Gender and Youth Analysis

Prepared by: Molly Kellogg & Jillian J. Foster Global Insight | 480 6th Avenue #138 | New York | NY 10011

Gender and Youth Analysis Development Food Security Activity (DFSA)

Livelihood for Resilience – Oromia

CRS Ethiopia December 2017

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Gender and Youth Analysis Development Food Security Activity (DFSA) Livelihood for Resilience – Oromia

Authors:

Molly Kellogg, Junior Consultant, Global Insight Jillian J. Foster, Senior Consultant, Global Insight Data Collectors: Aliya Hawas Asfaw Negesse Bedasso Urgessa Daniel Bedaso Elsabet Mamo Erkeselam Deribe Funge Fitala Kena Ghimbi Mussa Abdulahi Samson Tesfaye Seyoum Girma Tegenu Derersa Yirgalem Nigussie

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TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................................. 3 About the Authors ........................................................................................................................... 3 ACROMYMS & ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................ 4 LIST OF TABLES & CHARTS ..................................................................................................................... 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................. 6 Background ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction to the Study ................................................................................................................. 7 Key Substantive Findings ................................................................................................................. 9 Recommendations .......................................................................................................................... 11 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 15 Literature Review ........................................................................................................................... 15 Scope & Context ............................................................................................................................ 17 Background of Study Woredas ....................................................................................................... 17 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................................ 20 RESULTS .......................................................................................................................................................... 22 Population & Geographic Breakdown ............................................................................................ 22 Domain 1: Roles, responsibilities & time use .................................................................................. 23 Domain 2: Access and control of assets & resources ...................................................................... 29 Domains 3 and 4: Power relations and decision-making ................................................................. 35 Domain 5: Knowledge, beliefs & perception, culture ..................................................................... 38 Domain 6: Legal environment ........................................................................................................ 43 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................................................. 44 RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................................................................................. 46 BIBILIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................................... 50 ANNEX I: RESEARCH PURPOSE, OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY ............................. 52 ANNEX II: TOOLS ....................................................................................................................................... 63 ANNEX III: SOW .......................................................................................................................................... 64

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, we would like to acknowledge USAID for their generous support to this study. Our sincerest gratitude is also extended to the individuals who helped bring this analysis to life. This study would not be possible without the selfless commitment of focus group discussion and key informant interview participants from across the Oromia Region and Dire Dawa Administrative Unit who took time out of their busy days to provide insight into their lives. Thank you to tireless commitment of the research team who spent long days in the field and led interviews with a sense of kindness and humanity and spent their evenings discussing, analyzing, translating and transcribing. Finally, a warm thank you to the CRS, MCS and HCS staff who provided invaluable technical and logistical support throughout the course of this study.

About the Authors

This report was authored by Molly Kellogg and Jillian J. Foster, as part of Global Insight’s humanitarian research portfolio. Global Insight highlights programmatic impact and answers difficult sociological

questions through creative research methodologies. Headquartered in New York, Global Insight works with partners globally on livelihood, political participation, gender equality, and countering violent extremism programs in fragile states.

Molly Kellogg (Global Insight). Kellogg is a gender specialist with a background in women, peace and security and humanitarian action. Kellogg completed her Masters in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School where she conducted a mixed-method gender analysis of the South Sudanese refugee response in Uganda, and developed recommendations to inform UN Women’s programming and policy. Through Kellogg’s unique expertise in human-centered design, she brings humanitarian innovation to her analyses, building cross-cutting strategic recommendations to her clients. Kellogg is a junior consultant with Global Insight.

Jillian J. Foster (Global Insight). Foster founded Global Insight in 2011 and leads the organization’s gender, peace, and security portfolio. As a pioneer in Global Insight's uniquely gender-sensitive, mixed-methods approach to evaluation and research, Foster works with partners globally on livelihood, political participation, gender-based violence, gender equality, and preventing/countering violent extremism programs. She is a graduate of New York University, where she completed a Masters in Data Science, and University College London, where she completed a Masters in Gender Studies. Foster is presently a doctoral student in Yale University’s Department of Political Science.

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ACROMYMS & ABBREVIATIONS ATJK Adami Tulu Jido Kombolcha (woreda) CC Community conversations CRS Catholic Relief Services DFSA Development Food Security Activity FFP Food For Peace FGD Focus Group Discussion FGM Female Genital Mutilation FSTF Food security task force FtF Feed the Future GBV Gender-based violence GoE Government of Ethiopia HCS Ethiopian Catholic Church Social & Development Commissions of Harar HTP Harmful traditional practice KII Key Informant Interview LG Livelihood group LRO Livelihoods for Resilience - Oromia MCS Ethiopian Catholic Church Social & Development Commissions of Meki MFI Microfinance institution OCSSCO Oromia Credit and Savings Share Company SILC Savings and Internal Lending Communities YLG Youth livelihood group

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LIST OF TABLES & CHARTS Box 1: Box 2:

Box 1: Religious breakdown in Oromia Region and Dire Dawa Administrative Unit, by zone Barriers to income generation for youth

Box 3: Mini Case Study, Youth Revolving Fund, Siraro Chart 1: Demographic breakdown of participants Chart 2: References to males and females engaged in domestic labor, across woredas Chart 3: References to "transportation" as a challenge, by gender across woredas Chart 4: References to "transportation" as a challenge, by woreda Chart 5: Three highest priority concerns for youth Chart 6: References to "conflict" as a concern primary concern, by zone Chart 7: References to "access to finance" as a priority concern, by speaker (gender and age) Chart 8: Youth perception of community attitudes about youth leadership Chart 9: Percent breakdown by priority areas of overall mentions of HTP, across woredas Chart 10: Breakdown of KII references to polygamy and HTP, by woreda Chart 11: Gender and age breakdown of participants who express negative community beliefs

towards youth, across woredas Chart 12: Most common methods of communication, by woreda Table 1: Table 2:

Data collection sample Sampling Strategy

Table 3: Demographic breakdown of participants Table 4: Migration of youth, destinations mentioned by study participants, by woreda

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Background

Men and women face different challenges and have different development needs and interests. In Ethiopia, women tend to have less ownership and control over assets, reduced decision-making power, and fewer educational and economic opportunities than their male counterparts.1 Women and girls also face greater barriers to participating in and benefiting from development projects, and encounter more obstacles to improving their material lives than men and boys. This can contribute to a gendering of food insecurity, chronic poverty, and violence against women and girls in Ethiopia.2

In addition to gender, age also plays a significant role in shaping peoples’ experiences, roles, access to services, and development needs. Rural youth – defined as young men and women between 15-29 years – make up a significant proportion of the population in Ethiopia. Indeed, according to 2014 figures, 45 percent of Ethiopia’s population is under age 15 and 71 percent is under 30 years old.3 Youth often live in unfavorable situations and face unique challenges including narrow skill sets, high levels of illiteracy, restricted access to land and other productive assets, limited formal sector employment opportunities, and poor health and nutritional status. Limited opportunities push many rural youth to migrate to urban areas or even to countries outside of Ethiopia. This is especially challenging for female youth who face increased vulnerability when isolated and away from their families.

Properly understanding gender and age-related differences and inequalities is an important step for gender and youth integration in development programming, especially in Ethiopia. Ethiopia ranks 174 out of 188 on the 2015 UNDP Human Development Index and 93 out of 104 on countries listed in IFPRI’s 2015 Global Hunger Index. The country has one of the fastest growing populations (with an annual growth rate of 2.6 percent) but only 17 percent of the population lives in urban areas and rural households remain particularly vulnerable to poverty. With this in mind, the findings shared here will inform programming for two separate USAID funded Catholic Relief Services (CRS) programs: Development Food Security Assistance (DFSA) and Livelihoods for Resilience – Oromia (LRO). Livelihoods for Resilience – Oromia (LRO): The 5 year USAID Feed the Future (FtF) funded LRO program (2017-2022) was launched in nine woredas across Oromoia. This project is designed to promote the livelihood pathways of on-farm (crop and livestock), off-farm, and employment for households enrolled in the Government of Ethiopia’s (GoE) Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP).

1 UN Women. “Preliminary Gender Profile of Ethiopia.” 2014. 2 Drawn from Scope of Work for Gender and Youth Analysis (LRO and ELRP/DFSA). CRS, 2012. A Gender Analysis Study of DFAP-Targeted Food Insecure Woredas in Dire Dawa Administrative Council, Arsi & East Hararghe Zones, Oromia Region, Ethiopia; Key Issues & Recommendations for Developing a Gender Transformative Program for Enhancing Food Security 3 Ethiopia Central Statistical Agency, Ethiopia Mini Demographic and Health Survey 2014 (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Central Statistical Agency, 2014).

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- Target: 29,299 PSNP households with a goal of graduating 22,050 households from PSNP support.

- Higher-level outcomes to achieve this goal: 1) Increased income and diversification through on-farm opportunities including crop and livestock market systems; 2) Increased income and diversification of off-farm livelihood options; 3) Increased income from gainful employment; and 4) Increased innovation, scaling and sustainability of livelihood pathway.

Development Food Security Activity (DFSA): The DFSA interventions are designed to enhance resilience to shocks and livelihoods, and improve food security and nutrition for rural HHs.

- Four higher-level outcomes contribute to this goal: 1) Improved GoE and community systems to respond to needs of vulnerable communities and HHs; 2) Improved sustainable economic well-being of HHs; 3) Improved nutritional status of PLW and children under five; and 4) Improved access to and control of community and HH resources by women and youth.4

Introduction to the Study

Objectives

The overall objective of this gender and youth analysis is to identify gender and age gaps and inequalities that could negatively affect the achievement of project objectives. This study will inform DFSA and LRO interventions that seek to (1) increase equality for women, men, girls, and boys and (2) prevent negative repercussions on gender and age relations.

Methodology

This analysis explores gender and age relations within the context of USAID’s six standard gender domains framework, listed below. For the purpose of this study, domains 3 and 4 are combined and information is captured under a single domain titled “power and participation”. It should be noted that findings captured in this report reflect available primary and secondary data. Where sub-topics within the six gender domains were more briefly covered or not included, data was either minimal or not accessible.

1. Roles, responsibilities & time use 2. Access and control of assets & resources 3. Power relations 4. Participation and leadership 5. Knowledge, beliefs & perception (culture) 6. Legal environment

This study employed qualitative methods in line with USAID guidelines for youth and gender analyses, including focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews (KIIs), and a daily calendar activity to uncover the different gender and age dynamics across regions. FGDs are an important tool for stimulating discussion, generating new ideas, and observing community power

4 ELRP Technical Narrative; Submitted to USAID/FFP in Response to FY16 Request for Applications for Title II Development Food Assistance Projects

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dynamics. These 45-90 minute discussions took place with 10-15 participants per group, separated by age and gender. Additionally, KIIs were used to dive into more sensitive topics, the privacy of which ensured participants safe spaces to speak freely. KII participants represented randomly selected male and female youth and adult community members, as well as community leaders and local government representatives at the woreda and kebele levels, including members of the Food Security Task Force (FSTF), health extension workers, and representatives from Office of Women and Children’s Affairs and Office of Youth and Sports. Finally, the daily calendar activity with male and female adults and youth was a participatory rural appraisal technique used to highlight differences in time use between these different groups. Research was conducted by a team using local languages and familiar with local culture and customs. Data was then translated into English for analysis using NVivo software package and various data visualization tools.

Guiding Research Questions

The study explores the following key questions:

1. What are the key gender and age issues identified under the DFSA purposes and LRO’s higher level outcomes?

2. What are the key gender and age issues/questions that should be focused on under each purpose, sub purpose and immediate result?

3. What will be the programmatic implications of these gender and age issues on how to implement DFSA and LRO activities?

4. How do gender and age/youth considerations influence the outcome of DFSA activities in the Theory of Change?

Sampling Strategy

Data collection took place in seven woredas in Oromia Region as well as in Dire Dawa Administrative Unit where the DFSA and LRO programs are operational. Study woredas were selected in consultation with CRS and implementing partners based on the following criteria: (1) the level of existing knowledge and information, (2) security and access, and (3) vulnerability. The study was designed to include a target of 136 KIIs and 52 FGDs, which incorporated 16 daily calendar activities, representing female and male adult and youth community members, community leaders, and government stakeholders. Sample size in each of the eight woredas was weighted by population size.5 Table 1, located in the introduction section, outlines the full sampling strategy for this study. Limitations

Security and access: Due to issues around security and access as well as time constraints, the study team was unable to visit all 14 operational woredas. In particular, the research team did not visit Midga Tola or Babile which both have pastoralist communities. Note that gender and age dynamics may be quite different in these areas and additional analysis should be considered when it is safe to do so.

5 Full sampling strategy also attached as Annex 1.

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No prevalence rates: Qualitative methods give invaluable information, allowing us to understand the nuance of human experience in the study areas. However, qualitative study relies on in-depth conversations which take time and resources that naturally limit the number of study participants. Given the use of qualitative data potential trends can be identified, but prevalence rates remain outside the scope of this research.

Research fatigue and sensitive topics: In some study locations, participants had already seen a number of researchers visit with few tangible changes as a result of their participation in studies. Additionally, conversations around gender and youth are often sensitive and involve speaking out against deeply engrained cultural and religious norms. For these reasons, it was at times difficult to encourage participants to stay on topic and speak freely and openly about gender and age dynamics in their communities. This was especially true for topics related to harmful traditional practices and violence.

Key Substantive Findings

1. On average, women have longer work days as they bear the burden of domestic chores in addition to their responsibilities in agricultural production or going to school, while men spend the majority of their time on the farm. Ninety-four percent of all references to domestic chores noted women, rather than men, are responsible. Male youth have the most “free” time, as unemployment and lack of domestic responsibility in the home has led to school dropout and few productive income avenues.

2. When a woman is pregnant or lactating, her daughters or other women help decrease her workload at home. Husbands or young men may help with fetching water, collecting firewood, or engaging in tasks that require physical strength but do not participate in cooking.

3. Nearly equal numbers of men and women are engaged in income generating activities

across woredas (mostly in “on-farm” activities), but gender roles differ. Women are involved in petty trade, tending to livestock, and supporting men in agricultural production. Men are primarily responsible for agricultural and livestock production. They are engaged in all tasks from clearing and preparing the land to planting seeds, purchasing input, and harvesting.

4. Youth are mostly engaged in unpaid work: attending school and helping their families.

Young men help their fathers on the farms and young women help their mothers with domestic labor as well as on-farm activities. In Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones more youth are engaged in off-farm paid activities compared to other areas. Some young men work as day laborers in sand production, loading and unloading products, as security guards, and in motorbike transport. Some young women work selling alcohol (Boset) and in shops.

5. Access to transportation was noted as a primary concern by 13 percent of KII respondents as poor roads affect access to markets, schools, resources, and time availability. Sixty-two percent of these references were made by women who sometimes walk upwards of three hours to reach the marketplace. In East Hararghe, access to transportation is considered a primary concerned for community members where roads are in poor condition and kebeles and villages are located far from woreda offices.

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6. Women have access to household income and resources, but men have control. Women are often money managers at the household level, responsible for going to the market, purchasing goods, and selling agricultural products but men are responsible for the sale of high value items such as cattle or land. Divorced women or women in polygamous relationships are more vulnerable, often left with few resources and 100 percent of the burden to care for children.

7. Unemployment is the biggest concern for youth across woredas, followed by education,

and shortage of land. Youth have extremely limited access to income and are highly dependent on their families.

8. Drought has intensified issues of unemployment and food insecurity. Participants often

stated they have suffered five years of rain shortage and are unable to feed their families at current levels of production.

9. The price of coffee and chat has decreased significantly in East Hararghe and Dire

Dawa, affecting the livelihoods of community members who rely on the sale of these cash crops. Community members attribute the depreciation in the price of chat and coffee to ongoing conflict on border between the Oromia and Somali regions in Ethiopia.

10. Gaining access to financial tools and capital is a primary challenge to overcoming

poverty and building resilience to climate change, especially for youth. There is a perception that microfinance institutions (MFIs) are failing to serve the poorest segments of society due to the need for collateral and/or prohibitively high interest rates. Men mentioned “access to finance” as a priority concern, or impediment to starting a business, twice as often as women.

11. Youth are migrating within Ethiopia to urban centers and beyond Ethiopia’s borders,

to the Middle East and South Africa, seeking employment. Migration is a consequence of unemployment, drought, and land shortage.

12. Women and youth have restricted access to formal leadership positions, but in recent years there has been some notable improvement in with the establishment of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs and the Office of Youth and Sports. Women in positions of leadership remain highly concentrated in gender-specific departments such as gender experts, teachers, or health extension workers. Youth – especially young women – feel they do not have a strong enough voice in the government.

