Outcome ETH_D_1.2

All people in Ethiopia live in a cohesive, just, inclusive and democratic society.

In 2023, the advancement towards a cohesive, just, inclusive, and democratic society in Ethiopia has been marked by the development of a gender-sensitive Transitional Justice Policy. This progress, significantly shaped by UN Women, was bolstered by women's substantial participation in the consultations, with 31.1% of attendees being women, including those affected by conflict and survivors of sexual violence. Their contributions have been pivotal in shaping a draft policy now addresses the critical issue of conflict-related sexual violence, disability inclusion and provisions for specialized prosecution offices and courts, reflecting the crucial input from women. In 2023, significant progress was made in the development of Ethiopia's National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security (NAP on WPS). The formation and full operationalization of the National Steering Committee, advocated by the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs and UN Women, mark a pivotal step. This committee has been instrumental in providing political support and enabling the technical committee to effectively conduct consultations for the NAP on WPS. These consultations, structured around a framework designed to capture a wide range of perspectives, are crucial for drafting a comprehensive and context-specific NAP on WPS. The next crucial step is conducting nationwide consultations to incorporate extensive inputs into the plan. UN Women's role has been instrumental in guiding and supporting these processes, ensuring a comprehensive and inclusive approach to the NAP on WPS. UN Women made progress in ensuring that civil society and women’s rights organizations (WROs) are now more able to meaningfully contribute and influence the policy environment and promote the WPS agenda at the national and local levels. The Gamo Zone Women Federation, one of key UN Women partners, now play a crucial role in resolving a violent conflict in the southern part of Ethiopia. Despite initial scepticism from traditional leaders about women's capabilities in conflict resolution, the women of the Federation, capacitated by UN Women in peacebuilding, successfully mediated the conflict. This intervention not only demonstrated their conflict resolution skills but also significantly changed perceptions, leading to their recognition and inclusion in future conflict resolution processes in the town. This marks a pivotal shift in the role of women in peacekeeping efforts in the region. This significant result has been collected via outcome harvesting methodology, where outcomes are verified through discussions with both internal and external stakeholders. While the national data on women’s leadership in the Executive branch at federal and regional levels is linked to the elections cycle in Ethiopia, in 2023, the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs (MoWSA), supported by UN Women, spearheaded an assessment to evaluate women's representation in leadership roles across various regions and federal city administrations in Ethiopia. The study faced challenges, including the lack of a standard definition for leadership levels and missing data on age and disability status. Political instability and government reshuffling in Amhara led to difficulties in accurately tracking changes in women's representation. Despite these challenges, the findings revealed a nominal (1%) increase in women's leadership representation in Amhara, not due to more female appointments but due to a reduction in total cabinet positions. At the federal level, women's representation in leadership roles in 2023 remained consistent with the previous year. Despite the challenges in accurately tracking and boosting women's leadership, especially in regions affected by political and social instability, in 2023 UN Women continued to advance the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments, local governments and executive positions. As a result of tailored leadership capacity building by UN Women and partners, including the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs and the Network of Ethiopian Women Association (NEWA), a total 156 women leaders and politicians from Sidama, Afar, and Somali regions now actively compete for higher leadership roles and advanced gender equality within their political parties, which is expected to move the need on the number of women at leadership level. UN Women continues to emphasize that quality gender statistics and sex-disaggregated data are integral aspects of achieving gender equality. The GoE now is better able to track the implementation of the SDGs with increased availability of data and statistics, including gender statistics. A separate unit responsible for the production, analysis and dissemination of gender and disability statistics which demonstrates the political will of the government of gender statistics is now established by the Ethiopian Statistical Services (ESS). The unit, complementing existing directorates for gender and social inclusion in various ministries, signifies a significant step towards improved availability and analysis of gender-focused data in Ethiopia. The establishment of the unit comes after years of advocacy and capacity building by UN Women with the Ethiopian Statistical Services through the Making Every Woman and Girl Count programme.

All people in Ethiopia live in a cohesive, just, inclusive and democratic society.

