Consultancy Service to Facilitate Capacity Building Trainings on WPS

1. Background

More than two decades after the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), women and girls in Ethiopia continue to be disproportionately affected by conflict, displacement, and insecurity while remaining underrepresented in peacebuilding and decision-making processes. Persistent gender inequalities, discriminatory social norms, and institutional barriers continue to limit women’s meaningful participation and leadership in conflict prevention, mediation, peace negotiations, and post-conflict recovery.

Although Ethiopia has made progress toward advancing the WPS agenda, important gaps remain in localizing and implementing the National Action Plan (NAP) on WPS. Limited technical capacity among civil society organizations (CSOs), women’s rights organizations, and women peace networks has constrained effective advocacy, monitoring, and accountability. Ongoing conflicts in Amhara, Oromia, and Tigray further underscore the need for gender-responsive conflict analysis, early warning systems, and stronger women’s leadership in peace processes.

To address these challenges, Empathy for Life Integrated Development Association (ELiDA), through its FCDO-funded Women Count for Peace Project, is implementing a series of regional and national capacity-building trainings for CSOs, women’s peace networks, and key stakeholders. The trainings focus on: (i) Gender-Responsive Conflict Analysis and Early Warning; (ii) Monitoring and Evaluation of the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security; and (iii) Training of Trainers (ToT) on Strategic Advocacy for the implementation and monitoring of the WPS agenda. These interventions aim to strengthen institutional capacity, enhance collaboration, and promote the meaningful participation and leadership of women in peace and security processes across Ethiopia.

2. About ELiDA

Empathy for Life Integrated Development Association (ELiDA) is a women-led civil society organization established in 2008 and licensed by the Authority for Civil Society Organizations (ACSO) with Certificate No. 1143. The Association envisions seeing socially responsible, conscious, and productive women and girls who are meaningfully empowered to take part in the leadership and decision-making processes in Ethiopia’s major societal aspects. Likewise, ELiDA strives to promote and contribute to a women-centered poverty reduction endeavours undertaken in the country.

ELiDA is actively working on girls’ education, women’s participation in peacebuilding and conflict resolution, prevention and response to sexual and gender based violence (SGBV), promoting human rights promotion, child protection, women’s economic empowerment, and climate change and environmental protection. The organization currently operates in Addis Ababa, Amhara, Tigray, and Oromia regions. Its key funding partners include UK Aid, UN Women, UN Trust Fund, USAID/IRI, African Women’s Development Fund, UNDP, UNOHCHR, Malala Foundation, FCDO, German Embassy, PACT, CARE/AFD, and Ethiopian Aid. In financial and technical partnership with these agencies, ELiDA exerts evidence-based efforts to address most important and priority issues of key populations, including affected and vulnerable groups of the society.

3. About the Project

ELiDA is implementing a 28-month project (December 2024 — March 2027) in partnership with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) across the Amhara, Tigray, and Oromia regions. The project is being implemented in collaboration with three key partners: TIMRAN, Advocacy Center for Democracy and Development (ACDD) and Daughters of Charity (DoC). Under this partnership, TIMRAN leads implementation in the Amhara Region, ACDD in the Oromia Region, DoC in the Tigray Region while ELiDA oversees implementation in the Tigray Region and provides overall project coordination. The project aims to increase women’s participation, representation, and leadership in conflict resolution and peace building processes in Amhara, Tigray, and Oromia regions.

The project design ensures the participation of women throughout the different phases of the project, puts women and their institutions in the center of its coordination, and encourages multisectoral engagements at national and sub-national levels, which is also crucial to ensure the project ownership and sustainability of its results. Therefore, by fostering sustained dialogue, collaboration, networking, and capacity building among women peace advocates, women-led civil society organizations (CSOs), women’s rights organizations (WROs), mass media institutions, and relevant government bodies, the project intended to promote women’s participation and leadership (inclusion) in the country’s peace processes, including the on-going National Dialogue, transitional justice, negotiations, agreements, early warning, and other formal and informal peace initiatives at national and sub-national levels.

Therefore Under the FCDO-funded project “Women Count for Peace”, ELiDA seeks to strengthen the capacity of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Women Peace Networks, women peacebuilders, and women’s rights organizations to effectively promote and monitor the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda and the National Action Plan (NAP) across Ethiopia.

To successfully deliver these specialized capacity-building initiatives, ELiDA intends to recruit a qualified consulting firm having qualified multidisciplinary team of experts with complementary proficiency in designing and facilitating high-quality capacity development training in Women, Peace and Security (WPS), gender-responsive conflict analysis and early warning systems, monitoring and evaluation of the National Action Plan (NAP) on WPS, strategic advocacy, adult learning methodologies, and facilitation of Training of Trainers (ToT). The consultants will be responsible for designing, facilitating, documenting, and reporting on all training sessions across the project implementation areas as detailed below.

4. Objectives of the Training

4.1. General Objective

The overall objective of the intended trainings is to strengthen the knowledge and skills of civil society organizations, women peace networks, women peacebuilders, and relevant stakeholders on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), gender-responsive conflict analysis and early warning, monitoring and evaluation of the National Action Plan (NAP) on WPS, and ToT on strategic advocacy for effective implementation and monitoring of the WPS agenda in Ethiopia.

