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_1.6
Supportive policy environment in place to ensure gender-responsive localization and effective monitoring of the SDGs
UN Women has been closely working with the Ethiopian Statistical Service (ESS) to ensure a supportive policy environment since 2020. During the reporting period, the third national strategy for the development of statistics with a gender perspective and the five-year sectoral plan for ESS were developed with support from UN Women. The adoption of a gender-responsive National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) III and ESS five-years sector plan will fill the gap in creating a supportive policy environment for gender statistics until the national statistical act is revised and a policy framework on gender statistics is adopted by ESS. The government restructuring, that took place in October 2021, highly impacted the revision of the statistical act as the mandate of ESS has been diminished. UN Women will continue to engage with ESS under the Ministry of Planning and Development to ensure workflow under the new mandate and achieve the long-term goal of putting in place a supportive policy environment for gender statistics.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-ETH_D_1.7
Women are promoted as leaders in gender sensitive political institutions
During the Strategic Note implementation, UN Women significantly contributed to the achievement of this outcome. Currently, women hold 41.49 % seats (181 out of 425 seats) in the Parliament after the 6th General Election held on June 2021. With UN Women support, the capacity of 380 women members and female candidates drawn from political parties running at national and regional level was enhanced on critical skills of political empowerment including public speaking, campaigning, political leadership, voter outreach and fundraising to ensure that women candidates have enhanced capacity to compete on a more equal standing with men. 1,300 women candidates (around 70% of total candidates), drawn from all political parties running for federal parliament and regional council increased their knowledge on gender equality and electoral normative frameworks on women’s participation in public and political life. UN Women tailored training has equipped women leaders with the skills to move into elected positions. This will not only create space for other women to gain much needed experience, but also increase their legitimacy and standing within political structures. The first ever inter-party debate on gender equality and commitment of political parties ahead of the 6th General Election was transmitted on main TV station called Fana TV with the support of the Embassy of Sweden and in collaboration with Ethiopian Women Rights Advocates (EWRA). The debate brought together four main political parties: Prosperity Party, Ethiopian Citizen's for Social Justice Party (ECSJ), Afar People's party (APP) and National Movement of Amhara Party (NAMA) running at regional and national levels. The debate provided an opportunity for the public to get an insight into the debating political parties party programs and policies regarding commitments on the promotion of gender equality in Ethiopia [1]. A national dialogue forum was also held among women candidates and members of political parties to create a platform for women politicians to come together to discuss challenges and opportunities in promoting gender equality as a political agenda and to discuss on how to strengthen women politicians’ council (initiated in 2020). Scaling up on previous capacity building since 2019, UN Women supported NEBE in launching a Female Political Party Members Joint Council on in Ethiopia. In line with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed among the members, the council is expected to promote women’s leadership at all levels, advocate for gender policies, and promote and work towards cross-party collaboration on issues concerning women rights and politicians including strive to eliminate political pressure, violence, and discrimination against women political party members. UN Women will continue to support the council through civil society to promote women political participation in Ethiopia. UN Women has been providing strategic support to the House of Peoples’ Representative’s (HoPR) (Parliament) and its Secretariat to ensure the institution is gender sensitive in exercising its representative, legislative and oversight function. Support is provided to the HoPR and its Secretariat in undertaking a gender audit facilitating stock taking of the journey that the current Parliament took in terms of its gender focused work and gender mainstreaming efforts in its mechanism and structures. The audit report will be used for further intervention in the Parliament with new parliamentarians following the 6th General Election. Building on teams’ comparative advantage, UN Women National Planning and Women in Leadership and Governance teams, enhanced capacity of 61 staff (24 female and 37 male) of the Secretariat of the HoPR to plan and budget from a gender perspective. UN Women will follow up with the Secretariat and HoPR practices gender responsive budgeting principles while delivering on the mandate of the House. UN Women contributed to promoting electoral frameworks to be gender responsive in light of the 6th General Election. To this effect, the capacity of key electoral stakeholders including, electoral management body staff, accredited CSOs, medias and media monitoring bodies, national human rights institutions, male and female political party members has been built on how to mainstream gender in their electoral engagement [2]. A media campaign was also conducted through a launch of a well-received collaborative music video, ‘Yehager Kasma’ (roughly translated as Pillar of the Nation), featuring several prominent Ethiopian artists encouraging the participation of women in the elections. In addition, 24 public media outreach programmes were conducted, in collaboration with the EHRC and local NEWA, promoting women participation in politics as votes, candidates, members of political and as members of electoral management bodies (MBs). The public outreach programme was able to reach a wide audience, in four local languages, and a sign language and aired on Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, with nationwide reach. To advance evidence driven data, UN Women conducted a “Rapid Assessment on Violence Against Women during Elections (VAWE)”, in collaboration with EHRC. Capacitated members of NEBE and CSOs on gender inclusive voter education significantly cascaded the initiative to eight local FM radio stations, 51 community radios and 4 regional TVs, conducted a roadshow on voter education in 197 woredas and two federal cities, 11 women election literacy trainings in six regions and a consultative meeting with 43 religious leaders and community elders in four regions in Ethiopia. [1] Please see link for debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DphQ3ZGRTtM [2] https://africa.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2020/11/un-women-in-ethiopia-supports-electoral-cycles
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 8