In 2025, UN Women Ethiopia contributed to progress toward a more cohesive, inclusive, and democratic society by advancing women’s leadership and political participation, strengthening inclusive peace and governance frameworks, expanding civic engagement and accountability, and reinforcing institutional systems for gender-responsive evidence and decision-making. While structural constraints remain - particularly in data availability and uneven sub-national implementation - measurable intermediate outcomes demonstrate forward momentum toward inclusive governance, social cohesion, and democratic accountability. Women’s leadership and inclusive governance advanced at the federal level, with women holding 42 per cent of cabinet positions (10 of 24), up from 33 per cent in 2020, reflecting strengthened institutional commitment to gender equality. Persistently low representation in regional executives - 12 per cent in Amhara and 17 per cent in Oromia - however, underscores ongoing structural barriers and the need for sustained sub-national investment. These gains were supported by capacity development for 5,540 women and girls, including young women and women with disabilities, strengthening leadership pipelines and civic engagement across federal and conflict-affected contexts. UN Women also addressed barriers to political participation by supporting measures to prevent and respond to violence against women in politics (VAWP), including localized global modules, gender-responsive codes of conduct, and survivor-centred reporting mechanisms. These efforts contributed to safer political environments and strengthened accountability within political institutions, supporting more inclusive and credible democratic processes. Progress toward inclusive peace and security was marked by the finalization of Ethiopia’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (NAP-WPS) and its submission to the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs. Although not yet adopted, the NAP-WPS represents a critical intermediate outcome, with governance arrangements and a draft Regional Action Plan strengthening readiness for future implementation. Women’s and youth participation in national dialogue and transitional justice processes expanded, with 126 women supported to engage meaningfully in peace, justice, and reconciliation discussions. Democratic accountability beyond formal institutions was strengthened through increased civil society and media influence. In 2025, UN Women disbursed USD 4.29 million to women’s organizations and CSOs, strengthening advocacy, peacebuilding, violence prevention, and service delivery. Women’s organizations substantively shaped the draft NAP-WPS, while media professionals adopted gender-sensitive reporting standards, expanding rights-based narratives and digital advocacy reaching more than 300,000 viewers.This epresents a positive progress despite many are yet to come out and report. Access to justice and protection improved in the intervention areas, increasing service uptake among women and girls. In Amhara, Afar, and Tigray, UN Women strengthened nine One-Stop Centers and enhanced the capacities of 469 justice actors (202 women and 267 men), resulting in enhanced accountability and survivor-centred case management. Despite challenges faced by women to report VAW cases, through UN Women’s support to local partners, 1,117 women and girls in seven regions received free legal aid services including counselling, legal support, referrals, legal follow-up, and court representation, demonstrating meaningful progress. Shifts in social and gender norms reinforced inclusive governance and civic engagement. SASA! programmes in Amhara and Oromia combined community activism, media, and public outreach, leading to stronger rejection of violence against women and girls (from 50 per cent to 85 per cent), increased support for survivors (from 29 per cent to 79 per cent), and greater awareness of violence-related risks (from 69 per cent to 95 per cent). At the national level, support to the five-year National Strategy on the Prevention and Response to Violence Against Women and Children strengthened institutional coordination, accountability, and collective action, creating enabling social conditions for women and girls to participate safely and actively in public, political, and community life. Evidence-based governance and accountability, while improved institutionally, remains a key constraint to outcome achievement with only 37.7 per cent of gender-specific SDG indicators having available data in 2025 - well below the 75 per cent target and the 50 per cent baseline in 2020. Nonetheless, foundational progress was achieved through the development of Ethiopia’s Gender Statistics Guideline and strengthened applied capacity of policymakers to use gender analysis and sex-disaggregated data. Overall, expanded women’s leadership, safer political participation, strengthened peace and justice systems, increased civic and media engagement, and improved institutional foundations for gender-responsive data contributed to incremental but meaningful progress toward a more inclusive, just, and democratic society, despite persistent structural and data-related challenges

All people in Ethiopia live in a cohesive, just, inclusive and democratic society.

