervention design include an appropriate sustainability and exit strategy (including promoting national/local ownership, use of national capacity, etc.) to support positive changes in the protection of the rights of women after the end of the intervention?
• What is the likelihood that the benefits from the WILG Programme be maintained for a reasonably long period of time if the programme were to cease?
• To what extent have WILG national partners undertaken the necessary decision and course of actions to ensure the sustainability of the effects of the Programme?
• How has the programme enhanced ownership and contributed to the development of national capacity in order to ensure sustainability of efforts and benefits?
• How will the benefits of the intervention be secured for rights holders (i.e. what accountability and oversights
      systems were established)?

Gender Equality and Human Rights

• To what extent have gender and human rights considerations been integrated into the programme design and implementation?
• Have the programme interventions been following equality and non-discrimination principles at all time?

Inclusiveness and Participation

• Was the designing, implementation and monitoring process of the programme participatory?
• Have stakeholders been given the chance to give their inputs? How useful was the process?

Social transformation

• How has the programme contributed to the intended social transformation in terms of creating an enabling environment for women to hold and stay in leadership and decision-making positions?
• What were the key strategies used to bring about attitudinal change of society towards promoting women's leadership and political participation?

Deberes y responsabilidades

• Desk review
• Rapid evaluability assessment of the programme
• Evaluation design and inception report drafting, including data collection tools and instruments
• Presentation of inception report and data collection tools and instruments
• Submission of final inception report
• Data collection and field visits 
• Presentation of preliminary findings
• Preparation of draft evaluation report
• Presentation and validation of evaluation findings to stakeholders and collect feedback
• Preparation of final evaluation report

Competencias

• Strong knowledge of issues concerning women's rights, gender equality, women's empowerment and women's participation and representation in leadership and politics.
• Specific technical knowledge of WILG, strategies to enhance the equal participation and effective representation of women in leadership and politics, creation of enabling environment for women to comet to leadership position and climb the leadership ladder, and relevant normative frameworks to protect the rights of women to participate in the governance of their county and hold leadership positions.
• 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

Core values / guiding principles

The evaluators will adhere to the following core values and guiding principles:

• 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.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:-

• Advanced Degree in Social Sciences, Development Studies, Law, Human rights, Politics, Gender, Women studies or other relevant field and with formal research skills.

Expierence

• At least five years of experience in conducting evaluations

Language

• Fluent 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.
• Detailed CV (UN Women P11) - of all the participating consultants. This can be downloaded from the UNDP website.
• 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 Desset Abebe (desset.abebe@unwomen.org) with subject ' Mid-Term Evaluation' until latest 17 October 2019.