Back Conduct Impact Assessment of Association for Women's Sanctuary and Development (AWSAD's) overall program intervention: "Ending Violence Against Women and Girls" in Oromia region, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Conduct Impact Assessment of Association for Women's Sanctuary and Development (AWSAD's) overall program intervention: "Ending Violence Against Women and Girls" in Oromia region

Location : Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA

Application Deadline : 09-Apr-21

(Midnight New York, USA)

Type of Contract : Individual Contract

Post Level : International Consultant

Languages Required : English

Duration of Initial Contract : 60 days over a period of four months

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (UN Women) mandate provides for support to catalytic and innovative programs which promote gender equality, women's empowerment, and human rights in Ethiopia. One of UN Women's result area in Ethiopia is that "Women and girls live a life free from violence", with one of the key outputs being "Availability and accessibility of quality essential services for women and girls survivors increased" to ensure strengthened response, including services to women and girls' survivors of violence using multi-sectoral and human rights approaches, and ultimately contributing to a strengthened national response mechanism.?

Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) is one of the most systematic, widespread human rights violations faced globally. It may occur against any woman or girl, regardless of her country of origin, age or socioeconomic status. VAWG is increasingly recognized as a threat to democracy, a barrier to lasting peace, a burden on national economies and impediment to sustainable development1. The root causes of VAWG are gender inequality and related social norms that perpetuate unequal power relations between men and women. According to the 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) [1], nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of women has experienced physical violence and one in ten women (10 percent) has experienced sexual violence. Over one-third (34 percent) of ever-married women have experienced spousal violence, including physical or sexual or emotional violence.?

Ethiopia ratified many of the international instruments that promote and protect the rights of women, including Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The country put in place legal and policy provisions such as the Revised Family law and the Criminal Code which enshrined in the 1995 Constitution. In this connection, there are institutional level reforms such as the establishment of Women, Children and Youth Affairs Offices, the Child and Women related crime prosecution units within the Federal Attorney General (FAG) and regional Attorney Generals, the special investigation and prosecution units within the various police stations, a Special Bench for VAWG cases within the Federal Criminal Court and Child-friendly courts. However, despite these legislative and institutional provisions, support for the rehabilitation and reintegration of survivors of violence is still limited which puts survivors continue to suffer from the physical and mental impacts of violence.?

To respond to this, UN Women Ethiopia Country Office (ECO) under the outcome area, "Women and girls who experience violence can use available, accessible and quality essential services so the impact of violence is addressed, and perpetrators are held accountable," has been working with the Association for Women's Sanctuary and Development (AWSAD) [1] since 2011. UN Women and AWSAD project entitled

Enhancing Psychosocial Support and Economic Empowerment of survivors of Violence Against Women in Oromia region enabled the establishment and operationalization of two shelters in Adama, Oromia region, where the first one was established in January 2011 and the second in September 2015, respectively. Adama town was selected because of the high prevalence of violence in the town and the region. The nationwide survey on Domestic Violence conducted by the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association [2] confirmed that Adama and its surrounding has the highest percentage of domestic violence in Ethiopia. The same study showed that wife beating is about 90 percent. The town was also one of the highest HIV infection rates in Ethiopia as it is situated on the highway to Djibouti and there is a high amount of immigrant workers.

The project with AWSAD was designed to address the gaps in services for women and girls' survivors of VAWG through the provision of holistic service which includes temporary shelter, meal, counseling, medical treatment, basic literacy education, legal follow up and various skills trainings. The shelters enable survivors to physically and mentally rehabilitated from the consequences of violence, become economically independent, and successfully reintegrated into the society. In addition to the provision of shelter services, the project also intervenes at the community level to address the root causes of VAWG, e.g. unequal power relations between men and women as well as negative social norms entrenched in the society. To this end, AWSAD implements the SASA! (Sensitize, Awareness, Support and Action) Community Approach to mobilize the community in the intervention kebeles. Moreover, in selected primary schools, capacity building trainings are provided for students (boys and girls) on life skills, Gender, and reproductive health. With the aim of enhancing the capacity of service providers such as Police, Public Prosecutors, Judges and Bureau of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, AWSAD provides trainings on essential service provisions to survivors, case management, referral linkage and stress and burn out management.

Globally, violence against women and girls has increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic as COVID-19 deepens economic and social stress for families, coupled with restricted movement and social isolation measures. Many women are being forced to lockdown at home with their abusers [3]. The pandemic affected and interrupted essential services including medical care, psychosocial support or counseling, and access to shelters.? Even outside the context of a pandemic, there are often significant barriers for survivors to access such services and COVID-19 has exacerbated these barriers. ?

