National Consultant -to support UN Women Ethiopia Country Office end line evaluation of the Project “Addressing the Effects of Conflict Related Sexual Violence in Ethiopia”
- Organisation: UN Women
- Location: Ethiopia
- Deadline: 18 November 2026
Background:
UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.
UN Women Ethiopia prioritizes advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment by strengthening women’s leadership and participation, ending violence against women and girls (EVAWG), advancing Women, Peace and Security and gender-responsive humanitarian action, and promoting women’s economic empowerment and resilience as well as strengthening UN system-wide coordination and accountability for gender equality. Under its EVAWG portfolio, UN Women applies a comprehensive approach that encompasses prevention, strengthening laws and policies and the justice response, improving survivor-centered services, coordination, and strengthening data and evidence for policy and programming. Given the context in Ethiopia, particular emphasis is also placed on addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) and the needs of women and girls affected by conflict. This includes strengthening institutions and referral pathways to provide coordinated, survivor-centred services; improving access to health, psychosocial support, safe shelter, justice and legal aid; supporting survivors’ rehabilitation and economic empowerment; and strengthening coordination and evidence generation.
Following the northern conflict in Ethiopia, women and girls have been subjected to various forms of violence and discrimination, which have negatively impacted their overall health and well-being. In response to this, and with the generous support of the Gates Foundation, UN Women, in collaboration with its implementing partners and key stakeholders, has been executing the project titled “Addressing the Effects of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Ethiopia.” The project has been implemented at the federal level, as well as in the Afar, Amhara, and Tigray regional states, since November 2023. UN Women has been collaborating with various institutions to implement the project, considering the partners' comparative advantages, the value they bring to the project, their expertise, and local presence. At the federal level, UN Women works closely with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs (MoWSA). These two ministries oversee the overall implementation of the project and co-chair the project's steering committee at the federal level. Additionally, UN Women has partnered with the Ethiopian Statistical Service (ESS) to ensure that the 8th Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey, particularly the Violence Against Women Module, is conducted with a gender-sensitive and survivor-centered approach through data collection and analysis.
At the regional level, UN Women collaborates with various stakeholders. In the Amhara region, in addition to building the capacities of frontline service providers and establishing and strengthening coordination mechanisms, UN Women partners with two local civil society organizations—Association for Women Sanctuary and Development (AWSAD) and Agar Ethiopia Charitable Society. These partnerships focus on the establishment and expansion of two safe houses/shelters in Kombolcha and Bahir Dar that provide comprehensive services for survivors of violence. UN Women also partners with the Women Association of Tigray (WAT) to provide shelter services. Additionally, UN Women has signed a partnership agreement with the Afar Community Initiative for Sustainable Development Association (ACISDA) for interventions in the Afar region. The partners in all three regions implement a range of interventions, including community-level prevention and risk mitigation efforts, strengthening coordination, enhancing the capacity of service providers, facilitating women- and girls-friendly spaces, survivor rehabilitation and promoting economic empowerment for women and girls affected by the conflict.
The overall goal of the project is 'Improved institutional commitment of government, civil society, and community where survivors of conflict related sexual violence and conflict affected women rehabilitated and reintegrated in the northern part of Ethiopia'.
Outcome 1: Service providing institutions are responsive to provide survivor centred services
Under this outcome, the project strengthens the systems, capacities, and mechanisms needed to provide coordinated, survivor-centred services for CRSV survivors. This includes developing and strengthening policies, tools, and standards for essential services such as One-Stop Centers; building the capacity of health, psychosocial, justice, and local government service providers; strengthening community-based structures for CRSV risk mitigation and response; providing essential equipment and commodities to support gender-responsive services; and strengthening referral pathways that connect survivors to health care, psychosocial support, case management, justice, and legal aid services.
Outcome 2: Improved wellbeing of women and girls affected by the conflict including survivors of violence in the targeted areas
Under this outcome, the project provides comprehensive, survivor-centred assistance to CRSV survivors, including safe shelter and basic needs, medical and psychosocial support, individual and group counselling, art and dance therapy, and legal accompaniment. It also supports survivors’ recovery and longer-term resilience through basic literacy, vocational and skills training, livelihood opportunities, and linkages with microfinance services.
Outcome 3: Functional project coordination mechanisms and referral linkages among community-level structures and service providers
Under the coordination and partnership outcome, the project strengthens coordination among key actors at federal and regional levels by supporting existing mechanisms, including the National Coordinating Body on violence against women and children (VAWC) and other coordination platforms. It also established federal and regional project coordination structures and promotes alignment and synergy with ongoing interventions across the three target regions.
Outcome 4: Prevalence and administrative data generated on GBV to inform policy and programming
Under this outcome, the project strengthens the availability and use of evidence on CRSV by analyzing existing data on the needs of women and girl survivors, contributing to prevalence data generation including the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey, and improving administrative data systems. This includes strengthening the Crime Registration Information Management System (CRIMS) and supporting service providers to improve case documentation and administrative data.
As the project is scheduled to conclude in February 2027, an independent final evaluation will be undertaken in accordance with the Project Document. The evaluation will assess the project’s overall results, relevance, efficiency, sustainability, and higher-level intended and unintended results, while identifying key achievements and challenges encountered during implementation. It will also take a forward-looking approach, drawing lessons learned to provide practical recommendations for future programming, potential scale-up. The evaluation will follow a participatory approach, engaging key stakeholders, including implementing partners, government counterparts, and community members.
The evaluation should follow the guiding documents for evaluation at UN Women, including the Evaluation Policy , Evaluation Chapter of the Programme and Operation Manual (POM ), the Global Evaluation Reports, Assessment and Analysis System ( GERAAS) evaluation report quality checklist , the United Nations System-Wide Action 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
Objective of the Assignment:
To conduct an independent endline evaluation of the project “Addressing the Effects of Conflict Related Sexual Violence in Ethiopia”. The assignment will have the following specific objectives,
• Assess the relevance and coherence of the project to stakeholders, including rights holders and duty-bearers with respect to project design and implementation.
• Assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the approaches implemented in attaining the intended results and any potential unintended consequences.
• Assess the integration of human rights and the gender transformative approach in design and implementation; and
• Identify and document high level results achieved during the implementation of the programme
• Produce lessons learned and issue actionable recommendations for further iterations of the project or similar programming to ensure sustainability
Evaluation Criteria and Key Evaluation Questions.
The evaluation will apply the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) evaluation criteria of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability as well as the additional criterion of human rights and gender equality by addressing the key evaluation questions
• Relevance: To what extent did the intervention respond to the priorities and needs of rights holders and duty bearers?
• Coherence: How well did the intervention complement national policies, UN frameworks and related interventions?
• Effectiveness: To what extent were intended outcomes achieved, and what factors enabled or constrained achievement?
• Efficiency: Were resources, partnerships and implementation approaches used appropriately to achieve results?