13. Most people personally believe that women and youth make good leaders. In contrast, most people also believe that “the community” has negative attitudes about women and youth in leadership roles, which translates into limiting women and youth leadership opportunities.

14. Female genital mutilation (FGM), early marriage, and polygamy are prevalent across

woredas. There is a new trend of early marriage, or what participants called “abduction”, in which young men and women elope without the permission of their families, sometimes as young as 12 or 13 years old.

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15. There is a prevailing attitude that women are physically weaker than men. This limits women’s employment and business opportunities to industries that are often less profitable and less viable.

16. Nearly all study participants rely on mobile phones (28 percent) or word of mouth (78

percent) through the one to five system, community meetings, or school to receive information. Some believe information should be shared through social media platforms, such as Facebook, or communicating more openly using megaphones.

17. Customary law and traditional leadership structures, in Dire Dawa and East Hararghe and

the Gadaa System in Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones, are critical to setting norms, enforcing rules, resolving disputes, and influencing religious practices. To shift community norms around gender and age it is essential to work with leaders in these important institutions.

Recommendations Short-term

- Consider engaging young men as gender champions to shift deeply engrained norms. Use youth livelihood groups and gender clubs as an entry point. Empower gender champions to directly support women and girls’ in their productive roles. (general recommendation)

- Engaging adult men and women as youth champions to shift norms that marginalize youth and discourage their leadership in communities. Consider using women’s groups, the Gadaa system, or other traditional leadership structures as entry points for these youth champions. (general recommendation)

- Provide exercise books as an incentive to keep students in school. While addressing school

dropout rates is more complex than providing exercise books, the provision of basic school materials could make a significant contribution towards keeping students in school – especially girls. Work with DAs to identify the most vulnerable families. (general recommendation)

- Share program information on social media platforms, such as Facebook, or via

megaphones. This recommendation was suggested by study participants. (general recommendation)

- Utilize social media platforms and megaphones, in addition to cell phones, as disaster risk

reduction mechanisms. Consider engaging these tools in early warning systems as a key component of resilience activities. (general recommendation)

- Target PSNP households with more than 5 people for livelihood programming, especially in

remote kebeles. (DFSA recommendation)

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- Expand food ration to cover the size of large families. Larger households are especially vulnerable to food insecurity, migration, school dropout, and early marriage as the PSNP program only considers a maximum household of five people for distributions. (DFSA recommendation)

- Develop and carry out community training that links nutrition to financial planning,

engaging men and boys as well as women and girls, as the main barrier to nutritious diets is financial means – not knowledge. (LRO recommendation)

Medium-term

- Directly engage traditional leaders as key stakeholders in project activities. Understanding their gatekeeping role, traditional leaders should be engaged as gender and youth experts in their communities and should be a) trained, b) explicitly asked to promote the project in their community, and c) tasked with identifying eligible households for project interventions, to be validated by project staff. Include them in planned project activities, such as trainings for FSTF members, DA trainings, and other relevant CRS trainings. Additionally, hold a separate workshop that brings together traditional leaders and officials representing the GoE. (general recommendation)

- Explore best practices used to decrease women’s and girls’ time spent on domestic labor.

Use livelihood groups (LGs) and savings and internal lending communities (SILC) to implement interventions that work to minimize time spent on home chores – such as establishing community led cooking centers or investing in clean cook stove technology. (general recommendation)

- DFSA trainings should achieve at least 50 percent women and 30 percent youth (half of

whom are female). LRO should develop trainings for female youth in YLG centered on overcoming challenges to leadership as young women. (general recommendation)

- Conduct a barrier analysis to thoroughly understand available financial institutions and

requirements for securing loan. Consult the Office of Youth and Sports to better understand requirements for Youth Revolving Fund. Carry out consultations with relevant government offices to understand the operation of the Youth Revolving Fund and then identify follow-up actions to better align project activity designs with the Youth Revolving Fund, and other financial institutions as applicable. (general recommendation)

- Develop advertising and social media campaigns to drive engagement and spread

information about MFIs and the Youth Revolving Fund. Clarifying and spreading helpful information should be a key priority for the next program cycle. The use of social media was suggested by study participants. (general recommendation)

- Develop mothers’ cooperatives for sharing of children care, domestic responsibilities, health

center transportation, and nutrition tips for mothers, pregnant, and lactating women. (general recommendation)

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- Directly target women and youth for leadership roles in program activities. Program activities should focus not only on increasing the involvement and participation of women and youth in productive roles, but on shifting roles from supporting men to holding lead responsibilities. When doing so, projects should engage young men trained as gender champions to encourage men’s support of women’s and girls’ leadership. (general recommendation)

- Both DFSA and LRO programs should consider GBV prevention activities targeted at youth

with an explicit discussion of the harmful and long-term effects of abduction. These activities might include awareness campaigns in community groups and at schools, ad household consultations community health workers. “Abduction”, which arguably should be considered a form of early marriage, can lead to school dropout, migration, early pregnancy, prostitution, and addiction. This is especially true for young women who are not accepted back into their families upon return.

- Monitor progress on the inclusion and participation of female youth in these leadership

structures. Advocate for increased coordination and cooperation between the Office of Youth and Sports and the Office of Women and Children’s Affairs at the woreda level. (DFSA recommendation)

- Improve communication with FSTF at the kebele level and develop a mechanism to

decrease the number of food distribution delays; a common complaint in more remote kebeles in Dire Dawa and East Hararghe zones. (DFSA recommendation)

- Closely coordinate with World Vision in Siraro for all program activities to avoid duplication

of services. Coordination should include high-level planning and budgeting and field level project implementation. (LRO recommendation)

- Use SILC groups, YLG, and community conversations (CC) as an entry point to talk about

early marriage, especially the new trend of young people eloping without the permission of their families. (LRO recommendation)

- Provide financial literacy training in LG groups to introduce financial services and spread

awareness about places where PSNP clients can receive loans or gain access to credit. (LRO recommendation)

Long-term

- Develop a system to monitor progress toward equal sharing of household responsibilities. (general recommendation)

- Develop monitoring mechanisms to explore changes in control of resources. The mobile

money cash transfers, to be piloted in Dire Dawa, should be closely monitored for how and by whom this money is controlled. Gender dynamics should be explored and closely monitored throughout the cash transfer process. Where harmful gender dynamics are exhibited, project activi(general recommendation)

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- Monitoring and evaluation activities should closely measure behavioral changes in gender norms and women’s access to and control of resources. (general recommendation)

- Target men and women in polygamous relationships for relationship counseling, such as

Faithful House activities, as women in these relationships have the least control over and access to household resources. Also target couples who are not yet in polygamous relationships to understand how their resources will have to be distributed should they enter a plural marriage. Work with the Office of Women and Children’s Affairs and community leaders to understand who is at the greatest risk of entering a polygamous relationship and who is currently in a polygamous relationship. (general recommendation)

- Target youth for income diversification activities, increased access to finance, and food/cash

transfers to offset migration. (general recommendation)

- Consider shifting programming to include activities that increase transportation options to program participants. This might include offering cash assistance to cover the cost of buses and taxis. (general recommendation)

- Conduct a mapping or meta-analysis of all gender assessments from Ethiopia over the most

recent 2 years. Currently there are four separate gender and youth analyses taking place by organizations implementing DFSA or LRO projects in Ethiopia. Rather than siloed gender assessments by organization or region, use the most recent assessment to create a country-wide gender assessment for use by all organizations, USAID and other donors, and the Ethiopian government. (general recommendation)

- Consider creating an incubator for women entrepreneurs that includes a mentorship

program and later engage these women as role models for other women in the community. (general recommendation)

- Further research suggested in the following areas (general recommendation):

• Access and barriers to financial tools, loans, and credit. Look at both MFIs and the Youth Revolving Fund.

• Internal and external migration, especially by gender. • GBV reporting mechanisms, including government structures and traditional or

community-based structures. • Coordination between government and traditional leadership structures.

- Use the innovation fund as an opportunity to address community challenges, such as the

need for small scale irrigation technologies, lack of transportation, and time burden for women in domestic labor. Use schools and vocational training centers as a platform to provide innovation training that can improve employability after completing education. (LRO recommendation)

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INTRODUCTION

This analysis is intended to inform CRS’ two recently awarded USAID funded programs – the Food for Peace (FFP) funded Development Food Security Activity (DFSA) and the Feed the Future (FtF) funded Livelihoods for Resilience – Oromia (LRO) project. Of specific interest are norms and power relations between males and females, and youth and adults at the household, community, and local levels in Oromia and Dire Dawa operational areas. Informing this analysis and the programs of interest is the knowledge that chronic food insecurity affects men and women, young and old, in different ways. Moreover, in Ethiopia chronic food insecurity is exacerbated by a number of factors, including environmental degradation, drought, diminishing land availability, population growth, limited advancement of agriculture technologies, high incidence of disease, and low education levels. Oromia and Dire Dawa were selected as data collection locations based on need, consortium member presence6, and capacity to implement. Both Oromia and Dire Dawa are among the more vulnerable regions of Ethiopia in terms of food security, water, agriculture, health, and nutrition.7

Literature Review

This analysis adds to the body of existing knowledge and previous research capturing gender and age dynamics in the Oromia region and Dire Dawa Administrative Unit. Previous studies provide valuable background that helped guide the design of this analysis and were used to both validate findings and note new or unusual trends.

A 2016 gender assessment for the 5-year CRS-implemented Development Food Assistance Program (DFAP) explored “the effects of DFAP on male and female beneficiaries, level of gender integration in DFAP, and contribution of gender integration to the achievement of overall program goals.”8 The assessment considered six woredas in East Harghe and Arsi zones, and Dire Dawa City Administration.9

The results of the DFAP assessment confirm that agriculture is the main means of livelihood in Oromia region and Dire Dawa Administrative Unit as 98 percent and 94 percent of households surveyed in Arsi and East Harghe zones respectively named agriculture as their main sources of income.10 Other sources of income include daily labor and petty trade.11 There is a severe education gap in the surveyed area as 55 percent of respondents could not read or write (64 percent of which were female) and only 35 percent of respondents completed primary school.12 Limited access to diverse forms of income and poor education make Oromia and Dire Dawa particularly vulnerable to food insecurity. 6 CRS-led consortium includes local technical partners Ethiopian Catholic Church Social & Development Commissions of Harar and Meki (commonly referred to as HCS and MCS) and Mercy Corps 7 CRS ELRP/DFSA program documents; “Submitted to USAID/FFP in Response to FY16 Request for Applications for Title II Development Food Assistance Projects” 8 CRS. “Final Report on Gender Assessment for Development Food Assistance Program (DFAP) in Six Target Woredas of East Hararghe and Arsi Zones of Oromia Region and Dire Dawa City Administration.” Ethiopia 2016. Pp vi. 9 CRS. “Final Report on Gender Assessment for Development Food Assistance Program (DFAP) in Six Target Woredas of East Hararghe and Arsi Zones of Oromia Region and Dire Dawa City Administration.” Ethiopia 2016 10 Ibid. Pp. vi 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid.

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In line with previous CRS gender analyses, the DFAP assessment found that women have the majority of responsibility for reproductive and domestic tasks, restricting their ability to advance their socio-economic status. Young girls, as a result, face larger workloads compared to young boys.13 Women are also involved in productive activities, like helping their husbands in the field. As a result, women have longer work days and sleep fewer hours than men.14

Control over land resources, decisions about what crops to produce, and the power to sell cattle falls either with the husband (approximately 50 percent of respondents) or jointly between husband and wife (approximately 50 percent of respondents), but never with only the wife. Women’s increased access to financial tools has had positive effects on the power to make decisions about how to spend their money. This assessment also revealed that overall, women are confident in their ability to make decisions (83 percent of respondents) and are empowered by structures that open spaces for female participation in decision making, such as SILC groups, PW activities, or CC. However, there still exist institutional challenges to female decision-making, such as the FSTF and the appeal committee, in which the representation of women is limited.

In 2016, CRS also carried out a gender and youth analysis for their three-year Girls Empowerment Project, implemented in East Shoa and Arsi Zones.15 This study revealed economic, social, and cultural issues that adolescent boys and girls face, which create potential barriers to being successful in their future lives. The study noted that overall, young girls face greater barriers to success compared to boys.16 For example, young girls have significantly more responsibility for domestic chores straining their time availability for school, studying, and other activities. Financial constraints contribute significantly to school dropout rates; while some young girls reported trying to participate in small income generating activities, the income earned was not sufficient to cover the expenses of their schooling and they consequently unenrolled.17 Socially, girls are considered inferior to boys and are therefore often excluded from decision-making. Culturally, young girls are exposed to harmful traditional practices, such as early marriage and different forms of gender-based violence (GBV).

Other important literature consulted for the design of this analysis include the “Gender Analysis Report in Selected Commodities’ Value Chains for the GRAD Target Woredas in SNNPR, Oromia, Amhara and Tigray National Regional States” (2014) undertaken in five woredas to identify barriers and opportunities for men and women to engage with the GRAD program, the “Resilience through Enhanced Adaptation Action-learning, and Partnership (REAAP) Gender Analysis Report” (2015) focusing on gender in West Hararghe, and the 2016 CRS Ethiopia Youth Employment Assessment titled “Youth Focus Group Exercise in Selected Localities in the East Hararghe Zone of the Oromia Region and the Sitti Zone of the Somali Region”.

Previous reports reveal the vulnerability of communities in the Oromia Region and Dire Dawa Administrative Unit where CRS operates and the added marginalization of women, girls, and youth in these regions, emphasizing the need to properly understand gender and age dynamics to then increase communities’ resilience to shocks and their overall well-being.

13 Ibid. Pp. vii 14 Ibid. Pp. 12 15 Reaching for their Potential: Girls empowerment Project in East Shoa and Arsi Zone 16 CRS. “Gender & Youth Analysis Reaching for their Potential: Girls Empowerment Project in East Shoa and Arsi Zones.” Ethiopia 2016. Pp. i. 17 Ibid.

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The findings from previous studies informed the design of this gender and youth analysis in a number of ways. First, while previous studies looked at specific aspects of gender or youth, often in designated geographical areas, there has not been a study that considers how age, gender, and geography interact with one another. This analysis was therefore designed to consider cohorts of people based on age, gender, and geographic location with specific economic and cultural characteristics. Second, the findings reveled in previous studies directly informed the design of KII and FGD questions, including questions around the roles and responsibilities of women, men, and youth in the home, control over resources, access to resources, education, cultural practices, and gender-based violence. Finally, the time-use activity in 2016 DFAP assessment, revealing that women have virtually no leisure time and work longer days than men, led to the design of the daily calendar activity to reveal new trends in time use when considering gender and age cohorts. Scope & Context Between September 2 and October 21, 2017 the study team collected data from eight of the 14 woredas in the Oromia Region and Dire Dawa Administrative Unit where CRS presently implements the DFSA and LRO programs: three DFSA woredas, three LRO woredas, and two woredas where DFSA and LRO programs overlap. In each woreda, the study team visited two kebeles and woreda level government offices.

Data collection was split into two phases. Starting in the east, Phase One included woredas located in East Hararghe and Dire Dawa (Dire Dawa, Deder, and Melka Belo). Phase Two focused on the southern parts of Oromia, including woredas located in Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones (Boset, Ziway Dugda, ATJK, Arsi Negele, and Siraro). Findings have been disaggregated by sex, geographic location, and cultural context, where possible.

This research draws comparison between groups of people based on age and gender. Youth are defined as people between 15 and 29 years old, in line with DFSA and LRO program definitions. Throughout this report, “young women” or “young men” refer to men and women between the ages of 15 and 29 (male and female youth) respectively. “Men” and “women” refer to adults 30 years and above.

Background of Study Woredas

All of the selected woredas are identified as Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) IV woredas and represent two main geographical corridors in Oromia region. The first geographic corridor includes East Hararghe zone and Dire Dawa Administrative Unit located in the eastern part of Oromia. DFSA programs are being implemented in this area. East Hararghe is one of the Oromia’s most vulnerable zones, as every woredas is a priority one hotspot.18 Within East Hararghe, CRS works in two geographical clusters: Babile and Midega Tola, which share a common livelihood zone in northeast agro pastoral (NAP) with activities tied to livestock rearing and crop production, and Deder and Melka Belo, which share the Sorghum, Maize, and Chat (SMC) livelihood zone, characterized by agriculture, self-employment, and local labor. Communities in this zone are 18 “Priority one hotspot” refers to the woreda vulnerability ranking as identified by the Government of Ethiopia based on indicators for health and nutrition, agriculture, markets, WASH and education.