OBJECTIVE AND JUSTIFICATION

According to the UN Women Country Portfolio Evaluation (CPE) [1], UN Women ECO's partnership with AWSAD was effective in creating safe spaces for survivors of violence through social and economic integration and provision of essential supports and services. The country evaluation also identified that the service model developed by AWSAD in Oromia region with ECO support, built comprehensive support to survivors, mobilized the community members, religious and traditional leaders to change social norms, as well as built the capacity of key woreda level officials such as police and Oromia Bureau of Women, Children and Youth Affairs. To this end, AWSAD's intervention model has been replicated by other shelters in the country.?

Given the project has been running since 2011,? the general objective of this assessment is? to understand the overall impact of the project in the past nine years on the lives of the survivors, ex-residents of the shelters; how the prevention work brought the intended change at the community level as well as how sustainable the interventions are in ensuring smooth project phase out.?

The specific objectives are:

• To verify whether the holistic approaches used to provide services have been effective and replicable?
• To identify how the prevention work created safe spaces for community to dialogue on VAWG and how/if critical mass is created in the community to stand against VAWG
• To identify how accessible and women/girls friendly the services have been in terms of rehabilitating and reintegrating survivors within the communities?
• To assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the shelters, identify gaps and capacity needs
• To assess effectiveness of partnership and networking of shelters with relevant service providers and to analyse if/how the capacity building work helped the multisectoral coordination (Police, public prosecutors, Judges, Oromia Bureau of Women, Children and Youth Affairs) to prevent and respond to VAWG
• To document current good practices, what worked well and major challenges, including the COVID19 context
• To document some case studies of survivors who successfully reintegrated back into the society and change stories at community level in relation to attitude changes to protect women and girls
• To recommend measures that should be taken to expand the services as well as prevention work.

[1] UN Women Ethiopia country office country portfolio evaluation report, 2016

[1]?Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey, Central Statistical Agency, 2016

[1] AWSAD is a local non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides holistic rehabilitation and reintegration services for women and girl survivors of violence. The organization provides services such as women's only shelter, counselling, legal follow up and other services to support clients recuperate from their trauma and prepare to be reintegrated into society.

[2] National Survey on Domestic Violence, Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, 2008

[3] Policy Brief: COVID-19 and Ending Violence Against Women and Girls in Ethiopia, 2020

Duties and Responsibilities

SCOPE OF THE WORK

The Impact assessment will be carried out in Oromia region. This impact assessment will seek to:

• Identify the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, accessibility, quality, and sustainability of the holistic approach that AWSAD applied to prevent and respond to VAWG.?
• How appropriate the strategies promoted and applied by AWSAD and to what extent the strategies led to wider scalability and program expansion. Moreover, the extent to which the results gained are sustainable.
• To what extent have the interventions contributed to the creation of favourable condition and changes in social norms and how successful was the capacity buildings and trainings provided to stakeholders
• Identify if there were unintended results at community and service provision level that can be attributed to the interventions
• Assess how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the overall work of AWSAD to prevent and respond to VAWG?
• Assess how effective was program coordination with other local existing structures (Community and faith-based organizations, government, and informal structures) and to what extent has the intervention strengthened community ownership
• Review the service provider's operating procedures, guiding principles, type of services provided and the responsibility the service provider in relation to the provision of effective holistic and quality services, inclusion of ethical considerations, gaps, and challenges?
• How UN Women's support to AWSAD contributed to the overall women's shelter work in Ethiopia, including the establishment of the Ethiopian Network of Women Shelter (ENWS)?
• Gather and analyse the existing good practices and views of survivors on how they have benefited from the services provided in the centres and the specific barriers faced in accessing these services?
• Assess and analyse the opportunities and challenges in working closely with primary service providers including Police and Women, Children and Youth Affairs offices to respond to the needs of survivors and on how to strengthen the partnership among them?
• To provide recommendations, identify lessons learned, capture good practices, and generate knowledge to inform the refinement of future programming.

METHODOLOGY

An international consultant with the support of the national consultant will lead the development of the impact assessment methodology and implementation of the assessment in close collaboration with the UN Women country office.

The overall methodology will focus on a desk review/literature review (of available polices, programmes, procedures/regulations, manuals, reports, and other documents), a mix of qualitative and quantitative approach to gather primary data using survey questionnaires, semi-structured interview, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), observation and Participatory Learning and Action. Moreover, the consultants need to use photographic records, video and work on selected case studies and good practices.??

