The EU-financed project Determining Ethiopian Women’s Status and Priorities set out to provide robust evidence to inform gender equality efforts in Ethiopia—both during crises and in long-term development. In October 2024, the project delivered the most comprehensive report ever conducted on the status of women in the country, based on over a year of qualitative and quantitative research covering more than 36,000 households across all regions.

Objectives

Funded entirely by the European Union, this project was launched in January 2023 and ran until October 2024. Implemented by the Network of Ethiopian Women's Associations (NEWA) and Oxfam International, the project aims to contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment, particularly in crisis-affected and post-crisis contexts in Ethiopia.

The project was designed around two core objectives:

1. Generating evidence to inform effective responses and address broader gender equality challenges during and after crises.

2. Strengthening research and advocacy capacities of women’s associations and local structures.

While Ethiopia has a number of gender-related surveys and statistical sources, much of the existing data is largely quantitative, offering limited space for the voices and lived experiences of women, especially at community level. Available data is often representative only at national or regional scale, with significant gaps at zonal and woreda levels. Moreover, the majority of these studies were conducted during periods of relative peace, prior to 2017.

This project addresses those gaps by applying a mixed-methods research approach, ensuring women’s perspectives and priorities are meaningfully captured. The findings will provide valuable insights for future policy and programming to better support gender equality and women’s empowerment in Ethiopia.

Project Activities

• Conduct a national survey on the status, priorities and needs of women covering all regions of the country in 33,000 households

• Conduct Participatory Action Research (PAR, qualitative research) in 7 regions of Ethiopia

• Training for women-focused organisations on Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRA) methodologies and advocacy

Results

• A national survey was conducted in 36,990 households

• A Participatory Action Research was conducted in 8 regions of Ethiopia

• The Ethiopian Women’s Status and Priorities Report was published and launched on 29 October 2024, with full recognition from the Ethiopian Government