Senior Non-Key Expert Monitoring and Evaluation – Follow-up/Final Survey

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a state owned organisation. We work worldwide in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. GIZ International Services (InS) is an integral division of GIZ.
We offer the experience, the regional and technical know-how of GIZ in the global market and provide international clients with expertise in terms of economic and result-oriented services.

GIZ International Services is currently implementing a project in Ethiopia : Technical Assistance Unit (TAU) – Support to Criminal Justice Reform in Ethiopia Funded by the European Union

Assignment:
Conducting final (follow-up to the baseline) survey for comparison of the changes in the programme indicators.

Related TAU Results
Output 3: Developed project management, coordination and oversight of the project
Output Indicator: 3|1 3.1. Baseline survey and follow up survey conducted

Activity 3.6: Implementing the overall technical and financial monitoring and evaluation

Introduction and background

General Context

Following the reform process started in 2018 with the appointment of Dr. Abiy Ahmed as Prime Minister, Ethiopia is going through unprecedented political transformation process with both desirable and undesirable results witnessed 6 years down the road. The process that started with the introduction of sweeping democratic, civic and media spaces proceeded covering the Rule of Law sector including the lifting of the prior state of emergency, the release of political prisoners, the removal of restrictions on media and the replacement of many leaders heading the army, federal security and judicial institutions. In 2019, the government also appointed a previously active opposition woman leader as Chair for the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), approved a new Organization of Civil Societies Proclamation, replacing the previous 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation. Once again, both foreign and foreign-funded civil society organisations (CSOs) are allowed to engage in Human Rights work and their right to self-regulation has been strengthened.

The excitement and hope in the air then was also because of the wide-ranging reforms towards upgrading the justice system commenced with the appointment of a woman Attorney General and the establishment and launching of a Legal and Justice Affairs Advisory Council (LJAAC) in July 2018 under the Office of the Federal Attorney General (now, Ministry of Justice) and a Judicial System Reform Advisory Council under the Federal Supreme Court. The LJAAC (whose mandate has since expired) identified the criminal justice system as a key area for the introduction of reforms. This process yielded a diagnostic study on Ethiopian criminal justice, a revised law which established the federal prison commission (Proc No 1174/2019), a draft law on criminal procedure and the law of evidence, which introduces among others restorative justice approaches (including diversion, compensation, plea-bargaining and alternative sentencing), and prosecution-led criminal investigation.

Six years later, Ethiopia and the reform process it is going through have found themselves in the two extremes of results depending on which angle one sees from: success with tangible and visible political, economic and social gains in the face of persistent conflicts, COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, political polarization and diplomatic and ethnic tensions.

The Justice Sector

The 1995 FDRE Constitution, opted for a dual legal and justice system establishing Federal and State courts of three tiers at the federal government and at the regional government level as well as Federal and State/Region Police Forces and Prisons. Regional states have extensive powers, inter alia, to enact and execute state constitutions and other laws, to protect and defend the Federal Constitution. The states are governed by elected representatives known as regional and district administrators and are considered chief executive officers governing their respective sub-divisions.

The Federal Constitution provides a comprehensive legal framework that confers explicit Human Rights anchored to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international standards. It encompasses principles such as popular sovereignty, the supremacy of the constitution, respect for human and democratic rights and transparency and accountability of the government. Its preamble underlines the will of the state to build a community founded on the Rule of Law, Human Rights, lasting peace, democratic order, social and economic development.

The reform of the criminal justice system in Ethiopia and the support programmes like that of the Support to Criminal Justice Reform Process in Ethiopia financed by the EU had to navigate through the complex layers of the chain to bring about changes in improving the access to justice by all. Identifying the changes in this aspect attributed to this programme relative to the baseline situation are all about this ToRs.