18

vulnerable to food insecurity due to rain shortage and limited other opportunities for income. Some households engage in the sale of firewood and migration as coping mechanisms.19 During the time of data collection, the research team was unable to access Babile and Midega Tola due to security concerns. This necessarily limited this analysis. The team instead visited both Deder and Melka Belo. Kebeles in Dire Dawa were selected to represent agro pastoralist communities.

Dire Dawa Administrative Unit has the largest population and consequently, the largest caseload of PSNP clients. For PNSP IV the caseload is almost 65,000 people, more than double all other woredas in the Oromia region. Similar to East Hararghe, the Dire Dawa Administrative Unit represent agricultural, agro-pastoral, and pastoral livelihood zones and is consistently ranked as a hotspot priority one area. Dire Dawa is also critical because of its close proximity to Dire Dawa town, representing potential linkages to markets and alternative livelihood practices to traditional farming.

The majority of people in East Hararghe Dire Dawa Administrative Unit identify as Muslim (see Box 1) which may have implications for traditional gender roles. Like other parts of Oromia, most people identify with the Oromo ethnic group and speak Oromingya as their mother tongue. However, in Dire Dawa Administrative Unit there is also a high proportion of people that identify as Somali (24 percent) and speak Somaligna as their mother tongue (19 percent).20

The second geographical corridor includes Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones in the southern part of Oromia. In some of the selected woredas (Ziway Dugda and Arsi Negele) DFSA and LRO programs overlap and in others only LRO is operational (Boset, ATJK, and Siraro). Ziway Dugda, Arsi Negele, and Boset are part of the Rift Valley Maize and Haricot Bean (RVM) livelihood zone, with agricultural production as the main source of livelihood and limited livestock protection. Like other woredas, casual labor is used to supplement income. ATJK is part of the Abijata Shala Jido Agro-Pastoral (ASA) livelihood zone and neighboring Siraro is part of the Siraro Kofele Potato & Vegetables (SKV) zone.21 Ziway Dugda, Arsi Negele, and ATJK have been particularly and adversely affected by the drought and many households are especially vulnerable to food insecurity. Boset and Siraro represent two of the four new woredas for CRS service delivery for which CRS currently has limited knowledge.22

The religious breakdown of the southern region is different compared to the eastern region. In East Shewa zone, the majority of the population identifies as Ethiopian Orthodox (70 percent) while only 17 percent identify with Islam. In Arsi zone, the religious breakdown is split between Islam and Ethiopian Orthodox, at 58 and 40 percent respectively. In West Arsi zone however, 80 percent of the population is Muslim (Box 1). In the Oromia region, 85 percent of people speak Oromigna and 87 percent of the population identifies with the Oromo ethnic group.23

19 CRS ELRP/DFSA program documents; “Submitted to USAID/FFP in Response to FY16 Request for Applications for Title II Development Food Assistance Projects”. 2016. Pg. 10 20 Central Statistical Agency – Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Ethiopia. Ethiopia Population and Housing Census of 2007. 2007. Link http://catalog.ihsn.org/index.php/catalog/3583 21 USAID. An Atlas of Ethiopian Livelihoods: The Livelihoods Integration Unit. Link http://foodeconomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Atlas-Final-Web-Version-6_14.pdf. 22 Cooperative Agreement No. AID-663-A-17-00005/Catholic Relief Services: Livelihoods for Resilience – Oromia Activity. 2016. 23 Central Statistical Agency – Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Ethiopia. Ethiopia Population and Housing Census of 2007. 2007. Link http://catalog.ihsn.org/index.php/catalog/3583

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Box 1: Religious breakdown in Oromia Region and Dire Dawa Administrative Unit, by zone

Source: Central Statistical Agency – Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Ethiopia. Ethiopia Population and Housing Census of 2007. 2007. Link http://catalog.ihsn.org/index.php/catalog/3583

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METHODOLOGY As called for in the original terms of reference for this work, this study employed qualitative methods in line with USAID guidelines for youth and gender analyses. This rigorous methodology included focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and a 24-hour daily calendar activity. The study followed a 4-phase methodology, details of which are outlined in Annex I. Research tools are located in Annex II. Data collection took place in eight of the 14 woredas where the DFSA and LRO programs are operational. These eight woredas were selected in consultation with CRS staff and implementing partners based on the following criteria:

1. Existing knowledge and information, targeting new CRS woredas or woredas with a limited knowledge-base.

2. Security and access, selected woredas that were safe and accessible to the research team. 3. Vulnerability, targeting woredas with a large caseload of PSNP clients. 4. LRO and DFSA program operation, equally selecting woredas where DFSA and LRO

program are operational.

Data collection took place in 16 kebeles, two in each woreda. Kebeles were selected during the first phase of the study in consultation with CRS and implementing partners using the same criteria listed above. In order to ensure that data collection included a fair representation of the population where CRS programs are implemented and captured an accurate view of gender and youth dynamics, the sample size of FGDs, calendar activities, and KIIs was weighted by the population size in each woreda (Table 1).

Data collection was carried out by research assistants who were proficient in the local language and English, and familiar with local norms. Interviews were translated from local languages to English for analysis. Quotes in this report are translated from the local language.

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Table 1: Data collection sample

Blue= DFSA programs

Green= LRO progams

Yellow= both DSA and LRO programs

Zone Woreda PSNP Population % of population

Total #FGD

Total Daily

Calendar Activities

Total #KII

East Hararghe Deder 27,044 242,140 15% 4 4 20

Melka Belo 22,833 177,416 11% 4 4 15

Dire Dawa Dire Dawa 64,702 341,834 21% 6 4 28

Arsi Ziway Duga 9,329 153,113 9% 4 4 14

West Arsi Siraro 29,029 138,379 9% 4 4 11

Arsi Negelle 31,480 243,602 15% 6 4 20

East Shewa ATJK 23,759 186,018 11% 4 4 17

Boset 5,007 142,112 9% 4 4 11

Total 213,183 1,624,614 100% 34 32 136

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RESULTS

The analysis that follows explores gender and age relations across eight woredas within the context of USAID’s six standard gender domains – (1) Roles, responsibilities & time use; (2) Access and control of assets & resources; (3) Power relations; (4) Participation and leadership; (5) Knowledge, beliefs & perception (culture); and (6) Legal environment. Domains 3 and 4 have been combined under a single domain titled “power and participation”. The findings detailed below reflect the available data. It should be noted, where domains or sub-topics within domains are more briefly covered or not included, data was either minimal or not accessible.

This section begins with a breakdown of demographic and geographic particularities of the sample population. This is followed by domain-specific analysis.

Population & Geographic Breakdown

A total of 37 FGDs, 129 KIIs, and 30 daily calendar activities were conducted with 848 women, men, youth, community leaders, and stakeholders. Stakeholders include government representatives. Nearly equal proportions of male and female youth and adults participated in the study, as illustrated in Chart 1.

All activities with community members included both PSNP clients and non-PSNP clients. While CRS only works with PSNP clients, non-PSNP participants were included in the study to better understand the gender and age dynamics in the areas where CRS is working. FGDs with mixed groups – PSNP and non-PSNP clients – were tested during the tool testing phase of the research to ensure no one group dominated the conversation. At that time and throughout the study, no concerns over group dynamics were found. As noted in Table 2, 52 percent of FGD participants were PSNP clients, 48 percent non-PSNP clients, and across all service categories 13 percent of

men (adults) 22%

women (adults)20%

maleyouth21%

female youth 20%

community leaders 12%

stakeholders 5%

Chart 1: Demographic breakdown of participants

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FGD participants were pregnant or lactating women at the time of data collection. Given that women in the region do not generally disclose their condition in the earlier months of pregnancy, this figure on pregnant and lactating women depended entirely on participant disclosure. FGD participants were asked if they “are pregnant or lactating” but were not required to disclose. Where women did disclose pregnancy or lactation, they were included in the 13 percent figure below. KIIs involved a similar breakdown of participants, though figures are less reliable.

Domain 1: Roles, responsibilities & time use

Reproductive Roles

In line with previous trends revealed in the literature review, reproductive roles differ drastically by gender. Women bear the burden for domestic labor. During key informant interviews, 94 percent of all references noted women, rather than men, are responsible for domestic labor (Chart 2). Domestic chores include cooking (largest time burden, three to four hours per day), shopping for food in the market, childcare, washing clothes, cleaning, fetching water, and collecting firewood.

Consistently across woredas, young women and girls are responsible for helping their mothers with domestic chores in addition to their other responsibilities, such as attending school or working in the

Table 2: Demographic breakdown of participants

Number of Activities

# of participants

# of men

# of women

# of male youth

# of female youth

# of community

leaders

# of stakeholders

FGDs

37 407 89 83 50 93 81 11

PSNP clients 52%

Non-PSNP clients 48%

Pregnant and lactating women 13%

KIIs

129 129 13 12 27 30 16 31

Daily Calendar Activities

30 312 86 78 99 49 - -

Totals

196 848 188 173 176 172 97 42

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fields. Female students are often tasked with preparing food for the family before and after attending school, which limits their time for studying at home. When a woman is pregnant or lactating, her daughters or other women often help to decrease her workload at home. Husbands or young men may help with fetching water, collecting firewood, or engaging in tasks that require physical strength but they do not cook food or prepare meals.

Link to Programming: DFSA and LRO programs rely on clients sharing household responsibilities to create equal opportunities in LG and IGA groups. This finding further emphasizes the need to encourage household responsibility sharing during the formation of LG groups and develop a system to monitor progress toward equal sharing of household responsibilities before IGA groups are formed.24 Household responsibility sharing is also important for DFSA Purpose 3: “pregnant and lactating women and children under five have improved nutritional status.” Currently, pregnant and lactating women receive little relief of their domestic responsibilities, which may affect their own nutritional status and that of their children.

Productive Roles

Nearly equal numbers of men and women are engaged in income generating activities across woredas (mostly in on-farm activities), but gender roles differ.

Women support men in agricultural production, doing tasks such as weeding and cultivation. Women also deliver meals to men in the field, bring products to the market for sale, and engage in petty trade. In

24 Refer to DFSA Sub-Purpose 2.2 and LRO SO 2.

Females94%

Males6%

Chart 2: References to males and females engaged in domestic labor, across woredas

“Our market place is in Harewacha. It is far away from here and takes around

3 hours to reach. Our biggest challenge is we have no access to

roads and transportation … My wife is responsible for the selling our goods.”

~Man, Melka Belo

25

East Hararghe and Dire Dawa, women sell chat and coffee, often traveling up to four hours by foot to reach the market. In Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones women sell sugar, milk, butter, alcohol, and livestock.

Men’s primary role across woredas is agriculture and livestock production. They are engaged in all tasks, from clearing and preparing the land to planting seeds, purchasing input, and harvesting. In some cases, men are in the field all day and all night on occasion.

Youth are mostly engaged in unpaid work: attending school and helping their families. Young men help their fathers on the farms and young women help their mothers with domestic labor as well as on farm activities.

In Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones some youth are engaged in off-farm paid activities. Young men work as day laborers, in sand production, loading and unloading products, as security guards, and in motorbike transportation. Young women work selling alcohol (Boset), in petty trade, and in shops. Boset, the newest PSNP woreda, had the most references to youth engaged in paid, off-farm work. Link to Programming: The division of productive activities by gender and age highlights the need ensure all activities and trainings are targeted toward shifting gender and age norms. Program activities should focus not only on increasing the involvement and participation of women and youth in productive roles, but on shifting roles from supporting men to holding lead responsibilities.

Poor access to transportation disproportionately affects women’s roles

Across woredas, access to transportation is of critical importance for accessing markets, schools, and health centers. Despite the fact that transportation is important for everyone, more women (62 percent) than men (38 percent) consider access to transportation a primary challenge. Of specific concern to women is the time burden of traveling by foot to and from the market and fetching water, both of which are roles assigned to women and girls. Women also referenced traveling by foot to reach the health center, even during pregnancy (in some cases up to 3 hours). Poor access to transportation is especially prevalent in East Hararghe, which accounted for 57 percent of all references made to poor access to transportation (Chart 3).

Chart 3 and Chart 4 below disaggregate the percent of references made by study participants first by gender and then by woreda. Access to transportation is a greater concern for (1) women and (2) people living in Melka Belo and Deder woredas.

“The youth in our community do not usually have jobs. They mostly participate in growing crops and going to school. Some of us are participating in small businesses like selling local alcohol. Most of us, however, are engaged in helping out our families with

agricultural activities.” ~Young woman, Boset

26

Link to Programming: Access to transportation is imporant when considering how DFSA and LRO programs can create income diversfication and forge new market linkages for PSNP clients, especially in the eastern region. It also reinforces the need to closely examine access to health services for pregant and lactating women in areas where transportation is most limited and note that great distances to health centers may impact nutritional handouts to pregnant women and children under five.

Time Use

The daily calendar activity was used to understand how gender and age affect time use, the distribution of household responsibilities, and the division of income generating activities. This exercise considered an average weekday during harvest season. Participants strongly emphasized that their schedules change according to season. Harvest season is the busiest time of year when crops are harvested for consumption and sale.

Female62%

Male 38%

Chart 3: References to "transportation" as a challenge, by gender across woredas

8% 8%4%

19%

8%

38%

8% 8%

0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%

Arsi Negele ATJK Boset Deder DireDawa MelkaBelo Siraro Ziway Dugda

Chart 4: References to "transportation" as a primary challenge, by woreda

27

While there was some variation across groups and location, women have longer work days overall and carry a greater burden of domestic chores, water collection, and firewood gathering. In contrast, men spend the majority of their time on the farm. Male youth have the most “free time”, as unemployment, financial obstacles to paying school fees, and lack of domestic responsibility in the home have led to school dropout and few productive income generating avenues. The analysis that follows directly below is disaggregated by region.

Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa Zones

Women in Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones work from 6 AM to 9 PM, engaging in unpaid labor. Most of their time is spent on domestic activities, including cooking (three to four hours per day) and tending to cattle (three to four hours per day). In Siraro, unlike other woredas in the southern zones, women did not report tending to cattle; instead, women spend the majority of their day cutting grass and collecting firewood for personal use and sale in the market (about seven hours). Women have some leisure time after their evening meal and before bed for about one hour, which they spend with their families or listening to the radio.

Men work from about 7 AM to 7 PM, engaged in farming and livestock activities. Most men spend one to two hours feeding or tending to livestock and up to nine hours on the farm during harvesting season. Men finish their days around 7 PM, at which point they return home to eat an evening meal and enjoy leisure time with family and neighbors. Harvesting season is the busiest time of year. At other times in the year, men are engaged in public works activities and/or have more leisure time.

Across woredas, men reported that the effects of five years of low rainfall have been dire. In Siraro, participants stated that this has led to food insecurity and starvation. In ATJK, participants noted that the erratic rainfall coupled with poor soil fertility has led to crop failure and a severe shortage of drinking water.

Female youth generally work from 6 AM to 9 PM, primarily engaging in domestic labor, tending to cattle, and going to the market. Young women spend three to four hours each day preparing meals, two to three hours milking and feeding cattle, one to two hours cleaning house and washing clothes, one to two hours fetching water, and if a market is in walking distance, a few hours traveling the market to buy and sell goods after lunch. In ATJK, young women are engaged in small trading activities, including selling goats and working in shops. Young women usually do not have free time until after dinner at which point they listen to the radio or relax with their families. For youth enrolled in school, this time is used as a study period.

Male youth have the most “free time” compared to their female and adult counterparts. Most male youth are engaged in activities from 8 AM to 5 PM. Where available, these activities include working on the farm (Ziway Dugda) or working as daily laborers earning 30 to 40 birr per day (Boset).

“I have many responsibilities in the house, but I also participate in agricultural and livestock production. On the farm, especially during

harvesting season, I participate in cultivating, digging, weeding, protecting the farm from the

animals, delivering farming materials to my husband, feeding the oxen, and so many other activities. In livestock production, I feed the

goats, cows, and donkeys, milk the cows, and facilitate for someone among my family to take

them to graze.” ~Woman, Siraro

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Notably, male youth do not engage in domestic chores in any of the woredas. In ATJK young men reported they spent most of their time “in town” with friends because they lack employment opportunities and access to or control over land. In Siraro and ATJK, young men usually spend one to two hours each afternoon playing football. Lack of rainfall and high unemployment has resulted in high secondary school dropout rates for youth, and in some cases, migration of young men to urban centers and other countries.