The second outcome of the Strategic Note 2021-2025, which is fully aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Cooperation Framework 2020-2025, aims at promoting a cohesive, just, inclusive and democratic society in Ethiopia. Adhering to the theory of change of the Strategic Note 2021-2025, UN Women contributed to this outcome through strengthening democratic institutions, and the capabilities of rights holders to demand their rights. In 2022, UN Women focused on enhancing women’s leadership capabilities and effective participation in politics and public life; as well as women’s participation in conflict prevention, resolution, and peace building, humanitarian decision making and strengthening civil society in general and the women’s movement and organizations. In 2022, UN Women significantly contributed to advancing women’s representation and effective participation in inclusive democratic institutions, including through support of male leaders in this process. UN Women deepened its partnerships with duty bearers at national and regional levels as well as civil society organizations and women rights organizations to promote attitude, norms and practices advancing gender equality, in general, and women’s empowerment as leaders and decision makers, in particular. UN Women continued to challenge the deep rooted beliefs against women’s leadership role in the community, in partnership with CARE Ethiopia, through a signature approach of social accountability and action community dialogues. More than 2,800 members of the community have been reached through the 96 dialogues, as a step towards transforming discriminatory gender norms around women in leadership and enabling communities to take joint action to strengthen positive practices. Male community members now demonstrate increased willingness to encourage their female relatives and partners to take part in public meetings as well as share domestic care work allowing women to have more time to spend on public activities. In advancing women’s leadership, more than 800 women leaders, drawn from the legislative and executive branches of government of Ethiopia are now empowered to harness their voice, exercise their agency as well as influence governance institutions. As a result of UN Women strategy to scaling up programming in empowering women in leadership and politics, a mentorship opportunity has been provided to 109 newly appointed women leaders in Amhara region by linking them with 109 seasoned women leaders to inspire the new women leaders with more leadership confidence. As evidenced through testimonies of women leaders, the mentorship programme has been transformational in enhancing their decision-making and management competencies, expanding their professional networks and equipping them with problem solving skills as newly appointed women leaders and support other women leaders. “ After I took the training (Transformative Leadership for Gender Equality Training), there was a noticeable change in my work, and I was promoted to from woreda to zonal level, Women, Children and Youth Affairs Department ” – confirmed one woman leader who is now a Deputy Head of the Health Department of the South Gondor Zone in Amhara Region. Furthermore, building on the unique partnership with the Office of the President (OTP) of Ethiopia, UN Women was able to avail more opportunities for increasing women’s leadership at all levels, including women with disabilities and young women. UN Women continued to contribute to the UN’s shared effort to support the establishment of a gender and vulnerability responsive national peace architecture. The Government of Ethiopia, with the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs as the lead, has started the preparation of Ethiopia's first National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) in 2022. UN Women's current Strategic Note places a strong focus on women, peace and security across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus programming and, therefore, UN Women has done strong groundwork, including advocacy, awareness raising and capacity-building of CSOs, government and media, to build a conducive environment for the development of the NAP. In 2022, UN Women made some progress in ensuring that civil society and women’s rights organizations (WROs) are now more able to meaningfully contribute and influence the policy environment and promote the Women, Peace and Security agenda at the national and local levels. Five national civil society organizations (Norwegian Church Aid, Ethiopian Mediation and Arbitration Center, Timran, Network of Ethiopian Women’s Associations and Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association) influence the process of developing a National Action Plan (NAP) on the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR 1325) through their membership in the national technical committee on the NAP, which is led by the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs, with engagement and representation of other governmental and non-governmental stakeholders. The CSOs are formally invited and recognized members of the technical committee with an acknowledged role of ensuring the inclusion of diverse civil society throughout the process. UN Women has partnered with the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs setting up of the technical committee and inclusion of civil society in it. UN Women’s convening role has been critical in ensuring that CSOs are included and given an equal role in the committee. It is expected that with strong CSO engagement in the committee, the NAP development process will be more responsive to the needs of women, girls and grassroots groups throughout the country. UN Women continues to emphasize that quality gender statistics and sex-disaggregated data are integral aspects of achieving gender equality. The government of Ethiopia now is better able to track the implementation of the SDGs with increased availability of data and statistics, including gender statistics. This came as a result of UN Women instrumental support to the Ethiopian Statistical Services (ESS) and the Ministry of Planning and Development in increasing production, availability, accessibility and use of quality data and statistics through setting up the SDG Implementation and Progress Reporting Dashboard, development of the Voluntary National Review (VNR) 2022 as well as expanding its use in policy development, such as draft of the National Strategy on Statistics. In 2022, UN Women continued to adhere to the theory of change for this outcome bridging silos within the cross thematic collaboration to ensure women’s leadership and participation, accountability mechanisms and processes are in place to effectively redress violations of the rights of women and girls; their organizations and civil society as a whole will be more active and effective in claiming their rights, holding government to account and participating in governance processes and structures.

