Terms of Reference Gender and Inclusion Audit of Partner Financial Institutions (Banks and MFIs)

About First Consult

First Consult is a leading economic development consulting firm implementing projects in Ethiopia. Founded in 2006, First Consult (FC) has grown to design and implement projects across the agriculture, manufacturing, and service sectors. Our multidisciplinary teams combine a capacity to execute with clarity of the local context. As a result, we have delivered at-scale real impact in terms of job creation, business formation, business growth, and investment attraction and mobilization

MESMER Program

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Recovery and Resilience Program (MESMER) is a 5-year initiative launched in October 2022 to support 72,200 MSMEs and 410,800 jobs by creating access to finance for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) to realize their growth prospects and resilience. The program aimed at supporting micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through providing access to finance, business development services, psychosocial support and technical assistance to financial institutions. MESMER is a countrywide program implemented by First Consult in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation and the Ministry of Labor and Skills (MoLS) as part of the Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy and will strive to create dignified and fulfilling work for the youth, many of them are women. Other partners include financial institutions (microfinance institutions, banks, and digital financial service providers), BDS, and psychosocial support providers.

MESMER is a national scale-up of the COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Programme (CRRP) launched in 2020 to support enterprises affected by the pandemic. The project mainly has four components to meet its objectives: a) Grants and soft loans to MSMEs through a risk-sharing liquidity fund arrangement, b) Technical assistance to financial institutions, c) Business development services and life skills, d) Psychosocial support.

MESMER focuses on women and youth and follows an inclusive approach. It expands its rural outreach through technology-enabled interventions and by leveraging on MFIs’ rural network and offers diversified financial services including interest free banking /IFB/ that suit the specific needs of enterprises such as leasing and interest-free financial services.

Background of the Assignment

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are widely recognized as critical drivers of economic growth, job creation, and innovation in Ethiopia. They play a central role in supporting livelihoods and enhancing the resilience of households and communities, particularly among women, youth, and marginalized populations. However, the growth and development of MSMEs remain constrained by a range of systemic and structural challenges. These include limited access to finance, inadequate technical and business management skills, lack of business premises, weak institutional support systems, limited information and market access, and exposure to recurrent shocks such as conflict, inflation, and broader macroeconomic instability. These challenges disproportionately affect women and disadvantaged groups, including PWDs, IDPS and returnees who often face additional social-cultural and economic barriers to formal enterprise participation and financial inclusion.

Among these barriers, access to finance continues to be the most cited constraint by MSME operators. The financial sector in Ethiopia remains largely skewed toward serving larger enterprises with established credit histories and fixed assets, which they can use as collateral. In contrast, MSMEs—especially those owned or led by women, youth, and persons with disabilities, often operate informally or have limited collateral, making them unattractive to conventional banks and financial service providers. This exclusion is further reinforced by risk-averse lending practices, rigid collateral requirements, and a lack of tailored financial products and services that respond to the diverse needs of micro and small entrepreneurs.

A 2025 World Bank report and other studies highlight significant gender and inclusion gaps in Ethiopia’s financial sector. Most banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) still operate under traditional business models that do not adequately integrate gender and inclusion considerations into their operations. Many financial institutions lack the internal policies, capacity, or data systems needed to identify and address the specific barriers faced by women, youth, and other underserved groups. Institutional biases, whether conscious or unconscious, along with inflexible loan requirements, limited outreach strategies, and male-dominated staff structures, all contribute to the limited participation of marginalized groups in formal financial systems. While the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has set targets to increase women’s representation in leadership positions, aiming for at least 25% of senior management roles to be held by women and at least one woman to hold a board seat in every financial institution by 2025, implementation challenges remain.

Recognizing these gaps, the MESMER Program is committed to promoting inclusive finance as a key driver of equitable economic participation. In line with this commitment, this TOR seeks to engage a consultant to conduct a Gender and Inclusion Audit of 4 partner banks (Abyssinia, Awash, Dashen and Hibret) and 8 MFIs (Adeday, Amal, Bussa, Harbu, Liyu, Metemamen, Wasasa, Akufada. This audit will serve as a diagnostic tool to assess the degree to which these institutions have integrated gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) principles into their organizational structures, policies, operations, staffing, product design, client outreach, and service delivery.

Findings from the audit will provide actionable recommendations to enhance inclusive practices, expand access to financial services for women, youth, and other underserved groups, and contribute to building more equitable and resilient financial institutions. In addition to the institutional assessments, a Knowledge Piece will be produced to capture key insights, promising practices, and lessons learned, which can inform future interventions, national policy dialogues and influence sector-wide improvements in inclusive finance.