East Hararghe and Dire Dawa

Women in the northeastern region work from 6 AM to 11 PM. In the morning, women engage in domestic chores, including cleaning, cooking, preparing coffee, fetching water, and looking after children. In most areas, fetching water takes between 1 and 2 hours. After lunch, women either help their husbands on the farm, collect grass to feed cattle, collect firewood, or travel to the market to buy and sell cash crops (Deder). In the evening, they return home to again prepare dinner and coffee and complete their domestic chores until bed. In Melka Belo, women reported taking an hour in the evenings to chew chat.

Men in the eastern region consider farming their main task. As such, men spend between 4 and 6 hours each day working on the farm, usually in the afternoon hours. While on the farm, about 4 hours is spent harvesting and chewing chat, and 2 hours is dedicated to feeding cattle together with their wives and children. Men are not engaged in domestic chores in any of the woredas. Instead, men fill their time with more leisure activities throughout the day as compared to women who have almost no leisure time. In Dire Dawa, men harvest vegetables and fruit, including onion, carrots, papaya, apples, and cabbage for consumption and sale. Across woredas, coffee and chat are grown and sold as cash crops.

Female youth who are in school wake up early to help prepare breakfast. They then spend the morning in school, which can be an hour or more walk from home. They return home around lunch time and spend the afternoon studying and helping their families in the home (Dire Dawa).25

Male youth who are in school attend class in the morning, similar to female youth, and spend their afternoons helping their families on the farm, chewing chat, and studying. Young men who are not in school spend their time working on the farm, tending to cattle, and chewing chat in similar patterns to that of their fathers. Link to Programming: CRS should work to engage men and boys in shifting gender norms on domestic labor to increase women’s engagement in livelihood activities and keep girls in school. This could include targeting young men, who have the most “idle time” during the day, to participate in household chores and act as gender champions to shift deeply engrained norms. Youth livelihood groups and gender clubs can serve as an entry point to provide cooking lessons to young men, as 25 Young women are much more reserved in the eastern region. Women also have busy schedules and a huge number of responsibilities inside their homes. Given these constraints, it was more difficult to speak with young women during data collection. This information is drawn from a discussion with a group of in school youth in Dire Dawa, who are likely to have more time available to dedicate to their studies than their counterparts who are not in school.

“Many of the youth in the kebele are jobless and they don’t have any regular

income source. That makes them vulnerable to challenges related to food

access.”

- Young man, Boset

29

this is the most time consuming domestic activity, and raise awareness on the importance of domestic labor division at home. Programming should also consider ways to provide women and youth with greater responsibility in productive activities; not simply participation but leadership of activities.

Domain 2: Access and control of assets & resources

Access to and Control of Household Income

Access to and control of household income differs by gender and age. Women often manage smaller household purchases as they are responsible for going to the market, purchasing goods, and selling agricultural products. In contrast, men control household income and are responsible for the purchase and sale of high value items such as cattle or land. This finding is consistent across woredas.

Youth have extremely limited access to income and are highly dependent on their families. During key informant interviews, youth referred to unemployment, education, and land shortage as primary challenges to accessing income and freeing themselves from dependency on their families (Box 1). Of these three challenges, unemployment is the number one concern for youth, mentioned three times more than either education or land shortage.

Unemployment60%

Education21%

Land

19%

Chart 5: Three highest priority concerns for youth

30

Link to Programming: DFSA and LRO project activities emphasize sustainable income and assets, and equal contributions to home (i.e. DSFA sub-purpose 1.2, “communities have built and sustained productive assets”). This finding reinforces the need to address deeply engrained gender norms by engaging community leaders, couples, and youth about the importance not only of equal responsibility for household chores, but also of equal control of resources. Additionally, this finding uncovers that developing sustainable income for youth is a top priority for young people, and is closely tied to access to land and education.

Box 1: Barriers to income generation for youth The biggest concern for all youth across woredas is unemployment. This is especially true for young men. Related to unemployment, youth are experiencing scarcity of land and resources to a more dramatic degree than previous generations because of a mixture of population growth and rain shortage which has disrupted traditional agro-pastoralist lifestyles and livelihoods. Some youth see education as a protection against continued poverty; however, unemployment and land shortage create a negative reinforcing cycle where either (a) families cannot afford to send youth to school or (b) youth who do attend school are still unable to secure employment. • Unemployment: High rates of unemployment for educated youth have negative

psychological effects (males) and discourage families from sending other children to school (especially young women).

• Education: Concerns around education center on quality (class sizes reported as exceeding 100 students), access (schools are often far from home, and associated with early marriage and/or early pregnancy), affordability (many families cannot afford to buy exercise books) and employability (unemployment for educated youth discourages families from sending their children to school).

- School dropout is very clearly related to gender and family income. It was mentioned as a concern for both boys and girls. One teacher in Dire Dawa stated that the enrollment rate of girls in early years of education is higher than boys, yet this ratio flips after grade four as girls marry and begin having children.

- In some cases, girls reported missing school during their menstruation periods due to lack of sanitary pads (Dire Dawa and East Hararghe).

• Land: Youth face severe land shortage due to population growth and climate change. This

makes youth dependent on family resources, even after marriage. - Consequences: Increased violent behavior by youth (usually referring to male youth),

migration, and the “breakdown of society”.

Drought: The above issues are intensified by five years of rain shortage, experienced across Oromia and Dire Dawa. This has made rural communities particularly income and food insecure.

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Access to and Control of Resources

At the household level, men control higher value resources such as large equipment required for agricultural production, land, and other high-value resources. Women control domestic resources such as small scale agricultural products and livestock. Land is now more attainable for women, though divorced women and women in polygamous relationships are often left with few resources, including land and livestock, and remain the primary caretakers for their children. Link to Programming: This finding highlights the need to monitor control of resources available to PNSP clients. The mobile money cash transfers, to be piloted in Dire Dawa, should be closely monitored for how and by whom this money is controlled. Monitoring and evaluation activities should closely measure behavioral changes in gender norms and women’s access to and control of these resources.

Other DFSA and LRO activities may also provide a mechanism to shift control of high value items from only men to men and women. For example, the innovation fund, through which LRO provides larger grants, could incubate women entrepreneurs in a special mentorship program and later engage those women as role models for other women in the community.

Resources, unemployment, and conflict

In East Hararghe and Dire Dawa community members traditionally rely on the production and sale of chat and coffee for livelihoods. These communities have been struggling because of severe price depreciation, which they attribute to conflict in the border region. “Conflict” was mentioned as a primary concern by many KII participants, 60 percent of which were in East Hararghe and Dire Dawa (Chart 6). The depreciation of chat and coffee prices, coupled with land shortage and drought, has increased the vulnerability of these communities.

In Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones, conflict was also referenced as a priority issue. Here conflict was often directly connected to youth unemployment in the wake of violent uprisings that have taken place over the past two years. Male youth in particular spoke freely of their concerns about the recurrence of violence that they claim is a result of unemployment.

32

Access to Financial Services

Access to financial services is a primary challenge to overcoming poverty and building resilience to climate change across woredas. Participants – especially youth – consistently stated that credit and loan organizations fail to serve the poorest segments of society due to the perceived need for collateral and/or high interest rates. Additionally, 15 percent of all references to unemployment made by youth correlate with mention of “access to finance” as a priority concern, suggesting that some people directly connect their limited ability to secure a loan with unemployment.

There is an awareness of the Oromia Credit and Savings Share Company (OCSSCO), a local MFI, but also significant skepticism about the high interest rates associated with taking a loan. Similarly, there is awareness of the Youth Revolving Fund, a new government fund intended to provide microloans to youth through the Ministry of Youth and Sports, but confusion around how to access the fund.

Men were twice as likely as women to bring up “access to finance” as a priority concern or impediment to starting a business (Chart 7). It is not clear why this is the case, but might be explained by the fact that men see their primary role as providing for their family’s financial needs. In contrast, women might be less likely to recognize “access to finance” as one of their most pressing challenges because they are not seeking to fulfill a breadwinner role. However, it may also be true that women are starting businesses that require less capital investment, such as buying and selling goods in the market. Men’s concerns over access to finance, therefore, do not necessarily point to women’s greater access to finance. Instead, this finding may suggest that women have other priorities, are not aware of financial tools, or simply do not believe that increasing “access to finance” will have a positive impact in their lives.

Dire Dawa and East Hararghe

60%

Arsi, West Arsi, and

East Shewa zones 40%

Chart 6: References to "conflict" as a concern primary concern, by zone

33

Link to Programming: More research is required to understand the opportunities and challenges of accessing finance across the Oromia Region and Dire Dawa Administrative Unit as increased linkages to MFIs is, desired, misunderstood, and sometimes feared.

Improved usability of financial services is necessary to make PSNP IV services more user-friendly (DFSA sub-purpose 1.1). DFSA and LRO should conduct a barrier analysis to thoroughly understand available financial institutions and requirements for securing loan and consult the Office of Youth and Sports to better understand requirements for Youth Revolving Fund. Then, develop advertising and social media campaigns to drive engagement and spread information about MFIs and the Youth Revolving Fund. There is a perception that MFIs require collateral to secure a loan and high interest rates make it impossible to build a profitable business. There is also considerable confusion around the Youth Revolving Fund. While many reported being aware of its existence, few understood the process of securing a loan. Clarifying and spreading helpful information should be a

Adults 55%Youth 45%

Female 31%

Male 69%

Chart 7: References to "access to finance" as a priority concern, by speaker (gender and age)

Box 2: Mini Case Study, Youth Revolving Fund, Siraro In Siraro, the representative from the Office of Youth and Sports stated that so far they have facilitated 7 million birr in funding to 2046 youth (half women, half men) who are organized into groups of 5 to 10 individuals based on their business interests. In order to receive a loan, the groups save 10 percent of their desired amount. “Other youth become motivated to save money,” he stated. “Before, there was an attitude not to take a loan because of the interest rate. And it was forbidden in Muslim culture, but these attitudes have changed.” Despite the promising outlook of the woreda office, youth in Siraro were less optimistic about the impact of the Youth Revolving Fund. Some youth expressed frustration that they felt Youth Revolving Fund loans were not widely available. “Government officials say that there is a revolving fund for youth but it is not provided for anybody,” stated one young woman in Siraro. “I think it would be good if the government tries to overcome this problem.”

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key priority for the next program cycle. This can also help inform the digital tracking system (PASS system) and improve communication and information.

Additionally, financial literacy training in the LG groups should be used to introduce financial services and spread awareness about places where PSNP clients can receive loans or gain access to credit.

Migration

Youth migration is a consequence of unemployment, drought, and land shortage effecting both male and female youth. Across woredas, youth migrate within Ethiopia to urban centers seeking employment. This is especially common for young men. Young women’s mobility, on the other hand, is constrained by social norms and family pressure to not leave their home. Unemployment and urban migration is sometimes correlated with substance abuse, referenced as a specific problem for youth in Boset (alcohol abuse) and East Hararghe and Dire Dawa (chat).

Migration beyond Ethiopia’s borders, to the Middle East and to South Africa, is a significant problem for both young women and young men. In the Dire Dawa and East Hararghe, migration of female youth to the Middle East to work as domestic labor is common and an especially sensitive topic among community members who closely connect the issue of migration to the issue of land shortage. In the Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones, young men and women are migrating to the Middle East and South Africa, often illegally.

Table 3 shows youth migration destinations by woreda. This is not an exhaustive list but illustrates general trends uncovered by this study.

Link to Programming: Migration is a coping mechanism for limited access to income. Income diversification activities, increased access to finance, and food/cash transfers targeting youth can

Table 3: Migration of youth, destinations mentioned by study participants, by woreda

Woreda Destinations

Arsi Negele South Africa, Middle East, Sudan, urban centers

ATJK Middle East, urban centers

Boset Urban areas

Deder Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, urban centers

Dire Dawa Middle East, urban areas

Melka Belo Middle East, urban centers

Siraro South Africa, urban areas

Ziway Dugda Urban areas

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offset the push factors to migrate to urban areas or out of Ethiopia. Both the DFSA and LRO programs should consider activities that directly target youth and expose local migration “brokers” as providing misinformation about the realities of migration for youth.

Access to Food

The challenging mountainous terrain and poor road quality makes the most remote parts of Dire Dawa and East Hararghe noticeably more vulnerable to food insecurity and highly dependent on the PSNP program. However, many participants noted a discrepancy between PSNP distribution quotas (a maximum of 5 people per household) and actual family size (often upwards of 9 people). In Deder, young women reported they chew chat to quell their hunger – not uncommon throughout the region.

Participants in Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones face similar challenges, but are generally better connected to markets, town centers, and health centers as roads and geography are easier to navigate. However, drought has also severely disrupted the food security of communities in this area. In Siraro, participants report drinking untreated pond water because they lack other clean water options.

Across woredas, participants noted that they rarely consider nutrition when preparing food as quantity of food consumption is more important than nutrition value. Most people eat once or twice a day (except for children who eat more often) and rely heavily on maize and teff grown locally, or wheat distributed to PSNP clients.

Access to food and proper nutrition is particularly important for women as they bare the burden of domestic labor and child care. This is especially true for divorced women or those in polygamous relationships, who are left to provide for their children without the support of a male partner. Link to Programming: Understanding the discrepancy between household size and PSNP food distributions is important for creating communities built on sustainable productive assets (DFSA sub-purpose 1.2) and enhancing the practice of optimal health behaviors (DFSA sub-purpose 3.2). Since PSNP households with more than five members are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity, these households should be targeted first for other DFSA and LRO services, include smallholder grants.

Domains 3 and 4: Power relations and decision-making

Formal Leadership

In general, across woredas, women and youth have restricted access to formal leadership positions.

In recent years there has been a shift in formal leadership in Ethiopia as part of an effort to be more gender inclusive. The establishment of the Office of Women and Children’s Affairs created a dedicated space for women’s issues and has increased women’s access to leadership. The office has elected representatives at the woreda and kebele level – positions which they often reserve for

36

women – dedicated to spreading awareness about gender equality, coordinating gender sensitive programs, and responding to reports of gender-based violence or other harmful practices. That said, women’s leadership positions are still concentrated in gender-specific departments. Out of nine female stakeholders interviewed during KIIs, four represented the Office of Women and Children’s Affairs and five were health extension workers (unlike male stakeholders, which included kebele chairmen, deputy chairmen, police officers, food security task force members, and woreda office leaders).

Similarly, the establishment of the Office of Youth and Sports has created an outlet for youth leadership through three structures: youth association (dealing with economic empowerment), youth league (addressing political affairs), and youth federation (leading and coordinating the youth league and the youth association). In these structures, there are two critical gaps. First, young men and women study participants do not consider these structures sufficient platforms to exercise their leadership and express their preferences and needs. Instead, youth across woredas voiced frustration that opportunities for youth to engage in formal leadership positions were in name only. Second, there is a clear gender gap in youth leadership that should be further explored. In Siraro there are 96 kebele level youth leaders, all of whom are male. It is not clear if this trend is consistent across woredas, but merits further research.

Youth also have formal leadership positions in other sectors outside the Office of Youth and Sports. Five of the 28 stakeholders interviewed were youth. These positions include political leaders, kebele managers,

health extension workers, and development agents. Some youth also report they served as the leader of a one to five group.26 Even in other sectors, the leadership gender gap remains. Overall, 12 male youth and only three female youth reported being engaged in part of a formal leadership structure, including attending kebele level meetings. Link to Programming: These findings reinforce the clear need for leadership training for women and youth (especially female youth). Under sub-purpose 1.1, DFSA will provide leadership training to WFSTF members. To increase the leadership capacity of women and youth, these trainings should be 50 percent women and 30 percent youth (half of whom are female). Additionally, under LRO immediate result 1.1, LRO should train female youth in YLG how to overcome challenges to leadership as young women.

Informal Leadership

Informal leadership structures include active traditional leadership – including Islamic religious structures in Dire Dawa and East Hararghe and the Gadaa System in Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones – as well as local cooperatives and savings groups. 26 The one to five system is an organizational structure in Ethiopia. At the village level, people are organized into “gares”, or groups of thirty people, which are further broken down into groups of five, each of which has a leader responsible for passing along communication from community leaders or the government at higher levels. Most study participants reported that they receive important communication through the one to five system. Most health extension workers also note the one to five system is important for tracking vaccination rates and malnutrition.

“Most of the time young women do not have specific roles in community apart from helping their mothers at home. Young men participate in public meetings. They give good ideas and keep community peace.”

~Young woman, Ziway Dugda

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Across woredas, community leaders – including religious leaders, elders, or representatives of the Gadaa system – set norms, enforce rules, resolve disputes, and influence religious practices. These leaders are overwhelmingly men. In this study, 93 percent of community leaders participating in key informant interviews were men, despite considerable efforts to meet with female community leaders. Put simply, female community leaders were almost entirely inaccessible during data collection, an experience that speaks to the relative scarcity of female leaders.

