Ethiopia Gender Audit Process
And Outcomes
Food Security and Nutrition Network
East Africa Regional Knowledge Sharing Meeting
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
June 11, 2012
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Rational for looking at Gender Issues
• Cutting across all social
groups and sectors, gender
inequality is the most
persistent predictor of
vulnerability and poverty
everywhere.
• Globally, it is a well know
fact that supporting women
and girls’ empowerment
and promoting gender
equality is central to
achieving all human
development goals.
2
Rational for doing a Gender Audit, Save the
Children
• Question on quality and quantity
of gender and diversity in
programming
- Is programming addressing
women and men and boys and
girls practical needs and strategic
interests ?
• Only 20% of Save the Children
Ethiopia staff are women.
• Global Save the Children “Policy
on Gender Equality” (2009)
provides a good start. However,
there was no action plan and the
policy was not endorsed agency
wide.
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What is a participatory gender audit?
It is a step-by- step organizational change process and tool based on
a participatory methodology .
It assesses the internal and external dimensions of an organization in
terms of the level of gender equality with a diversity lens and
mainstreaming of an organization.
For example, Save the Children’s staff survey assessed staff perceptions
of organizational and programming policies, programs, practices and
structures.
It promotes organizational learning on best ways to mainstream
gender and diversity practically and effectively for maximizing impact on
boys’ and girls’ live
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Save the Children Audit Objectives
1. Create a facilitated process for learning on gender
and diversity inclusion (GEDi)
2. building capacity to foster gender equality, inclusion
and diversity;
3. Compare Save the Children to how other similar
INGOs are working on GEDI in Ethiopia;
4. Provide roadmap for developing an organizationalwide GEDi strategy and action plan
5. Establish baseline data and benchmarks to assess
progress over time;
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Gender and Diversity Audit Process consisted of 5
main components:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Self-assessment questionnaire
Focus group discussions
Desk review of programming and institutional
documentation
Peer learning session with other INGOs
Institutional action planning for policy
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Organizational & Programming Audit
Process
Total staff sent questionnaires
Total # completed
Staff Sample representation
Total analysed
Representation by sex:
Male
Female
=233
=131
=20%
=121
=88 respondents or 72%
=33 respondents or 27%
This breakdown reflects current Male = 515/80% to
Female=131/20% /Total Staff = 646 staff
To ensure regional representation, the staff sample included representation from
main office and sub-offices:
Addis Ababa, Awassa, Nazereth, Liben, Dollo, Mekele, Dire Dawa and Bahir Dar.
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Process, continued
• 2 female focus group discussions
(Addis & Nazareth)
• 2 male focus group discussions (Addis
& Nazareth)
• 2 programming staff focus group
discussions
• 1 Human Resource Department
focus group discussion
• 1 focus group discussion with project
partners
• 2 one-to-one interviews with senior
management
• 1 Peer Action Learning Forum with
11 different INGOs working in
Ethiopia (including 5 other Save the
Children Members)
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Process, scoring
Using a 1-6 range scale, a 1 indicates a very low score in one
of the dimensions whereas a 6 would indicate a very high and
favourable score in a given dimension.
For example: if the mean average for the series of questions in
the questionnaire on “Gender and Diversity Policy” is 2.5 this
may be read as:
There is a policy being developed or in place but not implemented, the
system is somewhat effective, dialogue on values or norms has begun,
minimal training provided, leadership supportive but not proactive.
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Survey Results
Results,
Political Will
Role in SCI
High level of political will and support at all levels of the
organization to improve Save the Children’s track record in
advancing gender equality and diversity.
For example in area of equal opportunity in hiring – Most staff
are very supportive of increasing representation of women and
diversity of staff on staff including promotion of women to
senior management positions. Scores were 4 and above.
POLITICAL WILL (3.53)
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Recommendations, for action
Role inWill
SCI
Political
Develop an organizational-wide gender and diversity policy and
related action plan with SMART objectives and a means for
measuring progress towards meeting policy commitments.
