Region:Asia Pacific
Current UN Women Plan Period Afghanisthan:2018-2022
World Bank Income Classification:Low Income
The World Bank classifies economies for analytical purposes into four income groups: low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high income. For this purpose it uses gross national income (GNI) per capita data in U.S. dollars, converted from local currency using the World Bank Atlas method, which is applied to smooth exchange rate fluctuations.
Least Developed Country:Yes
Since 1971, the United Nations has recognized LDCs as a category of States that are deemed highly disadvantaged in their development process, for structural, historical and also geographical reasons. Three criteria are used: per capita income, human assets, and economic vulnerability.
Gender Inequality Index:0.575
GII is a composite metric of gender inequality using three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market. A low GII value indicates low inequality between women and men, and vice-versa.
Gender Development Index:0.723
GDI measures gender inequalities in achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: health, education, and command over economic resources.
Population:209,497,025
Source of population data: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). World Population Prospects: The 2022 Revision
Male:19,976,265 (9.5%)
Female:189,520,760 (90.5%)
outcome XM-DAC-41146-ETH_D_1.1
Women leaders effectively participate in and influence decisions in political institutions at Federal and Regional levels.
Women’s leadership and political participation in Ethiopia has improved over the years due to a conducive normative framework and political will by the then ruling party the Ethiopia People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) that uses a voluntary quota system within the party for legislative seats. This trend also continued with the ruling party currently in power, Prosperity Party (PP). During the Strategic Note implementation and with UN Women’s support, women are taking the lead in governance systems in Ethiopia and women leaders effectively participate in and influence decisions in political institutions at Federal and Regional levels. As evidence, in 2021, UN Women strengthened the capacity of 628 women leaders through transformative leadership skills and decision-making training which enabled them to lead and participate in decision-making processes and governance structures at all levels. Through the training and coaching programme, UN Women has built capacity of 75 women leaders drawn from federal and regional level government entities (Amhara and Oromia regions), CSOs and emerging young women leaders to exercise their transformational leadership competencies. The training and coaching programme created an opportunity for participants to network and establish a platform of women leaders for a peer-to-peer coaching group. In 2021, the Transformative Leadership for Gender Equality (TLGE) Training Center in Bahir Dar University was supported by UN Women in the construction of training room partitions and design of the overall layout of the training centre. Building up on the institutionalisation of a transformative leadership for gender equality training programme for women leaders, UN Women supported the development of Women Political Empowerment curriculum and draft curriculum has been completed. The curriculum is expected to be rolled out in 2022 to ensure elected and appointed women are equipped with the skills to increase their legitimacy and standing within political structures. UN Women increased availability of pool of trainers, including in Afan Oromo [1], through a training of trainers (TOT) on adult learning skills to 18 (12 female and 6 male) core trainers of UN Women using the transformative leadership for gender equality curriculum of Bahir Dar University. As a result, four of the trainers facilitated the capacity building training held in collaboration with MoWSA targeting 50 women leaders. A mentorship booklet was developed with support of UN Women after launching the mentorship programme in Amhara region in the presence of 767 participates (467 female leaders and 300 male leaders). The mentorship booklet has been a key user-friendly tool to guide mentors and mentees during the mentorship programme. [1] Afan Oromo - is an Afroasiatic language that belongs to the Cushitic branch. It is native to the Ethiopian state of Oromia and spoken predominantly by the Oromo people and neighbouring ethnic groups in the Horn of Africa
outcome XM-DAC-41146-ETH_D_1.2
Women are perceived as equally legitimate and effective political leaders as men
UN Women in partnerships with CARE Ethiopia, EMA and Amhara BOWCSA has been significantly contributing to key social norms change for women to be perceived as legitimate and effective political leaders as men through multiple and targeted efforts including community dialogues, gender forums with diverse stakeholder and gender machineries, political parties, NEBE, CSOs, academia, media, youth and women association members, as well as and media capacity building programs. A perception and awareness of 1,917 participants (959 female and 958 male) community members in Amhara region on the importance of women in leadership and participation in decision was transformed through the implementation of 64 community, including using women as community dialogue leaders. In addition, a gender forum to promote women political participation in Amhara Region which brought together 190 (130 female and 60 male) participants from gender machineries, political parties, National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), CSOs, academia and media has been a crucial platform for a commitment of the ruling party to bring more women candidates into the 6th General Election in Ethiopia in Amhara region. As a result of the media training on gender equality, elections and gender responsive reporting supported by UN Women and advocacy with Ethiopia Media Authority (EMA), three community radio media were able to secure a permission to report on the 6th General Election, after EMA communicated to NEBE on the lack of access for community radios to report on elections. Thereby, two media programs were developed and transmitted via radio promoting gender quality and the role of women in leadership and participation in decision making, as well as the added value of the training for the media. UN Women amplified women’s leadership role in COVID-19 response efforts through two TV programmes profiling Sister Nigat Woldehawaryat, a Director of Nurses Department in COVID-19 treatment centre, highlighting women’s effort as frontline responders to the pandemic, and Ms. Mekdes Mintesnot, Ethio-Telecom's Chief Information Security Officer, showing the role Ethio- Telecom played in creating awareness on the precautionary measures of the COVID-19 prevention and mobilizing the public through its wider outreach program under women’s leadership. UN Women in collaboration with the local CSO - Network of Women’s Association (NEWA) - have been leading on forming a platform to coordinate CSOs’ interventions to promote women political participation and gender equality in Ethiopia. As a result of UN Women efforts in facilitating the South-to-South experience sharing from CSO representatives from Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda and Siera Leone and mobilizing 18 local CSOs, the CSO coordination platform, led by NEWA and other local CSOs (Timran and Setaweet), has been established and the action plan endorsed. The CSO platform has been crucial in avoiding