Across woredas, 14 male youth and six female youth reported engagement with or participation in informal leadership structures. Youth report participating in leadership positions around organizing cooperatives and attending community meetings or discussions and providing feedback. In the Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones, where the Gadaa system is most commonly practiced, young men report being involved in maintaining peace and security through traditional structures. The Gadaa system is not prevalent in Dire Dawa and East Hararghe; however, across woredas, many youth still expressed frustration around elders and community leaders dominating leadership roles and decision-making even for issues that directly affect youth.

Community Perceptions

Community attitudes may limit leadership opportunities for women and youth. Interestingly, there is a discrepancy between perceptions of self and perceptions of community attitudes. Women and youth participants reported confidence in their own leadership abilities, while simultaneously noting that their community as a whole does not support their leadership abilities nor sees them as legitimate leaders.

Similarly, participants expressed personal support for women’s leadership, but noted that attitudes and norms in the community discriminate against women’s leadership. In the same way, participants expressed personal support for youth leadership – sometimes suggesting youth inclusion in leadership is essential for stability and long term growth – but noted that youth were not afforded sufficient leadership opportunities in their communities.

Sources of these disjointed attitudes and beliefs are not clear. However, two potential sources of these findings are women’s relatively low education and the marginalization of youth. First, there is a belief among older male participants that because women have fewer opportunities for education, they are less prepared to be leaders. This finding is consistent with barriers to entry for women’s leadership outside of Ethiopia as well. In a self-reinforcing cycle, girls are removed from school to help with domestic chores and work in petty trade to cover the household costs. They then marry and have children quite young, which all but removes any possibility of returning to school as young women. Boys continue with their studies or take up relatively more sustainable livelihood activities throughout this period same time. As a result, adult women are relatively less educated and engaged in less lucrative livelihood activities. Moreover, women are often burdened with domestic duties and child care that provide little time to engage in community leadership roles (see calendar activity for additional evidence).

“I don’t participate in community decision-making. The community leaders have negative attitude towards the youth. They think that the youth are not stable and disturb the community.”

~Young man, Deder

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Second, youth, particularly young men, have struggled to find meaningful and independent roles for themselves. For a variety of reasons – including land shortages, climate change and drought, and few livelihood opportunities – young people report experiencing extended adolescence as they struggle to develop autonomous livelihoods and families outside that of their parents’ household. This delayed launch into adulthood has led to a marginalization of young men and women who would have otherwise serve in leadership roles but now feel their community does not see them as fit for the task. The youth themselves feel their communities fail to see their leadership potential. Importantly, 84 percent of all responses from youth noted the community has a negative perception of youth leadership. This despite a clear desire on the part of youth to participate as leaders in their communities.

Link to Programming: These findings suggest that women and youth have a desire to engage in leadership roles, but are hesitant to do so without the clear support of their communities. Both the DFSA and LRO programs would be well served to develop activities that encourage women and youth leadership roles. This might look like advocating for special women or youth representatives within the Gadaa or traditional systems, establishing male gender champions in each community, or extending the champions model to include adult men and women as youth champions.

Domain 5: Knowledge, beliefs & perception, culture

Harmful Traditional Practices and Gender-based violence

Harmful traditional practices (HTP) are prevalent across woredas. Participants noted female genital mutilation (FGM), early marriage, and polygamy as the three most common areas of concern (Chart 9). Cutting of the uvula was also practiced, mentioned in Dire Dawa, Deder, and Arsi Negele, but participants stated this has largely decreased.

Positive16%

Negative84%

Chart 8: Youth perception of community attitudes about youth leadership

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FGM has decreased in recent years, according to respondents, which is attributed to awareness raising activities by the government and NGOs about the harmful effects of the practice. Still, FGM is practiced in secret and largely unreported. In a FGD of seven young women in Dire Dawa all noted they had been circumcised but stated that the practice is decreasing nowadays. In Deder, during a FGD with men, participants noted that the impact of FGM has decreased because the incision is smaller than previous procedures. There is a perception that a “smaller cut” is acceptable. Young women in Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones also reported that FGM is still practiced in secret.

Early marriage is prevelent in all woredas. While traditionally early marriage is thought of as young women marrying older men, there is a new trend sometimes referred to as “abduction,” which involves young boys and girls choosing to marry without their families’ permission. This trend was mentioned across woredas as cause for concern as it presents negative consequences for male and female youth. The practice is described as young men and young women meeting in school, eloping, moving to urban centers, being unable to financially sustain themselves, and returning to their families to seek help. Distinguishing between early marriage and “abduction” is difficult as the research team struggled to ascertain the degree of consent in the latter and both involve youth. Indeed, one might call abduction a form of early marriage, especially when considering the lasting, gendered harmful effects on young women. Upon return, young women are often not accepted back into their families, which can lead to school dropout, migration, early pregnancy, prostitution, and addiction. Some participants blamed the distance of schools from the home as cause for this trend, especially for girls. This association may restrict girls and young women from going to schools which require traveling long distances to attend.

Polygamy, prevalent across woredas, is associated with women’s limited access to land, money, and resources. Women are more likely to experience early marriage, food insecurity, and greater burden to provide for their children as polygamous men can have upwards of fifteen children in

Early Marriage

41%

Polygomy39%

FGM 20%

Chart 9: Percent breakdown by priority areas of overall mentions of HTP, across woredas

“Polygamy is still a harmful tradition. Let me share my experience with you. I got married at 15 and now I am 26 years old. I gave my husband four children, but last year he married another wife. He left me with four children and an empty space. He took all cattle and land.”

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polygamous relationships. During a focus group discussion in Ziway Dugda, one young woman shared her story.

Similar stories were shared by other women in polygamous relationships, especially in the Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones. In Siraro, the Office of Women and Children’s Affairs saw polygamy as a primary community concern. On a daily basis, women flood the office who fear that their husbands’ second, third, and forth wives may take the limited resources available for their families.

Polygamy was referred to as an HTP most often in Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones and hardly at all in Dire Dawa and East Hararghe. This does not necessarily mean that there is a higher prevalence of polygamy in the southern region, but may be a reflection of communities’ experiences with polygamous relationships as “harmful”. This distinction merits further research. Chart 10 provides a breakdown of mentions by woreda.

38%

24%

6%0%

6%0%

12%15%

Arsi Negele ATJK Boset Deder Dire Dawa Melka Belo Siraro Ziway Dugda

Chart 10: Breakdown of KII references to polygamy as an HTP, by woreda

“Traditionally, polygamy is being widely practiced in the community and has become a recurrent livelihood challenge for the rural women. It is very common to see a single man having married to three to five women. This harms the first wife the most, because as the number of women married to a single man increases, he has to split his resources among all of the women and their families. The women report to the woreda Office for Women

and Children’s Affairs when conflicts over resources arise with their husbands. Our office has been struggling to resolve these issues together with the police, community elders and justice office. But the joint effort to overcome polygamy demands much coordination and due attention among all the stakeholders. This problem still exists within the community

and women are the main victims but all family members are affected.”

~Office of Women and Children’s Affairs, Arsi Negele

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Other forms of GBV, including rape, inheritance,27 bride price, harassment, and wife beating were all mentioned throughout the course of the study, though there is no clear trend.

Incidents of GBV are rarely reported to government officials or police. People prefer to report such issues to traditional or community leaders, or simply not report at all. One female police officer is available in each sector, but most community police officers are men.

Family Planning & Unsafe Abortion

Across woredas, health extension workers reported family planning methods are widely used by the communities, including birth control pills, hormonal injections, and implants which can all be administered by health extension workers themselves.

However, participants still reported unwanted pregnancy occurring as a result of early marriage or related to women traveling to town centers for school or work. Participants suggested that young women or unmarried women do not access family planning services. One woreda-level representative of the Office of Women and Children’s Affairs in Ziway Dugda stated that three to four girls have died so far in 2017 because of unsafe abortions. The practice of unsafe abortion was not reported in other areas and merits further research.

27 Inheritance refers to the practice of a widow being “inherited” by a family member of her late husband, usually a brother. Often the widow has no choice in this matter as all of her family resources belong to her husband’s family after he passes away, include land, livestock, and any other assets used to support her and her children.

“When such violence happens, we know we are supposed to report it to the Office of Women and Children’s Affairs. But no one dares to report such actions because we fear contradicting the community norms.”

~Young woman, Arsi Negele

Box 3: Mini-Case Study: One-Stop Center for GBV Survivors of GBV in Dire Dawa woreda can visit a “one-stop center” to receive legal and medical care, and protection, including a police officer, a lawyer, and a doctor. In some cases, survivors are sent to a rehabilitation center in Dire Dawa to recover, but there is no capacity to provide these women with vocation training or activities to engage in during their recovery. In three months, this center received 22 cases, including 17 rape cases, one case of early marriage, and four cases where women were kicked out of their shelter. This is the only example of such a support system mentioned by participants but because of limited funding, this center is centralized in Dire Dawa town.

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Community Beliefs about Women

Male study participants frequently noted that women should only participant in activities that do not require a lot of physical energy, as women are not as strong as men. These comments often referred to on-farm activities or public works activities, where women are offered more flexibility to participant in less strenuous activities than men. This limits women’s business opportunities to those which are often less profitable or less available. For example, sand mining or loading and off-loading goods are common jobs for young men, but unacceptable for young women as women are considered unable to physically perform the required tasks.

Community Beliefs about Youth

Across woredas, study participants expressed that the community has developed negative perceptions about youth leadership ability, strength, and potential to cause conflict after recent episodes of violence. Often participant expressed personal positive attitudes about youth, but recognized wider negative perceptions by the community. More than half of all comments expressing the belief that youth are viewed negatively by the community came from the youth participants themselves. Male respondents expressed these views 16 percent more than female youth (Chart 11).

42%

58%54%

46%

female male youth adults

Chart 11: Gender and age breakdown of participants who express negative community beliefs towards youth, across woredas

“Male youth IGAs are often those that require physical activity or strength and female youth IGAs are coffee shops or other activities that don’t require physical strength. The most profitable IGAs are livestock fattening, with male and female participation, and

sand mining, with only male participation.”

~Office of Youth and Sports representative, Boset

Age Gender

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Communication and collaboration

When asked “how do you receive communication about activities taking place in your community?” nearly all study participants stated they rely on their mobile phone (28 percent of responses) or word of mouth (78 percent of responses) through the one to five system, community meetings, or school.

Link to Programming: While there is general consensus that this process works well, some young people and women still rely on their families or husbands to communicate information and believe information sharing can be improved by utilizing social media platforms, such as Facebook, or communicating more openly using megaphones. The recommended use of social media and megaphones was suggested by study participants. Communication and collaboration between NGOs operating in the same areas can also be improved. In Siraro, CRS and World Vision are both responsible for service delivery to PSNP clients. Local staff, however, noted that there has so far been no coordination to avoid duplication of service delivery or share useful information.

Domain 6: Legal environment

Traditional governance structures are a critical part of leadership and organization in Oromia and Dire Dawa, including the Gadaa system in the West Arsi, Arsi, and East Shewa zones, and religious rules or practices in Dire Dawa asdnd East Hararghe zones.

Shifting gender, age, and cultural norms is impossible in many parts of Oromia without the cooperation of traditional leaders. In Siraro, the Office of Women and Children’s affairs is working with traditional leaders to develop clear customary law to address the issue of plural marriage in three kebeles currently, with plans to expand to 19 kebeles soon.

41%29% 29% 25%

12%

29%21%

31%

59%71% 71% 75%

88%

71%79%

69%

Arsi Negele ATJK Boset Deder Dire Dawa Melka Belo Siraro Ziway Dugda

Chart 12: Most common methods of communication, by woreda

Mobile Phone Word of Mouth

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CONCLUSIONS

This study illuminated important gender and age dynamics prevalent in across the Oromia region. Assessed within the six standard gender domains, which is USAID’s framework for gender analysis, the findings summarized below are imperative to ensuring CRS’ programs meet the specific needs of women, men, boys and girls.28

1. On average, women have longer work days as they bear the burden of domestic chores in addition to their responsibilities in agricultural production or going to school, while men spend the majority of their time on the farm. Ninety-four percent of all references to domestic chores noted women, rather than men, are responsible. Male youth have the most “free” time, as unemployment and lack of domestic responsibility in the home has led to school dropout and few productive income avenues.

2. When a woman is pregnant or lactating, her daughters or other women help decrease her workload at home. Husbands or young men may help with fetching water, collecting firewood, or engaging in tasks that require physical strength but do not participate in cooking.

3. Nearly equal numbers of men and women are engaged in income generating activities

across woredas (mostly in “on-farm” activities), but gender roles differ. Women are involved in petty trade, tending to livestock, and supporting men in agricultural production. Men are primarily responsible for agricultural and livestock production. They are engaged in all tasks from clearing and preparing the land to planting seeds, purchasing input, and harvesting.

4. Youth are mostly engaged in unpaid work: attending school and helping their families.

Young men help their fathers on the farms and young women help their mothers with domestic labor as well as on-farm activities. In Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones more youth are engaged in off-farm paid activities compared to other areas. Some young men work as day laborers in sand production, loading and unloading products, as security guards, and in motorbike transport. Some young women work selling alcohol (Boset) and in shops.

5. Access to transportation was noted as a primary concern by 13 percent of KII respondents as poor roads affect access to markets, schools, resources, and time availability. Sixty-two percent of these references were made by women who sometimes walk upwards of three hours to reach the marketplace. In East Hararghe, access to transportation is considered a primary concerned for community members where roads are in poor condition and kebeles and villages are located far from woreda offices.

6. Women have access to household income and resources, but men have control. Women

are often money managers at the household level, responsible for going to the market, purchasing goods, and selling agricultural products but men are responsible for the sale of high value items such as cattle or land. Divorced women or women in polygamous relationships are more vulnerable, often left with few resources and 100 percent of the burden to care for children.

28 Note that two separate gender domains have been combined for the sake of this analysis: 1) power relations and 2) participation and leadership have been captured under domain 3) power relations and decision-making.

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7. Unemployment is the biggest concern for youth across woredas, followed by education, and shortage of land. Youth have extremely limited access to income and are highly dependent on their families.

8. Drought has intensified issues of unemployment and food insecurity. Participants often

stated they have suffered five years of rain shortage and are unable to feed their families at current levels of production.

9. The price of coffee and chat has decreased significantly in East Hararghe and Dire

Dawa, affecting the livelihoods of community members who rely on the sale of these cash crops. Community members attribute the depreciation in the price of chat and coffee to ongoing conflict on border between the Oromia and Somali regions in Ethiopia.

10. Gaining access to financial tools and capital is a primary challenge to overcoming

poverty and building resilience to climate change, especially for youth. There is a perception that microfinance institutions (MFIs) are failing to serve the poorest segments of society due to the need for collateral and/or prohibitively high interest rates. Men mentioned “access to finance” as a priority concern, or impediment to starting a business, twice as often as women.

11. Youth are migrating within Ethiopia to urban centers and beyond Ethiopia’s borders,

to the Middle East and South Africa, seeking employment. Migration is a consequence of unemployment, drought, and land shortage.

12. Women and youth have restricted access to formal leadership positions, but in recent years there has been some notable improvement in with the establishment of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs and the Office of Youth and Sports. Women in positions of leadership remain highly concentrated in gender-specific departments such as gender experts, teachers, or health extension workers. Youth – especially young women – feel they do not have a strong enough voice in the government.

13. Most people personally believe that women and youth make good leaders. In contrast, most people also believe that “the community” has negative attitudes about women and youth in leadership roles, which translates into limiting women and youth leadership opportunities.

14. Female genital mutilation (FGM), early marriage, and polygamy are prevalent across

woredas. There is a new trend of early marriage, or what participants called “abduction”, in which young men and women elope without the permission of their families, sometimes as young as 12 or 13 years old.

15. There is a prevailing attitude that women are physically weaker than men. This limits

women’s employment and business opportunities to industries that are often less profitable and less viable.

16. Nearly all study participants rely on mobile phones (28 percent) or word of mouth (78

percent) through the one to five system, community meetings, or school to receive information. Some believe information should be shared through social media platforms, such as Facebook, or communicating more openly using megaphones.

