Training Needs Assessment on GBV Case Management and Survivor-Centered Approaches Among Health, Women, Children and Youth (WCY), and Legal Service Sectors

1. Introduction

Empathy for Life Integrated Development Association (ELiDA) is a women-led, non-profit, non-partisan, and board-governed indigenous national Civil Society Organization (CSO), established by Ethiopian women in November 2008 and registered under the CSO Proclamation No. 1113/2019 with Certificate No. 1143. ELiDA envisions a society where citizens are socially responsible, productive, respectful of human rights, and meaningfully empowered to participate in leadership and decision-making processes across the country.

ELiDA, in partnership with Christian Aid, is implementing the project titled “Integrated Prevention and Response to Violence against Women and Girls” in North Wollo Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia, with financial support from UN Women through the United Nations Trust Fund (UNTF).

One of the key objectives of the project is to strengthen institutional capacity to provide quality, coordinated, and survivor-centered Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention and response services. As part of this effort, the project has established referral pathways and conducted a series of capacity-building trainings for GBV service providers focusing on survivor-centered approaches, Psychological First Aid (PFA), and referral protocols.

Furthermore, the results of the assessments will serve as basis for the selected local service providers, which have previously who once taken training of trainers (ToT), in cascading training specifically designed to fill the capacity gaps of their respective GBV case management service provision teams. In this way, they can be assisted in solving the problems encountered in implementing GBV case management and survivor-centered approach.

2. About the Activity

The activity aims to conduct a training needs assessment to identify key (specific) areas of capacity building training in GBV case management and survivor-centered approaches give the broad nature of these issues. Accordingly, the selected local service providers who once took training of trainers (ToT) could easily cascade the training on such identified areas to their respective members of the case management service provision to enable them address key challenges they usually face during implementation of GBV case management and survivor centered approaches.

The assessment will identify existing knowledge gaps, service delivery challenges, institutional capacities, and training needs among frontline service providers and relevant government stakeholders involved in Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention and response services. Based on the findings, the previous Training of Trainers (ToT) trainees will cascade the training to other teams and referral pathway service providers. This supports coordination mechanisms for an effective and survivor-centered GBV response.

3. Objectives

General Objective

The general objective of the training needs assessment (TNA) is to identify specific capacity gaps or needs of frontline case management service providers from Health, Women, Children and Youth (WCY), and Legal/Security offices in the project areas through participatory approaches of data collection and analysis focusing on GBV case management and survivor-centered approaches. Findings from the TNA will guide individuals from these offices who took TOT to understand the specific areas of training while cascading to respective frontline case management service providers in the project areas.

Specific Objectives

The specific objectives of the TNA are:

• To assess key knowledge and skill gaps among frontline service providers on GBV response services, including ethical principles, confidentiality, safety, and protection standards, during implementation of survivor center approaches.
• To assess institutional capacities of targeted government sectors on GBV response services during implementation of survivor center approaches.
• To identify challenges and opportunities in the implementation of survivor-centered GBV case management and referral systems.
• To identify key challenges of coordination and GBV case management referral mechanisms among Health, WCY, and Legal Service sectors that could be addressed by training.

4. Scope of Work

The consultant/facilitator will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Develop assessment tools.
• Review relevant project documents, referral pathways, policies, guidelines, and previous training materials.
• Conduct a training needs assessment among Health, WCY, and Legal Service sectors at North Wollo Zone, Habru woreda, Raya Kobo woreda and Kobo Town selected kebeles.
• Analyze assessment findings and identify priority capacity gaps and recommendations.

5. Methodology

The TNA assignment will utilize mixed-methods approach in order to capture both institutional frameworks and individual frontline realities:

• Quantitative data will be gathered through structured surveys involving – self-administered or digital (KOBO) questionnaires distributed to service providers to measure baseline knowledge (individual capacity) of GBV protocols, confidence levels in handling complex cases, and systemic challenges.
• Qualitative data will be collected using:
  • Key Informant Interviews (KIIs): Semi-structured interviews with frontline case management service providers to understand capacity gaps in coordination mechanisms, institutional bottlenecks, and implementation.
  • Focus Group Discussions (FGDs): Separate discussions will be conducted with frontline case workers to explore challenges, attitudes toward survivors, referral pathway breakdowns, and training preferences.
  • Desk review and analysis of existing standard operating procedures (SOPs), referral pathways, past case management coordination reports, and GBV guidelines.

The consultant/facilitator is expected to apply gender-sensitive, culturally appropriate, and survivor-centered approaches throughout the assessment and training process.

6. Key Deliverables

The consultant/facilitator will deliver the following:

1. Inception report and detailed work plan.
2. TNA tools and methodology.
3. TNA findings (report) with recommendations.

Minimum Required Qualifications, Experience, and Skills

• Advanced degree in Social Work, Gender Studies, Law, Public Health, Psychology, Sociology, Human Rights, or related fields.
• Proven experience in GBV programming, case management, and survivor-centered approaches.
• Strong understanding of Ethiopian GBV response systems, referral pathways, and protection frameworks.
• Experience in facilitation, adult learning methodologies, and participatory training approaches.
• Excellent report writing and communication skills in English; knowledge of Amharic is an asset.
• Previous experience working with CSOs, UN agencies, or government institutions is preferred.