duplication of efforts and ensuring coherent coordination in promoting women political participation during the 6th General Election in Ethiopia. During the Strategic Note implementation, UN Women has entered the field on peace and security and has contributed to women being perceived as equally legitimate and effective leaders as men in the area of peace and security. UN Women supported the enhancement of the role of youth and women in peacebuilding and conflict resolution through collaboration with other UN agencies and CSOs, promoting women’s participation in peace and security related processes and women’s protection in conflicts. For example, women’s peace forums were established in Oromia and Somali regions to enhance and increase women’s participation in peace and conflict related processes. UN Women has played a key role in creating interest and a conducive atmosphere for the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. UN Women’s capacity building, advocacy and consultative meetings on WPS among key stakeholders resulted in MoWSA and Ministry of Peace (MoP) committing to support the development of National Action Plan on Women Peace and Security in Ethiopia, which is inclusive if civil society and adherent to international norms and standards.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-ETH_D_1.3
Fiscal laws, policies and strategies of the Government to prioritize budgetary allocations in favour of GEWE
UN Women continued making the case for gender-responsive budgeting in Ethiopia. In 2021 the gender audit manual has been finalized and has been the first of its kind in Ethiopia. With the UN Women support, 22 senior auditors from Office of the Federal Auditor General (OFAG) have been equipped with skills to conduct financial and performance audit from gender perspective pioneering the practice in Ethiopia. Following the enhanced capacity of experts, the Office of the Federal Auditor General (OFAG) established a team of experts in one of its directorates to lead on the performance gender audit. OFAG team of experts has been piloting the gender audit with the Ministry of Health (MoH) which shows its commitment to execute the gender audit manual. Under the framework of the new Strategic Note 2021-2025, the team of expert will be capacitated further, and the audit manual will be revised based on the MoH’s audit findings. In addition, the Gender Equality Strategy (GES) for Ministry of Finance (MoH) has been finalized, the strategy is a key tool to guide the overall approach to mainstream gender in the policy making as well as day to day execution of the ministry’s activities. As a result, the gender directorate of the MoF included most of the pillars from GES into ministry’s annual work plan to be implemented in 2022. A discussion forum organized by UN Women on the outcome of the assessment on resource allocation within the Transformation Plan II (GTP II) from gender perspective enabled an experience sharing and lessons learnt forming a community of practice among experts from different sectors on resource allocation for GEWE in different sector offices at regional and federal levels.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-ETH_D_1.4
Strengthen the production of gender statistics to enable the monitoring of national policies and reporting commitments under the SDGs.
Under the overall framework of the Strategic Note 2017-2020, UN Women has been implementing the Making Every Woman and Girl Count programme to improve the production of gender statistics in Ethiopia. Through its programme, UN Women contributed to the availability of gender data in Ethiopia. The production of gender statistics has been strengthened to enable the monitoring of national policies and reporting commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UN Women has contributed to the achievement of the outcome through its support the Ethiopian Statistical Service (ESS) to conduct a Gender Asset Gap Survey (GAGS). The GAGS, which is the first of its kind for Ethiopia, measures the gender wealth gap and provides data on SDG Goal 5, target 5(a) and indicator 5 (a.1). The survey has a national coverage except, Tigray region which could not be included due to the ongoing conflict. The final report will be validated and published through UN Women support in 2022. UN Women further enhanced the reporting on national development plans by strengthening the National Gender Information System (NGIS) in MoWSA. The NGIS, aims to have the national coverage for improved reporting on national development plans aligned to SDG gender-related indicators, has been cascaded to Sidama regional state through UN Women support in 2021. To standardize the data collection tools and improve reporting, UN Women in collaboration with ESS conducted a review of existing data collection tools and survey manuals from a gender perspective. The effective implementation of the revised data collection manuals and adoption of proposed changes by ESS and sectors will standardize administrative data collection and strengthen the overall reporting on national and global development plans by making it gender responsive. UN Women will continue its support and advocacy work, including by building the capacity of ESS and sector ministries on gender-responsive reporting to support the implementation of the findings of the review report. The role of non-traditional actors in producing and using regular gender statistics is critical to strengthen the reporting on SDGs and national development plans. Accordingly, UN Women implemented a pilot project on the collection, analysis and use of citizen-generated data (CGD) for reporting of SDG-5 and gender-related indicators with International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR). A guideline on the collection, analysis and use of CGD is developed and used to build the capacity of civil society organisations and statisticians from Amhara regional state and federal. Furthermore, a community of practice on CGD is established among CSOs to continue the efforts in improving the use of CGD in Ethiopia and ensure sustainability.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-ETH_D_1.5
More Sectoral Ministries develop gender responsive plans and budgets
As a result of South-South experience sharing which UN Women has been spearheading since 2019, the Federal Urban Food Security Agency and Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) were able to revise and present the contextualized Gender Budget Statement in 2021 using a good practice from Rwanda. Two sectors developed their organizations’ three years plans using the gender budget statement as a key accountability mechanism to promote financing for gender equality. Thereby, both sectors allocated its budget for different programs addressing the needs and priorities of women and girls in their respective sectors. Similarly, UN Women in collaboration with the Union of Ethiopian Women and Children Association (UEWCA) enhanced the capacity of 221 experts (120 female and 101 male) from civil service organizations to advocate for gender responsive budgeting (GRB) by establishing the first five GRB clusters in four regions: Oromia, Benishangul Gumuz, Southern Nations and Nationalities Peoples Region (SNNPR), Amhara and Diredawa to build sustainable and effective GRB implementation within the regions. UN Women postponed the capacity building of government experts on GRB to 2022 due to limited budget.Showing 1 - 5 of 15
Disclaimer and notes
The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).
References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).