Police/Prosecution Collaboration in Ethiopia – Background

Lack of coordination between the police and prosecution in crime investigation has been a key challenge of the criminal justice sector in Ethiopia. Though attempts have been made to strengthen coordination through numerous reform efforts, these were mostly focused on the handling of specific crimes, mostly on ad hoc basis. At baseline stage, there was no directive or system of operation that guides such coordination. Based on this major finding at the baseline stage, the programme planned to enhance the coordination efforts through supporting the establishment and follow-up of a Justice Sector Steering Committee (JSSC).
 
Generally, cooperation between the police and prosecution has mostly been dependent on the relation between the heads of the two offices at local level. The issue has all been, then, to institutionalize the cooperation of the Justice sector. With the understanding that collaboration of the justice stakeholders is critical to the achievement of rule of law, justice for all and respect of human rights, the TAU made enhancing horizontal and vertical coordination, collaboration, and cooperation between key criminal justice institutions as one of the three specific objectives. The baseline survey findings indicated that coordination and collaboration among justice institutions (vertical and horizontal) is regarded as weak. At baseline stage, the Justice Sector Steering Committee (JSSC) was not established by law, has no budget, and operates based on a common agenda and implementation roadmap. Coordination with regions mainly handled through “Joined up justice forums” involving justice institutions at Federal and Regional level. This final survey is to find out if there has been any improvement in this aspect, possibly indicating programme attribution to the results.  
EU Support to Criminal Justice Reform in Ethiopia

Governance, justice, rule of law and Human Rights are at the core of the EU’s development agenda. The rule of law (enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union) is a prerequisite for protecting fundamental rights and democracy but requires independent, quality and efficient national justice systems.

Consequently, and in support of the reform agenda, the EU supports the Ethiopian Criminal Justice and Governance sectors in several ways and the programme to which this assignment applies is known as the “Support to Criminal Justice Reform in Ethiopia programme (SCJRP).” The overall objective of the programme is to increase rule of law, respect for human rights and access to justice for all. The programme commenced with a formal signing of a 3-year grant agreement on 19 March 2021 with the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC). The Technical Support element which is designed to support the entire programme commenced a 4-year cycle on 15 October 2021.

It has been identified that several key institutions critical to the success of criminal justice reforms are desirous and require support to deliver the broader reform programme. Under this programme, those institutions are the Ministry of Justice, the Federal Supreme Court, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, the Ethiopian Federal Police and relevant CSOs operating in the sector.

To achieve the objective, the programme has three interlinked and mutually supportive Specific Objectives (outcomes):

1. Enhanced horizontal and vertical coordination, collaboration, and cooperation between key criminal justice institutions.
2. Increased effectiveness, efficiency, fairness, and accountability of the criminal justice system.
3. Improved access to justice for all the poor, women and other groups in vulnerable situations.

• The Federal Supreme Court to enable the Court to implement judicial reforms.
• The Ministry of Justice to:
  • support the Office in the implementation of reforms included in new law and policies.
  • allow the Office to play its role in developing new legislation including working manuals on legal aid and in the establishment of a forum of legal aid service providers and monitoring and evaluation of these services.

• The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission to:

• Continue to play its oversight role, to provide redress for victims of human rights violations and to hold justice institutions to account.
• Enhance its role in the coordination of the provision of legal aid by NGOs and university-based law clinics.

Objectives of this Assignment

The objective of this assignment is to enable the programme demonstrate results achieved through collection, analysis and presenting information on existing status of programme indicators and show changes against the baseline situation. The assignment contributes to the achievement of output 3 of the TAU and its respective indicator of conducting follow-up/final survey to measure changes against the baseline situation for all indicators. This assignment is also related to supporting the TAU in implementing its Activity 3.1 on the overall technical and financial monitoring and evaluation.

