Policy Gap, Vulnerability, and Barrier Analysis for Project GET

1. Background and Context

The Empathy for Life Integrated Development Association (ELiDA) is a non-profit, gender-focused, women-led civil society organization that has worked for nearly two decades to address the multidimensional political, social, and economic challenges facing women, girls, and youth in Ethiopia. With support from the Malala Fund under the ECN 9 grant window, ELiDA is implementing Project GET (Girls’ Education Transformation) across six woredas of the Amhara Region: Tehuledere and Dessie Zuria in South Wollo Zone; Dewa Cheffa and Artuma Fursi in the Oromo Special Zone; and Eferata Gidem and Shewa Robit in North Shewa Zone.

The project responds to a context in which ongoing conflict, mass displacement, and entrenched social norms continue to expose adolescent girls to gender-based violence and disrupted schooling. Available evidence indicates that approximately half of girls and women affected by Ethiopia’s recent conflicts have experienced some form of gender-based violence; that an estimated 2.4 million girls are out of school in the Amhara Region alone; that 40 percent of girls in the region are married before the age of eighteen; and that conflict has displaced more than 660,000 people, many of them girls facing acute protection risks in temporary shelters. Against this backdrop, 46 percent of female students in the target areas report experiences of sexual harassment, and completion rates for upper-secondary girls are as low as 17 percent.

Project GET’s first strategic objective is the endorsement and localized implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration (SSD) in the Amhara Region, pursued through a Regional Safe Schools Technical Working Group, evidence-based lobbying, and coordinated advocacy with regional and national duty-bearers. Activity 2 of the approved logical framework Conduct Policy Gap, Vulnerability, and Barrier Analysis is the foundational research activity that will generate the evidence base for this advocacy work. ELiDA is therefore commissioning a qualified consultant or research firm to undertake this analysis, on the terms set out below.

2. Purpose and Objectives of the Consultancy

The purpose of this consultancy is to produce a single, comprehensive Policy Gap, Vulnerability, and Barrier Analysis Report that identifies the systemic barriers to girls’ secondary education in the six target woredas of the Amhara Region, and that assesses the extent to which existing regional and woreda-level policies, guidelines, and institutional arrangements align with the provisions of the Safe Schools Declaration. The report is expected to become the primary evidence base underpinning: the Regional Safe Schools Technical Working Group’s localized SSD implementation guidelines; ELiDA’s subsequent policy briefing sessions with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs; and its regional advocacy and lobbying sessions with Regional Council members and Education Bureau leadership.

Specifically, the consultancy is expected to achieve three interlinked objectives:

• Objective 1 Policy Gap Analysis: Review existing national and regional education, protection, and gender policies including any existing Safe Schools Declaration commitments, Protection Standard Operating Procedures, and RRR (Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience) frameworks to identify gaps between national commitments and their local translation, financing, and enforcement in the Amhara Region.
• Objective 2 Vulnerability Analysis: Examine how conflict, displacement, and gender-based violence intersect to place specific groups of girls including adolescent girls at risk of GBV, out-of-school girls, girls at risk of child marriage, internally displaced girls, girls with disabilities, and girls in hard-to-reach schools at heightened risk of exclusion from safe, quality secondary education.
• Objective 3 Barrier Analysis: Identify the structural, institutional, financial, and socio-cultural barriers that most directly prevent girls in the six target woredas from enrolling in, remaining in, and completing secondary education, with particular attention to school safety, referral pathway functionality, and budgetary constraints.

3. Scope of the Assignment

Geographic scope: The assignment covers all six target woredas of Project GET Tehuledere and Dessie Zuria in South Wollo Zone, Dewa Cheffa and Artuma Fursi in the Oromo Special Zone, and Eferata Gidem and Shewa Robit in North Shewa Zone with data collection focused on a representative sample of the fifteen target schools and their surrounding communities.

Thematic scope: The assignment encompasses (i) policy review at federal, regional, and woreda levels; (ii) institutional mapping of existing coordination structures, including any nascent RRR-GBV arrangements; and (iii) community-level assessment of the specific vulnerabilities and barriers facing adolescent girls, out-of-school girls, girls at risk of child marriage, internally displaced girls, girls with disabilities, and girls in hard-to-reach schools.

4. Methodology

The consultant is expected to propose a mixed-methods approach combining a structured desk review with targeted primary data collection.

4.1. Desk Review

The desk review should cover relevant national policies and legal frameworks, including Ethiopia’s Safe Schools Declaration endorsement status, existing Regional Education Sector Development Plans, RRR frameworks, and any available secondary data on school safety, GBV prevalence, and education access in the Amhara Region.

4.2. Primary Data Collection

Primary data collection should include:

• Key informant interviews with regional and woreda education bureau officials, women’s and social affairs bureau representatives, school directors and teachers, and, where feasible, existing girls’ clubs or community structures.
• Focus group discussions with adolescent girls and caregivers in a purposive sample of target schools and communities, selected to capture variation across the six woredas, including hard-to-reach and displacement-affected areas.

4.3. Inception Report

The consultant is expected to submit a detailed inception report including a finalized methodology, data collection instruments, sampling approach, and fieldwork plan for ELiDA’s review and approval prior to the commencement of data collection. The methodology must be conflict-sensitive and must incorporate ELiDA’s Security Management Plan, including contingency measures for woredas or schools that may be temporarily inaccessible due to insecurity. Analysis should triangulate policy review findings with field-level evidence to produce clear, actionable conclusions on the specific policy gaps, vulnerabilities, and barriers that Project GET’s advocacy and programming should prioritize.