All staff should be properly socialized and trained on the policy
and action plan, particularly on how they pertain to their specific
work.
Review all organizational policies to ensure they are gender and
diversity sensitive and have implementation plans. Priority
should go to adding an annex with clear guidelines in the HR
and Equal Employment Policy to integrate more proactive &
innovative strategies to attract and retain women staff and
promote women internally.
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Results, Accountability
Staff generally believed that the organization has accountability mechanisms
in place. Survey respondents were very positive about gender and
diversity sensitivity of human resource policies which brought the highest
scores:
 Equal opportunity policy
 maternity and paternity policies
Special allowances for women – i.e. Hardship
Human Resource Policies commit the organization to maintaining a gender
balanced and diverse staff to be representative of the communities in
which it works. Affirmative action for women is a priority until gender
balance is reached.
ACCOUNTABILITY=3.55
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Recommendations, Accountability
Include gender and diversity awareness in job
descriptions and job performance criteria
Allocate human and financial resources for
new Gender and Diversity Policy and Action
Plan (i.e. gender expertise and budget)
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Results, Organizational Culture
Staff were generally positive about the work culture at Save the
Children in terms of gender and diversity sensitivity
However, Gender Differences in experience and perceptions - Men’s
perceptions of the organizational environment to promote
gender and diversity is much more positive than for women
staff. Some male respondents think current HR policies and
practices favour women.
(For example – 33% of male staff think gender is fully mandated
by the organization as compared to only 17% for females. )
Score ranged from lowest 2.5 to highest 5.51
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE = 4.4
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Recommendations, Organizational Culture
Develop an inclusive and collaborative gender and diversity
mainstreaming approach that communicates the benefits of
gender transformation for women and men in order to
counteract any resistance from inside and outside the
organization to advancing gender equality and diversity.
Organize ongoing and specific gender and diversity awareness
training and peer action learning forums using a gendertransformative inclusive approach that engages women and men
staff
Develop immediate incentive system to reward staff for good
performance in promoting gender and diversity.
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Results, Technical Capacity
Results indicated that most staff feel there is minimal training in
gender and diversity.
Study found a lack of clear program guidelines and staff capacity to
integrate gender and diversity leading to inconsistent and ad hoc
integration of GEDI within and between projects.
Many projects used gender blind language and content ignoring the
fact that women, men, boys and girls have different needs, interests,
positions of power and experiences which if left unaccounted for,
can do harm rather than bring positive change to all equitably.
Scores ranged between : lowest score (2.94) and highest score
was (5.39)
TECHNICAL CAPACITY=3.4
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Recommendations, Technical Capacity
Priority must be given to training and learning needs of program
staff to build up their understanding and practical skills on how to
integrate gender and diversity issues into their daily work.
Specifically in programming;
Save the Children must develop program/project guidelines and
related training to ensure gender and diversity is consistently
integrated into all projects and programs from design to measuring
impact on women/girls’ empowerment, gender relations and
equality.
Develop project management toolkit for GEDI mainstreaming with
general guidelines for all programming and specific ones for different
program areas.
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Top 3 Obstacles to gender & diversity
mainstreaming into project management cycle
• 1) Lack of staff competency
for gender and diversity
programming
• 2) lack of financial resources
for gender and diversity
programming
• 3) lack of gender analysis
tools
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4 Top Learning Needs
1) Gender planning and
strategies development
2) Gender sensitive project
proposals
3) Gender sensitive
Monitoring and Evaluation
4) Promoting gender with
partners
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Ongoing work
1. Hiring Director of Program Quality, leading the
Gender Champions Task Group
2. Detailed Implementation plan
For example - WASH project
•
gender mainstreaming guideline/checklist
•
national manual on gender mainstreaming
•
gender sensitive monitoring checklist
•
all WASH team is already received three days training on
Gender mainstreaming.
3. Continued program learning forums with
partners
4. GEDi Training template
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