DELIVERABLES

The international consultant will work closely with the national consultant to undertake the following tasks:

• Lead the development of inception report including the methodology for the Impact assessment and the tools for data collection?
• Present the inception report at the inception meeting and incorporate inputs
• Lead the desk review/literature review of the available policies, programmes, procedures/regulations, reports, and other documents)?
• Lead primary data collection using methodologies indicated and agreed in the Inception Report?
• Ensure that pertinent organisations are contacted and provide information for the primary data collection and analysis?
• On basis of primary and secondary data, compile and share a brief, analytical report with findings and recommendations, using clear examples and references and not assumptions, to UN Women Country Office in both hard and soft copies. The data processing and analysis need to triangulate the primary and secondary data rather than producing descriptive report. The consultant needs to use and refer to reliable data
• Lead the submission of draft Impact assessment report with full content mainly including findings and recommendations for review by UN Women?
• Incorporate inputs and submit the revised assessment report
• Present the revised report at the validation workshop and reflect/clarify feedbacks provide Lead the integration of inputs and submit final assessment report to UN Women in both hard and soft copies.??

Expected Deliverables and Time Frame (tentative)

Deliverable

Estimated duration

Target Dates

(tentative dates)

Lead the preparation and submission of inception report with clear methodology and data collection tools

Seven days

15 April

Lead the presentation of the inception report at inception meeting

One day

23 April

Submit the revised inception report incorporating the comments at the inception meeting

Three days

28 April

Data collection and submit first draft report of the impact assessment

35 days

3 June

Submit the second draft of the assessment

Eight days

11 June

Present the findings and the recommendation of the impact assessment at a validation workshop

One day

14 June

Final report of the impact assessment

Five days

22 June

I.

DURATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The overall time frame to finalize the assessment will be sixty days over a period of four months.

II.

CONTRACT SUPERVISION

Under the overall guidance of the Deputy Representative of UN Women Ethiopia, the consultants will work closely with the EVAWG Programme Specialist.

Instalment of

Payment/ Period

Deliverables or Documents to be

Delivered

Approval should be obtained

Percentage of Payment

1st Instalment

Inception report with action plan after incorporating comments at the inception meeting,

EVAWG Programme

Specialist

30%

2nd Instalment

First draft analysis report

EVAWG Programme

Specialist

40%

3rd Instalment

Upon submission of Final Report of the analysis and satisfactory certification of good

work/completion of all activities

EVAWG Programme

Specialist

30%

All raw data files, consent forms and relevant documentation must be returned to UN Women Ethiopia before release of final payment.

CONFIDENTIALITY AND PROPRIETARY INTERESTS

The Consultant shall not either during the term or after termination of the assignment, disclose any proprietary or confidential information related to the consultancy service without prior written consent. Proprietary interests on all materials and documents prepared by the consultants under the assignment shall become and remain properties of UNDP / UN Women.

Competencies

The consultant must have the following competencies

Core values

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication ? ????? Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies:

• Strong knowledge of gender equality and women's rights issues
• Excellent level of conceptual and analytical capacity
• Ability to work in a team
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions, and present findings
• Ability to write in a clear and concise manner and to communicate effectively?
• Demonstrates use of initiative and ability to make appropriate linkages in work requirements
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback
• Meets deadlines for delivery of products or services
• Able to work virtually, using communication technologies
• Ability to use ICT based solutions
• Strong interpersonal skills

Required Skills and Experience

TEAM COMPOSITION AND QUALIFICATIONS OF THE TEAM OF CONSULTANTS?

A. Team Composition

The assessment will be conducted by a qualified international and a national consultant who have experience in conducting impact assessment and evaluations with good knowledge of the subject under assessment. This ToR is developed for the international consultant who will be leading the impact assessment.??

.

B. International Consultant's Academic Qualifications and Years of experience

The consultant must have master's degree in Social Science, Gender Studies, Social work, International relations, Law, Sociology, or a related field)

• The consultant must have a minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in research, impact assessment and program evaluation
• Experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative data analysis and synthesizing information into concise, analytical written documents. Substantive knowledge and understanding of gender and development, ending violence against women and girls
• Strong background in undertaking similar sensitive research's with strong skills on safety and ethical considerations
• Previous experience working with the UN is an asset

C. Language and other skills:

• Fluency in English?
• Computer skills: full command of Microsoft applications (word, excel, PowerPoint) and data encoding software's
• Please note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Application procedure

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application:

• Cover letter to include a brief overview about which of your previous experiences makes you the most suitable candidate for the advertised position.
• P11 including past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at https://www.unwomen.org/ -

/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un - women - p11 - personal history - form.doc?la=en&vs=55 8.

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