5. Deliverables and Timeline

The assignment is expected to be completed within an indicative period of 30 working days from the date of contract signing, structured across four phases as summarized below.

5.1. Principal Deliverables

• Inception report presenting the finalized methodology, data collection tools, and workplan.
• A validation workshop or briefing session presenting preliminary findings to ELiDA and, where feasible, the Regional Safe Schools Technical Working Group, prior to finalization.
• The final Comprehensive Policy Gap, Vulnerability, and Barrier Analysis Report, not exceeding fifty pages excluding annexes, presenting the policy gap analysis, vulnerability analysis, and barrier analysis together with clear, prioritized recommendations to inform SSD implementation guidelines and subsequent advocacy.
• A concise executive summary and slide-deck version of key findings, suitable for use in policy briefing sessions with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs, provided as an annex to the final report.

6. Management Arrangements and Reporting Lines

The consultancy will be commissioned and managed by ELiDA, with the Project GET Team Leader serving as the primary technical supervisor for the assignment, in close coordination with the MEAL Manager to ensure alignment with the project’s broader monitoring and evidence framework. The consultant will report directly to the Team Leader, who will coordinate review and approval of the inception report, data collection tools, and draft and final reports. ELiDA will facilitate introductions to regional and woreda officials, provide access to existing project documentation, and support field logistics, including liaison with local partners and community structures in the target woredas.

The consultant is expected to maintain regular communication with the Team Leader throughout the assignment, including brief progress updates during the desk review and fieldwork phases, and to flag promptly any significant deviations from the agreed methodology, timeline, or scope including those arising from security or access constraints so that appropriate adjustments can be agreed without delaying the broader SSD advocacy timeline.

7. Ethical Considerations and Safeguarding

Given that the assignment engages adolescent girls and addresses gender-based violence, conflict, and displacement, the consultant must conduct the assessment in strict accordance with internationally recognized ethical standards for research involving GBV survivors and minors, as well as ELiDA’s safeguarding and PSEA (protection from sexual exploitation and abuse) policies and the Malala Fund’s safeguarding requirements.

• Informed consent and, where applicable, parental or guardian consent and child assent must be obtained prior to engaging any minor respondents. Participation must be entirely voluntary, with respondents free to withdraw at any stage without consequence.
• All data collection tools and processes must be designed to minimize the risk of harm or re-traumatization, avoiding the collection of individually identifiable information about GBV incidents and instead focusing on aggregate patterns of vulnerability and structural barriers.
• The consultant must have a clear referral protocol in place so that any respondent who discloses distress or an ongoing protection concern during data collection can be promptly and confidentially linked to appropriate support services.
• All enumerators and team members must sign ELiDA’s code of conduct and undergo a safeguarding and PSEA briefing prior to fieldwork, and all data must be stored securely in compliance with ELiDA’s data protection procedures.

8. Required Qualifications and Expertise

The assignment should be undertaken by a small research team with demonstrated expertise in policy analysis, education, gender, and protection research, preferably with prior experience conducting vulnerability or barrier analyses in conflict-affected or fragile contexts in Ethiopia.

• The lead consultant should hold an advanced degree in a relevant field such as public policy, education, gender studies, social sciences, or law, together with a minimum of five years of practical experience combining policy review with qualitative field research on gender-based violence, education access, or child protection.
• Given the sensitive subject matter, the team must include personnel with specific training in GBV-sensitive and child-safeguarding research methodologies, and the team composition should reflect appropriate gender balance to facilitate culturally appropriate engagement with adolescent girls and female community members.
• Fluency in Amharic and, where relevant, Afaan Oromo is required for team members engaging directly with communities, along with a strong working knowledge of Ethiopia’s Safe Schools Declaration commitments and the policy and security context of the Amhara Region.
• Prior experience working with the Malala Fund or similar donors on girls’ education policy research will be considered an asset.

9. Budget and Payment Arrangements

The consultant or firm shall submit a detailed financial proposal covering professional fees, enumerator and field costs, and transport and logistics across the six target woredas, and any other costs necessary to deliver the assignment, in a format consistent with ELiDA’s procurement and Malala Fund compliance requirements.

Payment will be structured in three installments linked to the achievement of key deliverables:

• An initial payment upon signing of the contract and submission of an approved inception report.
• A second payment upon presentation of preliminary findings.
• The balance upon ELiDA’s acceptance of the final report.

All costs must be reasonable, transparent, and consistent with ELiDA’s financial management and donor compliance standards, and are subject to ELiDA’s review and approval prior to contract signature.

10. Intellectual Property, Confidentiality, and Data Ownership

All data, tools, drafts, and reports produced under this assignment are the intellectual property of ELiDA and, in accordance with grant terms, the Malala Fund. The consultant may not publish, present, or otherwise disclose findings, data, or any part of the report to third parties without ELiDA’s prior written consent.

• The consultant must handle all personal, sensitive, and GBV-related data in strict confidence and in compliance with ELiDA’s data protection procedures and applicable data protection principles.
• Upon completion of the assignment, all raw data, transcripts, and datasets must be handed over to ELiDA in an agreed format, and any copies held by the consultant or enumerators must be securely deleted.
• Appropriate acknowledgement of ELiDA and the Malala Fund must be included in the final report and any derivative products.