UN Ethiopia Head holds strategic discussion toward scaling impact on gender equality and women’s empowerment in Ethiopia

UN Women Ethiopia leadership held a high‑level strategic meeting with the UN Assistant Secretary‑General (ASG) and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Ethiopia, Ozonnia Ojielo (PhD), to discuss gender equality programming in Ethiopia amid ongoing UN reform, evolving development financing, and a changing national and global context.

Advancing a triple mandate for Gender Equality

UN Women Representative to Ethiopia, Ms. Jennet Kem, noted in her briefing that UN Women Ethiopia implements its work through a distinctive triple mandate - normative, coordination, and operational - enabling the organization to support policy reform, align the UN system, and deliver impact on the ground.

Under its normative mandate, UN Women anchors national action in global gender equality standards, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action, the Commission on the Status of Women, International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) commitments, and the Women, Peace and Security agenda under UN Security Council Resolution 1325. These frameworks guide policy reform and accountability across sectors and levels of government.

Through its coordination mandate, UN Women supports system-wide gender mainstreaming across both development and humanitarian action. This includes leadership on the UN Gender Equality Scorecard, use of the Gender Marker in humanitarian financing, and alignment with the Secretary-General’s Gender Equality Acceleration Framework. UN Women also plays an active role in inter-agency coordination platforms, including the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC).

Operationally, UN Women Ethiopia delivers programmes across five priority areas: ending violence against women and girls, women’s economic empowerment, women’s political participation, women, peace and security, and gender-responsive humanitarian action. 

From Projects to Impact: A Strategic Pivot

At the core of the meeting was a strong call for change. The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator emphasized that UN reform and “UN 2.0” demand a fundamental shift - from fragmented, small-scale projects toward catalytic interventions capable of delivering national-level impact.

Ozonnia highlighted three priority areas of focus: coherence, integration, and scale. He underscored the need to move beyond traditional funding models and to reimagine programmes as investment cases that leverage financing from a range of actors. Drawing on successful experiences from other countries, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator also emphasized the importance of de‑risking investments to unlock capital for women‑led enterprises, skills development initiatives, and value chains in which women are already actively engaged.

Rethinking Humanitarian Action and Resilience

The discussion also highlighted the need to rethink humanitarian responses. While immediate lifesaving assistance remains critical, prolonged dependency undermines resilience and disproportionately constrains women’s potential. Ozonnia underlined the need for stronger humanitarian–development nexus programming that addresses root causes, builds livelihoods, and supports women’s leadership in crisis settings.

As Ethiopia navigates a moment of profound transition, the meeting concluded with a shared understanding that gender equality is not peripheral to national development - it is central. UN Women, under the leadership of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, who heads the UN team in Ethiopiam, and in partnership with the wider UN system, stands ready to deliver on this vision with ambition, innovation, and scale.