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17. Customary law and traditional leadership structures, in Dire Dawa and East Hararghe and

the Gadaa System in Arsi, West Arsi, and East Shewa zones, are critical to setting norms, enforcing rules, resolving disputes, and influencing religious practices. To shift community norms around gender and age it is essential to work with leaders in these important institutions.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To successfully integrate these important findings into DFSA and LRO program implementation, it is important to consider both general recommendation, which refer to concepts or actions that should be implemented in both DFSA and LRO projects, and specific recommendations, which consider how findings should be considered in specific project activities or results. Specific recommendations are provided for DFSA and LRO. In some cases, recommendations build on planned DFSA and LRO activities but in some cases, recommendations include new activities. Recommendations have been organized into short-, medium-, and long-term categories below. Within each timeline category, general recommendations are provided first, followed by DFSA- and then LRO-specific recommendations. Short-term

- Consider engaging young men as gender champions to shift deeply engrained norms. Use youth livelihood groups and gender clubs as an entry point. Empower gender champions to directly support women and girls’ in their productive roles. (general recommendation)

- Engaging adult men and women as youth champions to shift norms that marginalize youth and discourage their leadership in communities. Consider using women’s groups, the Gadaa system, or other traditional leadership structures as entry points for these youth champions. (general recommendation)

- Provide exercise books as an incentive to keep students in school. While addressing school

dropout rates is more complex than providing exercise books, the provision of basic school materials could make a significant contribution towards keeping students in school – especially girls. Work with DAs to identify the most vulnerable families. (general recommendation)

- Share program information on social media platforms, such as Facebook, or via

megaphones. This recommendation was suggested by study participants. (general recommendation)

- Utilize social media platforms and megaphones, in addition to cell phones, as disaster risk

reduction mechanisms. Consider engaging these tools in early warning systems as a key component of resilience activities. (general recommendation)

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- Target PSNP households with more than 5 people for livelihood programming, especially in remote kebeles. (DFSA recommendation)

- Expand food ration to cover the size of large families. Larger households are especially

vulnerable to food insecurity, migration, school dropout, and early marriage as the PSNP program only considers a maximum household of five people for distributions. (DFSA recommendation)

- Develop and carry out community training that links nutrition to financial planning,

engaging men and boys as well as women and girls, as the main barrier to nutritious diets is financial means – not knowledge. (LRO recommendation)

Medium-term

- Directly engage traditional leaders as key stakeholders in project activities. Understanding their gatekeeping role, traditional leaders should be engaged as gender and youth experts in their communities and should be a) trained, b) explicitly asked to promote the project in their community, and c) tasked with identifying eligible households for project interventions, to be validated by project staff. Include them in planned project activities, such as trainings for FSTF members, DA trainings, and other relevant CRS trainings. Additionally, hold a separate workshop that brings together traditional leaders and officials representing the GoE. (general recommendation)

- Explore best practices used to decrease women’s and girls’ time spent on domestic labor.

Use livelihood groups (LGs) and savings and internal lending communities (SILC) to implement interventions that work to minimize time spent on home chores – such as establishing community led cooking centers or investing in clean cook stove technology. (general recommendation)

- DFSA trainings should achieve at least 50 percent women and 30 percent youth (half of

whom are female). LRO should develop trainings for female youth in YLG centered on overcoming challenges to leadership as young women. (general recommendation)

- Conduct a barrier analysis to thoroughly understand available financial institutions and

requirements for securing loan. Consult the Office of Youth and Sports to better understand requirements for Youth Revolving Fund. Carry out consultations with relevant government offices to understand the operation of the Youth Revolving Fund and then identify follow-up actions to better align project activity designs with the Youth Revolving Fund, and other financial institutions as applicable. (general recommendation)

- Develop advertising and social media campaigns to drive engagement and spread

information about MFIs and the Youth Revolving Fund. Clarifying and spreading helpful information should be a key priority for the next program cycle. The use of social media was suggested by study participants. (general recommendation)

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- Develop mothers’ cooperatives for sharing of children care, domestic responsibilities, health center transportation, and nutrition tips for mothers, pregnant, and lactating women. (general recommendation)

- Directly target women and youth for leadership roles in program activities. Program

activities should focus not only on increasing the involvement and participation of women and youth in productive roles, but on shifting roles from supporting men to holding lead responsibilities. When doing so, projects should engage young men trained as gender champions to encourage men’s support of women’s and girls’ leadership. (general recommendation)

- Both DFSA and LRO programs should consider GBV prevention activities targeted at youth

with an explicit discussion of the harmful and long-term effects of abduction. These activities might include awareness campaigns in community groups and at schools, ad household consultations community health workers. “Abduction”, which arguably should be considered a form of early marriage, can lead to school dropout, migration, early pregnancy, prostitution, and addiction. This is especially true for young women who are not accepted back into their families upon return.

- Monitor progress on the inclusion and participation of female youth in these leadership

structures. Advocate for increased coordination and cooperation between the Office of Youth and Sports and the Office of Women and Children’s Affairs at the woreda level. (DFSA recommendation)

- Improve communication with FSTF at the kebele level and develop a mechanism to

decrease the number of food distribution delays; a common complaint in more remote kebeles in Dire Dawa and East Hararghe zones. (DFSA recommendation)

- Closely coordinate with World Vision in Siraro for all program activities to avoid duplication

of services. Coordination should include high-level planning and budgeting and field level project implementation. (LRO recommendation)

- Use SILC groups, YLG, and community conversations (CC) as an entry point to talk about

early marriage, especially the new trend of young people eloping without the permission of their families. (LRO recommendation)

- Provide financial literacy training in LG groups to introduce financial services and spread

awareness about places where PSNP clients can receive loans or gain access to credit. (LRO recommendation)

Long-term

- Develop a system to monitor progress toward equal sharing of household responsibilities. (general recommendation)

- Develop monitoring mechanisms to explore changes in control of resources. The mobile

money cash transfers, to be piloted in Dire Dawa, should be closely monitored for how and

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by whom this money is controlled. Gender dynamics should be explored and closely monitored throughout the cash transfer process. Where harmful gender dynamics are exhibited, project activi(general recommendation)

- Monitoring and evaluation activities should closely measure behavioral changes in gender

norms and women’s access to and control of resources. (general recommendation)

- Target men and women in polygamous relationships for relationship counseling, such as Faithful House activities, as women in these relationships have the least control over and access to household resources. Also target couples who are not yet in polygamous relationships to understand how their resources will have to be distributed should they enter a plural marriage. Work with the Office of Women and Children’s Affairs and community leaders to understand who is at the greatest risk of entering a polygamous relationship and who is currently in a polygamous relationship. (general recommendation)

- Target youth for income diversification activities, increased access to finance, and food/cash

transfers to offset migration. (general recommendation)

- Consider shifting programming to include activities that increase transportation options to program participants. This might include offering cash assistance to cover the cost of buses and taxis. (general recommendation)

- Conduct a mapping or meta-analysis of all gender assessments from Ethiopia over the most

recent 2 years. Currently there are four separate gender and youth analyses taking place by organizations implementing DFSA or LRO projects in Ethiopia. Rather than siloed gender assessments by organization or region, use the most recent assessment to create a country-wide gender assessment for use by all organizations, USAID and other donors, and the Ethiopian government. (general recommendation)

- Consider creating an incubator for women entrepreneurs that includes a mentorship

program and later engage these women as role models for other women in the community. (general recommendation)

- Further research suggested in the following areas (general recommendation):

• Access and barriers to financial tools, loans, and credit. Look at both MFIs and the Youth Revolving Fund.

• Internal and external migration, especially by gender. • GBV reporting mechanisms, including government structures and traditional or

community-based structures. • Coordination between government and traditional leadership structures.

- Use the innovation fund as an opportunity to address community challenges, such as the

need for small scale irrigation technologies, lack of transportation, and time burden for women in domestic labor. Use schools and vocational training centers as a platform to provide innovation training that can improve employability after completing education. (LRO recommendation)

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BIBILIOGRAPHY

ABidan Development Consulting Group Plc, CRS. “Final Report on Gender Assessment for Development Food Assistance Program (DFAP) in Six Target Woredas of East Hararghe and Arsi Zones of Oromia Region and Dire Dawa City Administration.” Ethiopia 2016.

Central Statistical Agency – Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Ethiopia. Ethiopia Population and Housing Census of 2007. 2007. Link http://catalog.ihsn.org/index.php/catalog/3583

Cooperative Agreement No. AID-663-A-17-00005/Catholic Relief Services: Livelihoods for Resilience – Oromia Activity. 2016.

CRS (2013). CRS Global Gender Strategy. Link https://www.crs.org/sites/default/files/tools-research/crs-global-gender-strategy.pdf

CRS ELRP/DFSA program documents; “Submitted to USAID/FFP in Response to FY16 Request for Applications for Title II Development Food Assistance Projects”. 2016.

CRS. “A Gender Analysis Study of DFAP-Targeted Food Insecure Woredas in Diredawa Administrative Council, Arsi & East Hararghe Zones, Oromiya Region, Ethiopia: Key Issues & Recommendations for Developing a Gender Transformative Program for Enhancing Food Security.” Ethiopia 2012.

CRS. “Resilience through Enhanced Adaptation Action-learning, and Partnership (REAAP), Gender Analysis Report, West Hararghe.” Ethiopia 2015.

Ethiopia Central Statistical Agency, Ethiopia Mini Demographic and Health Survey 2014 (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Central Statistical Agency, 2014).

Godana, Geleto and Woldegiorgis. “Report on Mapping RuSACCOs in LRO Target Woredas.” Ethiopia 2017.

Nucleus Health and Social Affairs’ Consultancy/ NHSAC and CRS. “Gender & Youth Analysis Reaching for their Potential: Girls Empowerment Project in East Shoa and Arsi Zones.” Ethiopia 2016.

Scope of Work for Gender and Youth Analysis (LRO and ELRP/DFSA). CRS, 2012. A Gender Analysis Study of DFAP-Targeted Food Insecure Woredas in Dire Dawa Administrative Council, Arsi & East Hararghe Zones, Oromia Region, Ethiopia; Key Issues & Recommendations for Developing a Gender Transformative Program for Enhancing Food Security

The World Bank. Databank. “Health, Nutrition and Population Statistics.” Link http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=health-nutrition-and-population-statistics. Accessed on Oct. 1, 2017.

The World Bank. Gender and Agriculture Sourcebook. The World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization, and International Fund for Agricultural Development..2009.

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USAID. An Atlas of Ethiopian Livelihoods: The Livelihoods Integration Unit. Link http://foodeconomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Atlas-Final-Web-Version-6_14.pdf.

USAID (2009). “Guide to Cross-Sectoral Youth Assessment.” Guides and Toolkits Series, Educational Quality Improvement Program 3. Link http://www.equip123.net/docs/e3-CSYA.pdf.

USAID, Office of Food for Peace, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance. “2016–2025 Food Assistance and Food Security Strategy”.

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ANNEX I: RESEARCH PURPOSE, OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY

I. Project Background

This analysis will inform programming for two separate CRS programs: ELRP/DFSA and LRO.

Livelihoods for Resilience (LRO): The 5 year USAID Feed the Future (FtF) funded LRO program (2017-2022) was launched in nine woredas across Oromoia. This project is designed to promote the livelihood pathways of on-farm (crop and livestock), off-farm, and employment for households enrolled in the Government of Ethiopia’s (GoE) Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP).

- Target: 29,299 PSNP households with a goal of graduating 22,050 households from PSNP support

- Higher level outcomes to achieve this goal: 1) Increased income and diversification through on-farm opportunities including crop and livestock market systems; 2) Increased income and diversification of off-farm livelihood options; 3) Increased income from gainful employment; and 4) Increased innovation, scaling and sustainability of livelihood pathway

Development Food Security Activity (DFSA): The ELRP/DFSA interventions are designed to enhance resilience to shocks and livelihoods, and improve food security and nutrition for rural HHs. Four higher-level outcomes contribute to this goal: 1) Improved GoE and community systems to respond to needs of vulnerable communities and HHs; 2) Improved sustainable economic well-being of HHs; 3) Improved nutritional status of PLW and children under five; and 4) Improved access to and control of community and HH resources by women and youth.29

Locations: Each program is operational in nine woredas in Oromia region and Dire Dawa administrative unit. However, four of the nine woredas overlap (Shala, Arsi Negele and Heben Arsi in West Arsi Zone, and Ziqay Dugdain Arsi Zone). Together, the ELRP/DFSA and LRO programs operate in the following 14 woredas: Babile, Deder, Midega Tola, Dire Dawa, Melka Belo, Ziway Dugda, Shala, Heben Arsi, Arsi Negele, Siraro, Boset, Dodota, Sire, and ATJK (table 1).

29 ELRP Technical Narrative; Submitted to USAID/FFP in Response to FY16 Request for Applications for Title II Development Food Assistance Projects

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Table 1: Program Implementation Locations

Blue =DFSA programs, Green=LRO programs, and Yellow= both DFSA and LRO programs

Zone Woreda

Dire Dawa Dire Dawa

East Hararghe

Babile

Deder

Melka Belo

Midega Tola

Arsi

Zeway Dugda

Dodota

Sire

West Arsi

Shala

Arsi Negele

Heben Arsi

Siraro

East Shewa Boset

ATJK

II. Research Objectives

The overall objective of the gender and youth analysis is to identify gender and age gaps and inequalities that could negatively affect the achievement of project objectives. This study will explore gender and age-related differences to inform both programs’ response to the identified gaps in terms of increasing gender equality for women, men, girls and boys in ELRP/DFSA and LRO interventions, without any negative repercussions on gender relations.

The major focus will be on how women and men, girls and boys can better participate and benefit from the DFSA and LRO programs, improve their livelihood opportunities and household nutrition, and be more resilient to shocks.

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The specific objectives of the gender and youth analysis are: − To identify the roles, needs, priorities of adult women, men, girls and boys, decision-making

practices and other gender and age-based power dynamics at the household, community and local institutional levels.

− To identify gender barriers, inequalities and gender based violence encountered by women, men, girls and boys; systems and structures that could affect their successes and impede the achievement of ELRP/DFSA and LRO goals and strategic objectives.

− To identify opportunities that could shape gender identities and behavior, strengthen women’s and youth effective control over productive resources, participation in formal and informal governance structures, improve their livelihoods and nutrition, address gender barriers and inequalities and promote positive outcomes for all and contribute to the success of the project outcomes.

− Determine the extent to which proposed ELRP/DFSA and LRO activities will address gender barriers, gender based violence and inequalities and promote equitable outcomes for women and the youth by reviewing through gender lens and literature review.

− To establish baseline/benchmark on the level of women, men, girls’ and boys’ participation in and benefit from the planned ELRP/DFSA and LRO interventions and other development endeavors in ELRP/DFSA and LRO operational areas.

− To devise effective approaches to coordinate with relevant formal and informal structures working on gender equality, women empowerment, and youth programing to build up on existing best practices, maximize project benefits to beneficiaries, and ensure sustainability of project activities

− To come up with specific recommendations that could be integrated in ELRP/DFSA and LRO ToC which ensure equal benefit of women, men, boys and girls from the project intervention and also could improve the performance and quality of the project interventions

− Generate a practical work plan that can guide project staff to integrate gender and youth in the project interventions effectively through addressing root causes of gender inequality that affect adults and youth in ELRP/DFSA and LRO interventions, without any negative repercussions on gender relations.

III. Scope

This study will assess two of CRS’ recently awarded USAID funded programs: 1) The Food for Peace (FFP) funded Ethiopian Livelihoods and Resilience Program (ELRP)/Development Food Security Activity (DFSA), and 2) The Feed the Future (FtF) funded Livelihoods for Resilience (LRO) project. Both projects seek to better understand the gender norms and power relations between males and females, and youth and adults that exist at the household, community and local levels in their operational area (Oromia and Dire Dawa). This study will use primary and secondary qualitative data to conduct a gender and youth analysis of the ELRP/DFSA and LRO programs to support the project’s theory of change (ToC) that:

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1. Social, economic, and environmental assets must be improved for Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) clients to be food secure, improving their nutrition, and ultimately being more resilient to shocks.

2. Broader systems and structures must be responsive to the needs and interests of both women and men and young girls and boys to enable them to improve food security.

The gender and youth analysis will build from the issues highlighted in the project ToC - power dynamics at the household and community levels in accessing and controlling resources, participating and making decisions, and livelihood opportunities and challenges – to further reveal perceptions, attitudes, and practices at the community level that affect the lives and involvement of men, women, boys, and girls in maintaining and supporting families to function smoothly. Six gender domains – namely, roles, responsibilities and time use; access and control of assets and resources; power relations; participation and leadership; knowledge, beliefs and perception (culture); and legal environment – will inform the design of this study.