4.2. Specific Objectives

The consultant shall facilitate the following trainings:

Training 1: Gender-responsive conflict analysis and early warning

The training aims to:

• Strengthen participants’ understanding of conflict dynamics through a gender lens.
• Improve knowledge of conflict analysis tools.
• Enhance participants’ capacity to establish community-based gender-responsive early warning systems.
• Strengthen women’s participation in local peacebuilding and conflict prevention.

Training 2: Monitoring and evaluation of the National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security (WPS)

The training aims to:

• Enhance participants’ understanding of the Ethiopian NAP on WPS.
• Build practical monitoring and evaluation skills.
• Strengthen CSOs’ capacity to collect evidence.
• Improve reporting and accountability mechanisms.
• Support CSOs to monitor NAP implementation at regional and national levels.

Training 3: Training of Trainers (ToT) on strategic advocacy for WPS and NAP implementation and monitoring skills

The training aims to:

• Build a stand-by pool of certified WPS trainers.
• Strengthen the participants’ advocacy and policy influencing skills.
• Enhance communication and coalition-building.
• Improve participants’ training facilitation skills.
• Enable participants to cascade WPS knowledge in their respective regions.

5. Expected Outcomes

By the end of the consultancy assignment:

• Participants demonstrate improved knowledge through pre- and post-training assessments.
• CSOs gain practical skills on conflict analysis and early warning.
• Participants can independently monitor and evaluate WPS NAP implementation.
• A pool of certified regional trainers is established.
• Regional women peace networks strengthen their advocacy initiatives.
• Participants develop action plans for applying the knowledge gained.

6. Scope of the Assignment

The consultant shall design, facilitate, and document the following trainings:

The consultancy assignment will be implemented between August 03, 2026 to August 28, 2026.

7. Methodology

The training will adopt a participatory and adult-learning approach that centers the experiences, knowledge, and leadership of women peacebuilders and civil society actors. It is designed to be inclusive, interactive, and practical, encouraging active engagement from all participants.

The training will be delivered using a combination of the following methods:

• Brief lectures (PowerPoint presentations)
• Facilitated group discussions
• Case studies, real life scenarios (global, Ethiopia and local context)
• Hands-on exercises and role plays
• Scenario-based simulations
• Peer learning and networking opportunities

8. Roles and Responsibilities of the Consultants

Before the training dates:

• Prepare an inception report, covering details of training syllabus, methodologies, teaming approach, innovation, etc.
• Develop detailed training manuals.
• Prepare participant handouts.
• Prepare pre- and post-tests.
• Develop training agendas.

During the Training days:

• Facilitate all training sessions.
• Conduct pre- and post-tests.
• Lead group work and simulations.
• Facilitate practical exercises.
• Administer daily evaluations and recap sessions.

After the Training:

• Submit comprehensive training reports for each training session covering:
  • Preparatory processes
  • Proceedings of the training sessions
  • Findings of participants’ evaluation summary covering pre- and post-test analysis
  • Outcomes of the training sessions (against the expected results or specific objectives of the training specified in the Inception Reports)
  • Recommendations for future capacity building interventions
  • Soft copies of all training materials

Implementation Schedule:

The assignment will be carried out from August 03 – August 28, 2026 in Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and Addis Ababa/Bishoftu. The consultant is expected to prepare and submit detailed action plan to accomplish all anticipated deliverables within this timeframe.

Minimum Required Qualifications, Experience, and Skills

The team of consultant/firm should possess:

• Master’s degree or above in Gender Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Development Studies, Political Science, Monitoring and Evaluation, or related disciplines.
• Minimum 8 years of relevant experience in facilitating training for CSOs.
• Competency certificate to employ in consultancy services.
• Proven experience with participatory training and adult learning methodologies.
• Demonstrated experience facilitating WPS and NAP-related trainings.
• Strong expertise in gender-responsive conflict analysis.
• Experience in facilitating strategic advocacy and policy engagement training or workshops.
• Competency Certificate of facilitating Training of Trainers (ToT).
• Strong knowledge of Ethiopia’s WPS and peacebuilding context.
• Excellent facilitation, report writing, and communication skills.
• Understanding of UNSC Resolution 1325, women peace and security (WPS) and National Action Plan Process.
• Familiarity with the political and conflict context in Tigray, Amhara and Oromia is a strong asset.
• Competent use of English and at least one of the local languages (Amharic, Affan Oromo, and Tigrigna) in communication.

Preferred Qualifications and Skills:

• Understanding of the civil society landscape in Ethiopia in the context of women-led CSOs and other similar actors working on peace building and women’s agendas.
• Understanding of conflict dynamics and maintain conflict sensitivity in research process.
• Prior knowledge of working with women-led CSOs or supporting local CSOs or any form of work-related engagement with FCDO is desirable.
• Understanding and commitment to employ ‘Prevention of Sexual Exploitation Harassment and Abuse’, ‘Do no harm’ and ‘Safeguarding’ principles in research processes.
• Committed to work maintaining ELiDA’s organizational core values.
• Good understanding of the local context in Tigray, Amhara and Oromia.