Objective of the Assignment

Overall Objective

To assess the extent to which partner financial institutions integrate gender and social inclusion in their institutional policies, operations, systems, staffing, outreach, products, and services and forward strategic recommendations to enhance GESI mainstreaming within the institutions.

Specific Objectives

• To assess institutional policies, procedures, and systems related to gender equality and inclusion.
• To analyse staffing and leadership composition, capacity, and workplace culture regarding diversity and inclusion.
• To examine the design, marketing, and delivery of financial products and services through a GESI lens.
• To identify barriers and enablers to equitable access to finance for women, youth, PWDs, and underserved populations.
• To provide actionable recommendations and practical strategies for enhancing GESI mainstreaming.
• To develop a knowledge product that captures findings, best practices, and pathways to gender-transformative financial inclusion.
• To produce relevant guideline and tools to institutionalize and ensure effective implementation of gender equality, diversity, and social inclusion in all aspects of FI’s operations, governance and others

Scope of Work

The consultant(s) will be expected to:

Design the Audit Framework

• Develop GESI audit tools tailored to the financial sector (based on international and local frameworks).
• Validate the tools with the program team.

Conduct Desk Review

• Review institutional policies, reports, and existing GESI-related documentation of partner banks and MFIs.

Data Collection and Analysis

• Conduct key informant interviews (KIIs), focus group discussions (FGDs), and surveys with staff and clients.
• Gather sex, age and disability-disaggregated data where applicable.

Identify Gaps, Good Practices, and Opportunities

• Highlight systemic barriers and success factors for inclusive financial service provision.

Develop Audit Report and Recommendations

• Prepare a detailed analytical report with prioritized, actionable recommendations for each partner institution.

Produce a Knowledge Piece

• Develop a synthesis document or brief (e.g., 10-15 pages) outlining insights, promising practices, lessons learned, and policy recommendations for wider dissemination and learning.

Develop tailored GESI guideline

• To institutionalize and ensure equitable participation, benefit, and decision-making power for women, youth, persons with disabilities, and other disadvantage groups.

Develop self-assessment checklist: to conduct audit on ongoing basis

Facilitate Validation Workshop

• Present key findings and recommendations to internal stakeholders and partners for validation and refinement.

Submit the final report

• Including the individual audit reports for each PFI, the knowledge piece, the tailored GESI guideline, and the self-assessment checklist

Deliverables and Timeframes

The deliverables of the assignment and timeline are listed in the table below.

#	Deliverable	Timeline
1	Inception Report– Methodology, tools, time framed work plan	Nov 28, 2025
2	Desk Review Summary- Compilation of institutional GESI and related documents	Dec 5, 2025
3	Data collection tools –finalised and validated	Dec 5, 2025
4	Gender and Inclusion Audit Report– For each partner FI, including recommendations	Jan 9, 2025
5	Knowledge Piece- Synthesis document capturing insights, best practices, and strategic directions	Jan 9, 2025
6	Tailored GESI guideline-to institutionalize gender sensitive and inclusive practice sustainably	Jan 9, 2025
7	Self-assessment checklist: to conduct self-audit on ongoing basis	Jan 9, 2025
8	Validation Workshop- Presentation of findings and recommendations	Jan 16, 2025
9	Final Report- Incorporating feedback from the validation workshop	Jan 16, 2025

 

Level of Effort and Timeline

The consultancy is expected to take approximately 45 working days over a period of two months, covering data collection, analysis, and reporting in collaboration with the four partner banks and eight MFIs listed above. A detailed work plan will be finalized during the inception phase.

Required qualifications

• Advanced degree in Gender Studies, Development Studies, Economics, Finance, or a related field.
• A minimum of eight years hands on experience in gender and social inclusion tasks preferably in conducting gender and inclusion audits, financial inclusion or institutional assessments within the financial sector.
• Strong understanding of gender equality, social inclusion (GESI), and financial inclusion principles.
• Strong understanding of gender dynamics and social norms influencing MSME financing
• Demonstrated experience in designing or assessing financial services tailored for women, youth, persons with disabilities (PWDs), internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees, smallholder farmers, and Islamic finance (Interest-Free Banking/IFB) clients.
• Experience working with banks, microfinance institutions (MFIs), or other financial service providers in Ethiopia
• Strong qualitative and quantitative research skills, including tool development, data collection, analysis, and reporting.
• Excellent writing, communication, and facilitation skills
• Ability to deliver high-quality outputs within timeline

Ethical Considerations

The consultant(s) will be expected to adhere to ethical standards, including informed consent, confidentiality, and safeguarding principles. Special attention should be given to interviewing disadvantaged groups sensitively and respectfully.

Working Arrangement and Reporting

The consultant will be working under the close guidance and direct reporting line to the MESMER Programme Technical Assistance Lead and Gender, Youth and Social Inclusion Advisor.