Annex A National policy for women, 1993.

Prior to the 1974 revolution, development interventions for women were the product of welfare-oriented approaches that responded to the immediate needs of socio-economically vulnerable communities. After 1974, in response to the growing need to organize women for development activities, the Revolutionary Ethiopian Women's Association (REWA) was established to oversee issues related to women. Despite some success at the grassroots level, particularly in organizing women, REWA evolved to become involved more in politics and advocacy than in development. Women perceived REWA as being coercive and as serving the interests of politicians rather than its members. In spite of its close relations with the government, it remained a political wing of the ruling party and did not introduce gender integration into government policies and interventions.

In 1993 the transitional government drafted and the Council of Ministers approved the first women's policy, underscoring the need to move toward an institutionalized strategy for enhancing women's development through policy measures. Recognizing the productive role of women and their contribution to the national economy, the policy moved the government's focus from relief to development. For the first time, it provided a broad framework for incorporating women in the planned development process. As a result, there is greater awareness of women's economic potential and growing acceptance and recognition of women's demands and aspirations.

The women's policy emphasizes improving the socioeconomic role of women. It also articulates a comprehensive development program for improving women's socioeconomic situation, acknowledges the social and economic consequences of neglecting the concerns of women, and stresses the need to create national awareness of those costs.

It pledges to facilitate women's access to economic opportunities. The strategy reiterates the need to ensure greater employment opportunities in both urban and rural areas and highlights the need to accord women, as citizens and productive human resources for national development, rights, obligations, and opportunities equal to those of men. While the policy mandates specially designed programs in health, education, social welfare, population planning, and employment, it also stresses the need to integrate gender concerns in all economic sectors. .It emphasizes the need to improve the effectiveness of social service delivery to women.

The policy adopts a three-pronged approach. First, it calls for fundamentally reordering national priorities in favor of increasing women's access to basic health care, education, and employment opportunities and outlines three objectives (see table A.1). It requires that all economic, social, and political policies and programs, as well as cultural and traditional practices and activities, ensure equal access of men and women to the country's resources.

Second, it stresses the need to eliminate all forms of discrimination (in the labor market, in employment, or in customary practices) and to create awareness of women's legal rights. It requires laws, regulations, systems, policies, and development plans issued by the government to ensure the equality of women and men, placing special emphasis on rural women.

Finally, it calls for adequate institutional support to ensure that women benefit from the financial assistance provided by government or donors and to facilitate the formation of women's associations or groups. It also requires that all development institutions, programs, and projects ensure women's access to, and their involvement in, all interventions and activities.

As part of the government's commitment and initiative, the policy established a women's affairs office within the prime minister's office and charged it with implementing the national women's policy and for monitoring its implementation. The women's affairs office promotes, catalyzes, and monitors women's issues concerning programs and projects in various sectors and plays an equally important role in coordinating the operations of donors and nongovernmental organizations. It also maintains functional linkages and coordination with the women's units established in all the regions, within central ministries, and in public organizations. In turn, these women's units are expected to foster collaboration and to develop a system for monitoring the role, participation, and integration of women at the policy and program levels. At the regional levels (see annex B), the women's policy envisages two principal players--the women's affairs bureaus and the women's departments in select sectoral bureaus. These units are expected to contribute to the gender sensitivity of the regional development plan. They are the primary units charged with ensuring gender-sensitive inputs and outputs in project formulation, appraisal, implementation, and monitoring.

Table A.1 Objectives of Ethiopia's Women's Policy, 1993

Sector       Objectives

Education    To make education for women a planned and sustained
             process, with a new value system emphasizing equality,
             mutual respect, and dignity for both sexes

Health       To enhance health education for women and to improve
             women's access to health care

Employment   To enhance women's employable skills and increase their
             rate of labor force participation through various steps
             and incentives both in the formal and informal sector