All people in Ethiopia live in a cohesive, just, inclusive and democratic society.

UN Women, in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Affairs, has made significant strides in promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls through various initiatives across Ethiopia. One of the key achievements is the establishment of the quarterly Children, Youth, and Women – Research and Practice Forum. This forum serves as a platform for experts to discuss research findings, propose policy recommendations, and share best practices regarding issues affecting women and girls. The forum is made accessible both physically at the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs (MoWSA) as well as virtually. Notable presentations have included studies focusing on topics such as gender-responsive fiscal policies, tax compliance through a gender lens, and technology-facilitated violence against women in Addis Ababa. In addition to this forum, UN Women has partnered with local entities to create an annual research dissemination event aimed at amplifying discussions around critical issues affecting women’s rights. Further enhancing regional capabilities for gender mainstreaming in humanitarian efforts are the Gender Strategy and Coordination Frameworks developed for Somali and Amhara regions. In Somali region specifically, a five-day training session focused on gender-responsive disaster preparedness was conducted for 32 humanitarian actors. This initiative strengthens disaster management capacities while ensuring that vulnerable populations are adequately considered during humanitarian responses. In Tigray region, UN Women's Gender-in-Humanitarian-Action Technical Working Group (GiHA TWG) has actively integrated gender-specific strategies into health clusters to enhance programming through 2025. In collaboration with local stakeholders including BoWA (Bureau of Women's Affairs), various initiatives have been launched aimed at economic empowerment for ex-combatants; notably supporting 340 ex-combatant women through tailored training programs focusing on psychosocial support alongside practical skills development. Cohort One benefitted from business management training coupled with protection allowances targeting vulnerable individuals among them while Cohort Two received technical skills training across sectors such as agriculture which aids their reintegration into society by fostering economic independence. UN Women’s contributions extend to national levels where extensive consultations were held nationwide to shape Ethiopia's National Action Plan on Women Peace Security (WPS). The first draft encompassing essential components like Theory of Change along with Monitoring & Evaluation Frameworks was shared among federal ministries in September 2024; subsequent refinement steps are planned alongside budgetary considerations aiming towards effective implementation upon finalization. Another notable initiative includes collaborations designed to strengthen women's leadership roles within governmental structures; efforts resulted in over 100 middle-level female leaders acquiring transformative leadership capabilities which bolster their influence within public offices—especially relevant during rebuilding initiatives post-conflict situations particularly noted within Tigray region contexts. Moreover partnerships formed between UN Women & Ministry of Foreign Affairs facilitated specialized training equipping 81 female diplomats with essential skills necessary not only for navigating complex diplomatic frameworks but also promoting peace processes internationally fostering collaborative environments within foreign affairs realms where Women diplomats are enabled to actively engage. . At community levels, empowering civil society organizations remains pivotal where networks established like the one between UN Women & Ethiopian Women's Associations have fortified advocacy capacity targeting governance inclusivity whilst equipping organizations tackling violence against women politically which culminated into a resource kit aiding monitoring efforts appropriately enhancing responsiveness surrounding Violence Against Women in Politics .