Representatives of the community from different social groups (a cross-section of women and men), youth (ages 15-29), local government representatives and other key stakeholders (which may include traditional leaders, NGO workers, local representatives of formal and informal governing bodies) will actively participate in the study. Each of the two separate CRS programs being assessed in this study (ELRP/DFSA and LRO) operates in 9 woredas, 4 of which overlap making a total of 14 woredas. Therefore, to conduct a thorough analysis of each program, field research will be carried out in each of the following fourteen woredas where the ELRP/DFSA and LRO programs operate: Babile, Deder, Midega Tola, Dire Dawa, Melka Belo, Ziway Dugda, Shala, Heben Arsi Arsi Negele, Siraro, Boset, Dodota, Sire and ATJK. Case studies will also be conducted to deepen the analysis and explore factors that adversely affect the livelihoods and/or participation in development interventions of men, women, boys and girls.

IV. Deliverables

The following deliverables will be completed by the end of December 2017: 1. Inception report that includes detailed methodology clearly specifying the sampling

procedures, sample size, data collection tools, and analysis techniques. 2. Revised training module on gender integration and gender and youth analysis. 3. Gender and youth analysis tools developed/adapted. 4. A 2-day orientation on gender and youth analysis tools and methodologies delivered to study

teams at field level. 5. Data collection and analysis, with direct women and youth participation. 6. Cleaned original dataset, stored in XLS format, collected during the field research phase. 7. A comprehensive gender and youth analysis report on findings:

▪ Title page ▪ Table of contents ▪ List of acronyms ▪ Executive summary ▪ Description of research and methodologies ▪ Main findings and analysis ▪ Conclusions

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▪ Lessons learned and recommendations ▪ Annexes (SOW, data collection tools, list of and notes from interviews,

bibliography)

8. Revised project ToC that integrates the findings and recommendation of gender and youth analysis as per the project team agreement.

9. Feasible work plan that can guide project staff to integrate gender and youth in ELRP/DFSA and LRO interventions in the project life.

10. A 3 to 5-day gender and youth analysis and integration training to key DFSA and LRO staff who are responsible for integrating gender from the design phase to evaluation phase of both projects.

11. A 1-day final validation workshop, to be held in country for CRS staff and partners, as well as the Government of Ethiopia (or as directed by CRS).

V. Methodology

This assessment will employ qualitative methods in line with USAID guidelines for youth and gender analyses. The study considers the strategic objectives and methods of analysis outlined in the CRS Global Gender Strategy, the USAID Food for Peace 2016-2015 Food Assistance and Food Security Strategy, and the Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook.

Guiding Research Questions

The study will explore the following key questions when conducting the gender and youth analysis.

− What are the key gender and age issues identified under the DFSA purposes and LRO’s higher level outcomes?

− What are the key gender and age issues/questions that should be focused on under each purpose, sub purpose and immediate result?

− What will be the programmatic implications of these gender and age issues on how to implement DFSA and LRO activities? What do you do differently?

− How do gender and age/youth considerations influence the outcome of DFSA activities in the Theory of Change?

Sampling Strategy

The table below outlines the sample for the analysis (Table 1). Data collection will take place in 8 woredas where the DFSA and LRO programs are operational. Selection of the woredas is based on the following criteria, selected in consultation with CRS and implementing partners: 1) existing knowledge and information, 2) security and access, 3) vulnerability, and 4) program operation.

Box 1: USAID Guide to Gender Integration and Analysis

1. Analysis of sex-disaggregated data and information 2. Assessment of roles and responsibilities/ division

of labor 3. Consideration of access to and control over

resources 4. Examination of patterns of decision-making 5. Examination of the data using a gender perspective

(i.e., in the context of women and men’s gender roles and relationships)

Source: USAID Guide to Gender Integration and Analysis: Additional Help for ADS Chapters 201 and 203. Link http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pdacp506.pdf

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Kebeles will be selected during the first phase of the study, in consultation with CRS and implementing partners. The study will include a total of 52 focus group discussions (FGDs) which include 16 daily calendar activities, and 136 key informant interviews (KIIs) representing female and male adult and youth participants, community leaders, and government stakeholders as shown in Table 2. Data collection across the 8 woredas is weighted by the population size in each woreda. This ensures that data collection includes a fair representation of the population where CRS programs are implemented.30

Table 1: Sampling Strategy

Blue= DFSA programs

Green= LRO progams

Yellow= both DSA and LRO programs

Zone Woreda PSNP Population % of population

Total #FGD

Total #KII

East Hararghe Deder 27,044 242,140 15% 6 20

Melka Belo 22,833 177,416 11% 6 15

Dire Dawa Dire Dawa 64,702 341,834 21% 8 28

Arsi Ziway Duga 9,329 153,113 9% 6 14

West Arsi Siraro 29,029 138,379 9% 6 11

Arsi Negelle 31,480 243,602 15% 8 20

East Shewa ATJK 23,759 186,018 11% 6 17

Boset 5,007 142,112 9% 6 11

Total 213,183 1,624,614 100% 52 136

The FGDs will be 45-90 minute discussions with 10-12 participants per group. Separate FGDs will be held with women and men, as outlined below. Youth FGDs will also be separated by gender to ensure a safe discussion space. For the purposes of this study, youth is defined as people between 15 and 29 years of age. An equal number of males and females will be engaged. Youth FGD will adhere to the following USAID guidelines (Box 2). Female FDGs will include a focus on pregnant and lactating adult and adolescent women. All participants for these focus groups will be a random selection of community members in the specified woredas to ensure the study remains objective in assessing gender and youth roles.

FGDs for community leaders include government officials and NGO workers responsible for implementing PSNP IV, other representatives of formal and informal governing bodies, such as local committees, and/or traditional leaders.

30 Full sampling strategy attached as Annex 3.

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Daily calendar activities, with male and female adults and youth will take place in separate FGDs and examine the daily tasks and time allocation for different populations (Table 2).

An average of 12 KIIs per woreda will be conducted in 8 woredas representing randomly selected male and female youth and adults who are program participants and/or community members. Additionally, an average of 5 KIIs in each woreda will be conducted with community leaders and/or other stakeholders, which can include local government representatives at the woreda and kebele level, including members of the Food Security Task Force (FSTF), Office of Women and Children’s Affairs, and Office of Youth and Sports.

Table 2: Data Collection Targets

Targets

Target group FGD KII

women 8 16

men 8 16

daily calendar activity (adults) 8

daily calendar activity (youth) 8

youth (female) 8 32

youth (male) 8 32

community leaders 2 16

Box 2: Youth FGD, USAID Guidelines 1. Appropriate representation: lead focus groups with 8-12 youth with similar demographic

characteristics; conduct 4-5 focus groups from same cohort 2. Best practices: follow a well-developed set of guidelines with 1) introductory techniques

that put youth participants at ease and make them feel valued, 2) develop guidelines around a core set of questions and follow-up probes to explore specific themes, 3) group activities that require participants to rank the answers they generate during discussions to ensure they reach formal consensus on key areas and identify where individuals are outliers, 4) participants’ analysis of the results to provide insight into drivers of youth decision-making and priority setting, 5) progress from open-ended discussions to follow-on questions with specific themes raised in previous discussion or literature review

3. Skilled facilitators: Provide appropriate pre-field training 4. Link qualitative and quantitative methodologies: FGD can provide an effective entry

point to development of a quantitative survey Source: USAID (2009). “Guide to Cross-Sectoral Youth Assessment.” Guides and Toolkits Series, Educational Quality Improvement Program 3. Link http://www.equip123.net/docs/e3-CSYA.pdf

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stakeholders 2 24

Total 52 136

Data Collection Outline

Data collection will be conducted by a team of 14 enumerators, including 7 male and 7 female, working in pairs (1 male and 1 female). Enumerators are ideally “youth” (ages 15 to 29), local to each area, fluent in local language(s) with advanced spoken and read English, have past experience as qualitative data collectors (including facilitating FGDs and conducting interviews), and have past experience working or living in the target woredas. Enumerators will participate in a two-day training in Addis Ababa, facilitated by Kellogg, and one day of field tool testing in Dodota woreda.

Data collection will take place simultaneously across all 8 woredas with staggered start dates. Two to five days of data collection has been designated for each woreda, as shown in Table 4. This includes 1 day in each kebele, depending on distance and time need to travel between kebeles in each woreda and the woredas themselves. Pairs of enumerators have been assigned to work together. Interviews and discussions will be recorded and transcribed. The team of enumerators and data collection process will be closely managed by Kellogg through active participation (data collection with interpreter) and daily phone call check-ins with remote teams.

Description of Study Activities

In line with the SOW, this section outlines a 4-phase research methodology to conduct this study (Table 3). Kellogg will employ participatory rural appraisal techniques to gather primary information and, where possible, will work to triangulate the data through secondary data and gender analysis frameworks. Overall, data collection and analysis will focus mainly on the key gender and youth issues highlighted in the project ToC and informed by the six gender domains in relation to the DFSA and LRO theory of change. In addition to the gender domains and relevant frameworks,31 the study will also employ the Sustainable Livelihoods (SL) Analysis tools.

PHASE 1: Preparatory

Context Analysis: Following an initial consultation with CRS, Kellogg will review all background project documents and data, including relevant scholarship, reports, and related program data. The aims of this exploratory literature and data review are to:

− Frame the study and identify initial hypotheses. − Identify unforeseen variables associated with project impact. − Explore external and related projects.

31 Based on the key gender and youth issues identified in the project ToC, the analysis will apply the relevant frameworks and tools. Some of the frameworks/tools include Moser Framework, Women’s Empowerment (Longwe) Framework, Gender Analysis Matrix and Harvard Analytical Framework. Frameworks and guiding principles that CRS employs, including the Integral Human Development Framework, Ecological Framework and Roger Hart’s Ladder of Youth Participation, will be considered in selecting frameworks for the youth analysis. The study will also employ Sustainable Livelihoods (SL) Analysis tools and other relevant frameworks as appropriate for qualitative data collection and analysis.

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Documents and data to be reviewed include, but are not limited to: baseline and mid-term evaluations, monitoring data, initial project plans and donor application(s), Project Theory of Change, results-based framework, previously used data collection tools, CRS’s Global and CP Gender Strategy, USAID’s Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy, and CRS’s, lessons learnt from the previous CRS/ET gender and youth analysis processes.

The background literature review undertaken for this study will serve as a baseline for information known about the project and its priority areas/topics for gender and youth analysis.

Literature Review: A literature review of national and international sources will also be conducted during this phases, to identify gaps in knowledge considering ELRP/DFSA’s purposes and intermediate outcomes as well as LRO’s higher level outcomes, and to enrich and further validate the analysis’ needs (e.g. goal, methodology, activities). Relevant topics may include gender and age-based roles, responsibilities, relations, opportunities, barriers, needs and interests in HH food security & nutrition and livelihoods. Documents and data to be reviewed include, but are not limited to: secondary data and information from relevant sources such as government bureaus’ reports (Health, Agriculture, TVET, Small and Micro Enterprises Promotion Bureaus, Social Affairs) and reports by other development stakeholders in different woredas.

Research Preparation and Tool Development: The research questions proposed above will be reviewed, expanded, and refined in consultation with the Deputy Chief of Party (DCoP) for Gender and Youth and other technical advisors, to develop instruments and guides for focus group discussions (FGD) and key informant interviews (KII). During this phase, the study team will be organized at the woreda level and study kebeles and beneficiaries will be selected in consultation with the CRS team.

Deliverables: Inception report that includes detailed methodology clearly specifying the sampling procedures, sample size, and analysis techniques; data collection tools; gender and youth analysis tools developed/adapted

PHASE 2: Data Collection

Training: A two-day workshop on gender and youth analysis tools and methodologies will be delivered to the study teams at field level upon commencement of the field research.

Testing/Piloting Tool: Research tools will be tested during the training on analysis tools and methodologies. The tools will be modified/adjust as needed.

Data Collection: The data collection team will use qualitative techniques that allow for semi- and un-structured responses, resource and social mapping, daily and seasonal calendars, and pairwise ranking. During the nine days of simultaneous data collection (3 days in each woreda), data will be collected as follows:

● 30-90 minute in-depth key informant interviews with program participants, representatives of the community from different social groups (including men, women, youth (ages 15-29), and community leaders (which may include government

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representatives responsible for implementation of PSNP IV, traditional leaders, NGO workers, local representatives of formal and informal governing bodies).

● 45-90 minute focus group discussions will be held with 10-12 participants per FGD for men, women, youth, and community leaders. Separate FGDs will be held with women and men. Youth will be in a mixed group to encourage perspective sharing. At least one female FDG will be focused on pregnant and lactating women, including adult and adolescent women. Community leaders include community leaders may include government representatives responsible for implementation of PSNP IV, traditional leaders, NGO workers, local representatives of formal and informal governing bodies depending on the leadership structure of the community.

Debriefing Workshop: Immediately following data collection, data will be briefly synthesized into initial findings by Kellogg and the Global Insight team and presented to the research team during a debriefing workshop. Kellogg will facilitate the debriefing workshop on the study findings with CRS Ethiopia and partners project staff. The workshop will walk through the project theory of change and study findings and will collect ideas and recommendations to address the issues identified.

Deliverables: Two-day orientation on gender and youth analysis tools and methodologies to study teams; data collection and analysis, with direct women and youth participation; debriefing workshop.

PHASE 3: Data Analysis and Report Writing

Data Analysis and Report Writing: Following full completion of the data collection phase, Kellogg and the Global Insight team will undertake a thorough analysis of the data, triangulating key findings across sources. Findings and analysis will be complied into a draft report for review by the CRS team. The final report, up to 40 pages, will be produced according to the specified project/template provided and will include all findings, recommendations and feedback from the CRS team. Kellogg and the Global Insight Team will ensure the following areas are included in the analysis:

● An analysis of gender and age-based power dynamics at the household, community and local institutional levels for study participants.

● Gender barriers that could affect the success of women, men, girls and boys and impede the achievement of ELRP/DSFA and LRO goals and strategic objectives.

● Opportunities that could shape gender identities and behavior, strengthen women’s and youth effective control over productive resources, participation in formal and informal governance structures, improve their livelihoods and nutrition, address gender barriers and inequalities and/or promote positive outcomes for all and contribute to the success of the project outcomes.

● Specific recommendations that could be integrated in ELRP/DFSA and LRO ToC which ensure equal benefit of women, men, boys and girls from the project

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intervention and could improve the performance and quality of the project interventions.

Deliverables: Final report.

PHASE 4: ELRP/DFSA ToC Revision and Work Plan Development

ToC: In the final phase of this study, the Global Insight team will integrate the agreed upon gender and youth analysis findings and recommendations into the ELRP/DFSA ToC.

Work Plan: Kellogg and the Global Insight team will develop a feasible work plan for project staff to integrate gender and youth considerations in all project interventions, through project completion.

Gender and Youth Skills Training: Kellogg and Foster will adapt CRS Ethiopia’s Gender Analysis Toolkit and provide a 3 to 5 day skills training to the on gender and youth integration, participation and analysis. Revised training module on gender integration and gender and youth analysis. The training will be followed by a 1 day validation workshop.

Deliverables: Revised project ToC; work plan; 3-5-day gender and youth analysis and integration training to the study team; One-day validation workshop, to be held in country.

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ANNEX II: TOOLS

See attached PDF

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ANNEX III: SOW

Catholic Relief Services

Ethiopia Program

Scope of Work: Gender and Youth Analysis

I. Background/Introduction

Men and women have different development needs and interests, roles and responsibilities, knowledge, talents and life experiences. They have different and often unequal statuses; women have less ownership and control over assets, reduced decision-making capacity and fewer educational and economic opportunities than men. Women and girls face greater barriers to participating in, and benefiting from, development projects, and often encounter more obstacles to improving their lives than men and boys, which can contribute to food insecurity. Discriminatory gender norms and relations, unequal access to and control of resources, and unequal participation in leadership and decision-making between men, women, boys and girls are among the key underlying factors driving chronic poverty, household food insecurity and violence against women and girls in Ethiopia.32

Rural youth make up a significant proportion of the population in Ethiopia. Youth live in unfavorable situations, struggling with challenges including narrow skills sets, high levels of illiteracy, restricted access to land and other productive assets, limited formal sector employment opportunities, and poor health and nutritional status. Their needs and priorities are frequently overlooked by development interventions and local informal and formal governance structures, rendering them vulnerable to gender and age-related inequalities. Due to lack of opportunities to lead their lives and multiple push factors; many rural youth, especially ages 16 to 30, are forced to migrate to nearby cities and even further to Arab countries through formal and informal means. These youth face many challenges especially female youth due to their gender and increased vulnerability when isolated and away from their families. 32CRS, 2012. A Gender Analysis Study of DFAP-Targeted Food Insecure Woredas in Dire Dawa Administrative Council, Arsi & East Hararghe Zones, Oromia Region, Ethiopia; Key Issues & Recommendations for Developing a Gender Transformative Program for Enhancing Food Security

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The impact of development programs on women, men, girls and boys may vary depending on differences in their development needs and inequalities. Therefore, properly understanding gender and age-related differences, inequalities and interrelations is an important step for gender and youth integration in programming. Such considerations ensure gender and age equality is addressed while also ensuring overall improved effectiveness of development endeavors. Context specific data collection on the differing situations of women, men, girls and boys and their relations is crucial to revise program activities and related resource allocation and utilization. Participation of these groups, particularly women, girls and boys, in data collection methodologies, activities and analysis is critical to gather authentic and relevant information; as opposed to relying on other sources, typically men, for this information.