Description of the Tasks of the Assignment

The TAU, in support of the Criminal Justice Reform for Ethiopia programme, invites a qualified Senior Non-Key Expert (SNKE) in concert with the TAU’s own Key Expert 4 (Senior Monitoring & Evaluation Expert), to collect, analyse and present information/data from different sources and stakeholders for all programme baseline indicators and demonstrate changes after the project implementation period. The information/data is to come from a diverse group of institutions and individuals. While the international indices on relevant issues are the sources of information for the four impact indicators, the rest are to come from local sources. The assignment includes tasks described below:
 

• Review of the Baseline survey report as reference to designing the final survey,
• Prepare an Inception Report outlining the 44 programme indicators and how current data is to be found and collected,
• Consult available information sources: Latest reports/statistics both online and printed, proclamations, laws and legislation, annual budgets at federal and regionals levels, internal reports (Ref. Annex I) of the relevant institutions (listed below),   
• Contact the information providers as potential sources on the status of the 44 indicators (Ref. Annex II). These stakeholders include, but not limited to, the following:

1. The Technical Assistance Unit
2. Ministry of Justice different Directorates
3. Federal Supreme and High Courts
4. Regional Supreme and High Courts
5. Public Defenders Office
6. Federal and Regional Prison Commissions
7. Ethiopian Human Rights Commission
8. Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association
1. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
10. Ministry of Finance
11. Ethiopian Federal Police 
12. Legal Aid Centers
13. House of Peoples’ Representatives (HoPRs), Legal, Justice and Democracy Standing Committee
14. Justice Sector Steering Committee
15. Legal Aid Coordinating Committee (Through MoJ)

• Design and conduct research and surveys, collect and analyze data and report for all relevant indicators (Annex II),
• Wherever possible, explanations will be given to each indicator regarding how the SCJRP has contributed to the changes from the baseline to final status (attribution),
• Present findings in a validation workshop on the changes noted by the programme for each indicator by comparing baseline and the final survey outcomes,
• Finalize the report by incorporating feedback from the validation workshop.

• All data in the surveys will be disaggregated by gender, age, Region and income level.
• While the assignment principally is about the current values of the indicators, there is a need to collect available information from the baseline year (2022) for those indicators with no data reported at baseline stage, whenever this is possible (Ref. Annex II).

• Inception Report: This report outlines the understanding of the assignment in this TORs, work plan, timeframe, methodologies, initial findings from the Baseline Report, tabular presentation of the list of indicators, the sources of information, how the data will be collected (data collection tools for each indicator) and the outline of the contents of the final survey report.
• Draft Final Survey Report: The draft report will be submitted for the TAU’s review and discussion, based on which the SNKE will revise and prepare for presentation at the validation workshop.
• Presentation at the Validation Workshop: The SNKE will make a presentation of the findings (changes for each indicator from the baseline to the final values) and the programme attribution, including sections on lessons learnt, conclusions and recommendations for future interventions.
• Final Report: The final report will be submitted to the TAU by incorporating feedback from the validation workshop, the TAU and the EUD to their full satisfaction.    

• • First degree or above in any of the following: Law, Program Management, Economics, Monitoring & Evaluation or related disciplines.
  • A higher degree in a relevant field would be a distinct advantage.

• • At least 8 years of relevant professional experience in the field of criminal justice with justice and law public institutions in Ethiopia,
  • Demonstrable understanding and experience in programmes/project monitoring & evaluation,
  • At least 2 assignments completed in baseline, final surveys or final programme/project evaluations with institutions related to criminal justice, 
  • Experience working with international donors, or NGOs as a consultant, advisor or other relevant position,
  • Demonstrable interpersonal skills and experience in establishing strong working relationships with criminal justice stakeholders in Ethiopia,
  • Advanced computer literacy and data processing skills,
  • Fluency in English and Amharic including excellent speaking, presentation, and written reporting abilities.

• Significant experience in designing data collection tools, conducting surveys, analysis and report writing skills are required.
• Familiarity with the context, reform process and current status of the Ethiopian criminal justice sector is a strong asset.
• Having strong network within the Ethiopian criminal justice sector from previous assignments is a strong asset.
• Familiarity with the state of criminal justice institutions in other countries especially in the eastern Africa region is a strong asset.

• As directed by the TAU, all the 45 consultancy days, including preparatory days and final days, are to be performed in Ethiopia (Addis Ababa and two regional states to be identified). The 45 days will not necessarily be consecutive, with the schedule to be agreed at Inception stage.