Preliminary Gender Profile of Ethiopia

"Ethiopia is one of the 16 countries implementing the Global Financing for Gender Equality programme whose main objective is to increase the volume and effective use of aid and domestic resources to implement national commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment (GE/WE). This program is funded by the European Commission and executed by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN Women). Gender Profiles are one of the key outcomes of this Global Program. In Ethiopia this Preliminary Gender Profile was undertaken with the objectives to: (1) provide an indicative status of the level of gender equality in Ethiopia; (2) propose recommendations on key gaps and emerging trends, and (3) propose areas of focus for a comprehensive gender profile.

UN Women would like to express its gratitude to the Government of Ethiopia through the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, the Central Statistics Authority, and the Gender Directorates of Sectoral Ministries who made valuable contributions at the inception of the profile process and who continuously provided the Consultants with substantive comments to enrich the report and information relevant to the study. Sincere appreciation also goes to the European Commission (EC) office in Addis Ababa for its generous financial support as part of the Financing for Gender Equality Programme and in particular to Ms. Stephanie Carette for her continued technical support throughout the development of the Preliminary Gender Profile.

The substantive contributions of UN Agencies, including UNECA, UNFPA, UNICEF and the ILO whose gender focal persons took their time to review the drafvt report and for valuable inputs throughout the whole process is highly appreciated. The UN Women Ethiopia Country Office would like to commend the efforts of Ms. Meron Genene and Ms. Tsion Yohannes, the Consultants who undertook the Study on behalf of UN Women and worked tirelessly to ensure that representations were objective and that as many views as possible were integrated into the Study. UN Women Ethiopia Country Office would also like to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Katherine Kaye, who edited this Gender Profile, and to Ms. Wessen Neguede, who ensured quality of the graphic works. UN Women wishes to thank all the participants of the Consultative Workshop which was held in Addis Ababa on July 21, 2014 for their priceless contribution to the refinement of the document. The participants were drawn from Government, UN agencies and other development partners as well as civil society organizations. Special recognition and appreciation goes to UN Women colleagues, namely Ms. Funmi Balogun, Ms. Yelfigne Abegaz, Ms. Misrak Tamiru and Ms. Simegn Kuma for their continued strategic guidance and substantive inputs throughout the development of the Preliminary Gender Profile."

Ms. Letty Chiwara Representative to Ethiopia,Africa Union (AU) and UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) UN Women