CRS/ Ethiopia strives to alleviate the challenges faced by vulnerable households and communities and recognizes the important role adult women and men as well as young girls and boys play in eradicating poverty. In view of that, CRS uses the Integral Human Development framework that enables both CRS and partners to design humanitarian and development interventions in holistic, people-centered ways to build resilient individuals, households and ecosystems.

Moreover, CRS/Ethiopia commits itself to gender and age integration and has recently been striving to integrate gender into all organizational and programmatic interventions. CRS/Ethiopia’s gender strategy and action plan encourages country program (CP) sectors to design and implement high quality, gender-responsive programming. To accurately reflect CRS/Ethiopia’s commitment to gender integration in programming, the CP gender strategy requires new projects to conduct gender analysis at the design or commencement of project implementation period. Accordingly, CRS’s flagship programs/ projects: DFAP, REAAP, and GRAD conducted gender analysis. Another project, Reaching for their Potential: Girls Empowerment Project (GEP) also undertook a gender and youth analysis which contributed to organizational learning and sharing.

CRS’ two recently awarded USAID funded programs – the Food for Peace (FFP) funded Ethiopian Livelihoods and Resilience Program (ELRP)/Development Food Security Activity (DFSA) and the Feed the Future (FtF) funded Livelihoods for Resilience (LRO) project - seek to better understand gender norms and power relations between males and females, and youth and adults exist at the household, community and local levels in their operational area (Oromia and Dire Dawa). While both programs work in nine woredas (districts) each, there is overlap in four woredas - Shala, Arsi Negele and Heben Arsi in West Arsi Zone and Ziway Dugda in Arsi Zone. Drawing from the IHD framework, the ELRP/DFSA and LRO Theory of Change is based on the understanding that social, economic and environmental assets must be improved for PSNP clients to be food secure, improving their nutrition and ultimately being more resilient to shocks. At the same time, broader systems and structures must be responsive to the needs and interests of both women and men33 and 33 Access to and control of assets will be analyzed by sex and age; age brackets included in this analysis will include 12–14 years (early adolescence), 15–17 years (adolescence) and 18–29 years (young adulthood).

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young girls and boys to enable them to improve food security. ELRP/DFSA and LRO primarily targets women and youth, and emphasizes women and youth development initiatives, corresponding to the Ethiopian government’s emphasis placed on the same groups in the current PSNP IV. The ELRP/DFSA is designed to benefit mainly women and youth focusing on improvement of their socio-cultural environment and creation of appropriate livelihood options.

Therefore, conducting a gender and youth analysis that would provide detailed information on the power dynamics at the household and community levels in accessing and controlling resources, participating and making decisions; livelihood opportunities and challenges. Moreover; the analysis will further dig out the perceptions, attitudes and practices of the communities that affect the lives of both sexes; and the involvement of both sexes in maintaining and supporting families to function smoothly. The six standard gender domains will inform the design of the study34. The study is expected to identify constraints, opportunities, and entry points for narrowing gender gaps and empowering females and youth; potential differential impacts of development policies and programs on males and females, including unintended or negative consequences. Moreover, the planned gender and youth analysis helps to address the real development problems of adult women, men, girls and boys, appropriately meeting their differing needs, increasing the relevance and effectiveness of diversified program interventions, and maximizing their outcomes for each of these groups within the target communities. The ELRP/DFSA and LRO Gender and Youth Analysis will explore gender- and age-related differences to inform CRS’ response to effectively address the root causes of gender inequality that affect adults and youth in ELRP/DFSA and LRO interventions, without any negative repercussions on gender relations.

II. Objectives of Gender and Youth Analysis

The overall objective of the gender and youth analysis is to identify gender gaps and inequalities that could negatively affect the achievement of project objectives and inform both programs’ response to the identified gaps in terms of increasing gender equity for women, men, girls and boys in ELRP/DFSA and LRO interventions, without any negative repercussions on gender relations. The major focus will be on how women and men, girls and boys can better participate and benefit from the DFSA and LRO programs and improve their livelihood and household nutrition, and be more resilient to shocks.

The specific objectives of the gender and youth analysis are:

• To identify the roles, needs, priorities of adult women, men, girls and boys, decision-making practices and other gender and age-based power dynamics at the household, community and local institutional levels.

• To identify gender barriers, inequalities and gender based violence encountered by women, men, girls and boys; systems and structures that could affect their successes and impede the achievement of ELRP/DFSA and LRO goals and strategic objectives.

• To identify opportunities that could shape gender identities and behavior, strengthen women’s and youth effective control over productive resources, participation in formal and informal governance structures, improve their livelihoods and nutrition, address gender barriers and

34 The six gender domains are: roles, responsibilities & time use; Access and control of assets & resources; Power relations; Participation and leadership; Knowledge, Beliefs & Perception (Culture) and/or; Legal environment.

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inequalities and promote positive outcomes for all and contribute to the success of the project outcomes.

• Determine the extent to which proposed ELRP/DFSA and LRO activities will address gender barriers, gender based violence and inequalities and promote equitable outcomes for women and the youth by reviewing through gender lens and literature review.

• To establish baseline/benchmark on the level of women, men, girls’ and boys’ participation in and benefit from the planned ELRP/DFSA interventions and other development endeavors in ELRP/DFSA operational areas.

• To devise effective approaches to coordinate with relevant formal and informal structures working on gender equality, women empowerment, and youth programing to build up on existing best practices, maximize project benefits to beneficiaries, and ensure sustainability of project activities

• To come up with specific recommendations that could be integrated in ELRP/DFSA and LRO ToC which ensure equal benefit of women, men, boys and girls from the project intervention and also could improve the performance and quality of the project interventions

• Generate a practical work plan that can guide project staff to integrate gender and youth in the project interventions effectively through addressing root causes of gender inequality that affect adults and youth in ELRP/DFSA and LRO interventions, without any negative repercussions on gender relations.

III. Key Questions

To realize the above objectives, the following key questions should be considered while doing the gender and youth analysis:

• What are the key gender and age issues identified under all the ELRP/DFSA purposes and LRO’s higher level outcomes?

• What are the key gender and age issues/questions that should be focused under each purpose, sub purpose and immediate result?

• What will be the programmatic implications of these gender and age issues on how to implement ELRP/DFSA and LRO activities? What do you do differently?

• How do gender and age/youth considerations influence the outcome of ELRP/DFSA activities in the Theory of Change?

IV. Scope of Work

The ELRP/DFSA and LRO gender and youth analysis will focus on major gender and youth issues highlighted in the project ToC (draft ToC diagram attached as an annex). These include power dynamics at the household and community levels in accessing and controlling resources, participating and making decisions; livelihood opportunities and challenges. Moreover; the analysis will further reveal the perceptions, attitudes and practices of the communities that affect the lives of

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both sexes; and the involvement of both sexes in maintaining and supporting families to function smoothly. The research questions will be informed by the standard gender domains; and CRS’s Global Gender Strategy and USAID’s Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy.

ELRP/DFSA and LRO will conduct the gender and youth analysis in fourteen woredas: Babile, Deder, Midega Tola, Dire Dawa, Melka Belo, Ziway Dugda, Shala, Heben Arsi Arsi Negele, Siraro, Boset, Dodota, Sire and ATJK. Representatives of the community from different social groups (a cross-section of women and men of all ages), local government representatives and other key stakeholders will actively participate in the study.

The analysis will be conducted by an international consultant, supported by the DCoP for Gender and youth. The study team will consist of ELRP/DFSA and LRO Team Leaders, MEAL PM, gender officers, MEAL staff, Mercy Corps’ Senior Youth Manager, implementing partners (HCS & MCS) gender, youth and livelihood experts, and representatives from relevant local government. The CRS HQ Gender and IHD Senior Technical Advisor will provide technical support. The consultant will support the team with providing training, tool development, data collection and analysis, report preparation and development of the project implementation gender strategy. CRS will invite members of the USAID Gender Champions Network and the Ethiopian Network for Gender Equality in Agriculture (ENGEA) to collaborate during the study.

V. Research Methods and Tools

ELRP/DFSA and LRO will adopt a combination of selected gender and youth analytical frameworks and tools to gather data, analyze and produce reports. Based on the key gender and youth issues identified in the project ToC, the analysis will apply the relevant frameworks and tools. Some of the frameworks/tools include Moser Framework, Women’s Empowerment (Longwe) Framework, Gender Analysis Matrix and Harvard Analytical Framework. Frameworks and guiding principles that CRS employs namely Integral Human Development Framework, Ecological Framework and Roger Hart’s Ladder of Youth Participation will be considered in selecting frameworks for the youth analysis. The study will also employ Sustainable Livelihoods (SL) Analysis tools and other relevant frameworks as appropriate for qualitative data collection and analysis.

ELRP/DFSA and LRO will use qualitative data collection tools to gather primary information for the analysis. The gender and youth analysis will use participatory rural appraisal techniques (focus group discussions, resource and social mapping, daily and seasonal calendars, and pair wise ranking), semi structured interviews, key informant interviews and analysis, and will triangulate data through the gender analysis frameworks. Case stories/studies will also be conducted to explore in detail factors/ challenges that adversely affect the participation of adult women and men as well as girls and boys in development interventions and their livelihoods.

Literature review from national and international sources will be conducted prior to executing the gender and youth analysis. The review will identify gaps in knowledge considering ELRP’s/DFSA’s purposes and intermediate outcomes as well as LRO’s higher level outcomes, and to enrich and further validate the analysis’s needs (e.g., goal, methodology, activities). The literature review will build upon the review conducted during proposal development and will identify and focus on new relevant resources. Relevant topics include gender and age-based roles, responsibilities, relations, opportunities, barriers, needs and interests, in HH food security & nutrition and livelihoods.

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Moreover, secondary data and information from relevant sources such as government bureaus’ reports (Health, Agriculture, TVET, Small and Micro Enterprises Promotion Bureaus, Social Affairs, etc.) and reports by other development stakeholders in different woredas will be consulted.

Under the framework of CRS’s Global and CP Gender Strategy and USAID’s Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy and CRS’s, lessons learnt from the previous CRS/ET gender and youth analysis processes: DFAP, REAAP, GRAD and GEP will be taken in to consideration while developing key questions for conducting the study. Overall, data collection and analysis will focus mainly on the key gender and youth issues highlighted in the project ToC and informed by the six gender domains mentioned above in relation to the ELRP/DFSA and LRO theory of change

VI. Activities/Tasks to be undertaken by the hired consultant • Designing the detailed methodology of the study (that includes data collection methods and

data analysis techniques) • Develop detailed action plan, data collection tools, criteria to recruit kebeles, adult women

and men as well as youth who will be part of the study team, • Adapt CRS/Ethiopia’s gender toolkit and provide skills training on gender integration and

gender and youth participation and analysis to CRS/Ethiopia and project implementing partner ELRP/DFSA and LRO staff,

• Organize a study team at woreda level, • Conduct a one-day workshop on gender and youth analysis and data collection tools for the

study team, • Set criteria and select representative kebeles, and respondents (women, men & young girls

and boys) for the study, • Conduct data collection and analysis, • Presentation of data gathered and key issues identified to study teams for their confirmation and

collect ideas or recommendations on what can be done to address the issues identified. • Facilitate debriefing workshop on the finding of the gender and youth analysis to

CRS/Ethiopia and partners project staff, with women and youth as able. • Prepare 1st draft analysis report, • Conduct a one-day validation workshop on the process of the study, major findings and

recommendations to key stakeholders, including beneficiary representatives, local and regional government offices, local and international NGOs and other development partners working in ELRP/DFSA and LRO operational areas,

• Produce final gender and youth analysis report by incorporating feedback and inputs forwarded on the draft report by the workshop, and

• Integrate gender analysis findings/recommendations into the project ToC in consultation with the project team

• Produce a feasible work plan that can guide the project staff to integrate gender and youth in the project interventions effectively without any negative repercussions on gender relations.

VII. Deliverables/outputs

• Technical and financial proposal for the gender and youth analysis

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• An inception report that includes detailed methodology clearly specifying the sampling procedures, sample size, data collection tools, and analysis techniques

• Revised training module on gender integration and gender and youth analysis, • Gender and youth analysis tools developed/adapted • A 5-day gender and youth analysis and integration training to the study team • A 1-day orientation on gender and youth analysis tools and methodologies delivered to study

teams at field level • Data collection and analysis, with direct women and youth participation • A comprehensive gender and youth analysis report on the findings of the survey and • Revised project ToC that integrate the findings and recommendation of gender and youth

analysis as per the project team agreement • Feasible workplan that can guide project staff to integrate gender and youth in ELRP/DFSA

interventions in the project life.

VIII. Responsibility of CRSEthiopia and IPs in the overall process of the study

• Review and Provide comments/feedback on the various documents the consultant produce and submits.

• Support in giving training for data collectors and supervisors. • Support in providing five-day skills training to the study team on gender integration and

gender and youth analysis and • Select study kebeles, beneficiaries and organize woreda level study team • Supporting on the data collection supervision activities. • Making logistical arrangements and be responsible for ensuring support from CRS and

partners for the duration of the contract period.

IX. Time Frame

The gender and youth analysis will be conducted between July and September 2017. The analysis will have four phases including preparation, data collection, analysis and report preparation and ToC revision from gender and youth perspective. The following table shows the main activities to be undertaken during the different phases. Fifty-one working days for consultant are estimated to carry out the gender and youth analysis study in the 14 ELRP/DFSA woredas and produce the deliverables indicated under Section VII above.

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Phases Activities Timeline Responsible

Preparatory

• Scope of work preparation and approval Mid-April-May Tiruset and Shane

• Consultant hiring 1st week of June Shane and HQ

• Technical and financial proposal (2 days) 2nd week of June Consultant

• Literature review (2 days) 3rd week of June Consultant

• Develop/adapt gender analysis tools (2 days) 3rd week of June Consultant

• Provide five-day skills training to the study team on

gender and youth integration and gender and youth

analysis (adapting CRS’ gender analysis toolkit). (7

days)

Last week of

June

Consultant and Tiruset

• Select study kebeles, beneficiaries and organize

woreda level study team 1st week of July Consultant,

CRS/MEAL and IPs

Data collection

• Conduct a one-day workshop on gender and youth

analysis and data collection tools for the study team

(2days: I for EH and Dire Dawa, 1 in for Arsi and

Dodota teams)

1st week of July Consultant and CRS- MEAL and Tiruset

• Pilot/test gender analysis tools (2 days) 1st week of July Consultant and study

team • Undertake data collection 1 day for each Kebele). (18

days) 2nd to 4th week

of July

Consultant and study

team

• undertake data synthesis. End of July Consultant and study

team

• Facilitate debriefing workshop on the finding of the

gender and youth analysis to CRS/E and partners

project staff. (2 days)

End of July Consultant

Data analysis and report

writing

• Data entry and analysis (5 days) end of July to 1st

week of August

Consultant

• 1st draft report (5 days) Mid-August Consultant

• Conduct a one-day validation workshop on the

process of the study, major findings and 4th week of Consultant

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X. Qualifications and competencies needed for consultant • Secondary degree in social science, development/gender studies • Knowledge of gender issues at global, regional and country (Ethiopia) level • Proven experience on undertaking gender and youth analysis • Understanding of CRS programming approaches if possible • Experience in undertaking assessments, evaluation on food security projects or PSNP • Demonstrated experience in research, capacity building/training in gender

integration/mainstreaming • Demonstrated experience on development of gender and youth strategies • Experience on development of gender and youth integration strategies and interventions. • Demonstrated experience in ToC development • Demonstrated experience on quality report writing

recommendations to key stakeholders (1 day). August

• Produce final ELRP/DFSA and LRO gender and

youth analysis report by incorporating feedback and

inputs forwarded on the draft report by the workshop

(2 days).

up to mid-

September

Consultant

ELRP/DFSA toC revision

and work plan development • Integrate the agreed up on gender and youth analysis

findings and recommendations into ELRP/DFSA

ToC.

• Develop feasible workplan that can be used as a guide

to project staff for integration of gender and youth in

all project interventions until the project ends. (3

days)

up to mid-

September

Consultant