BACKGROUND 
      • In Ethiopia, of the total 114, 964,000 population for the year 2020, 57,447,000 
      (i.e. 49.9%) are women.  
      • However, Ethiopian women are not represented in leadership and decision-
      making positions equally with  men;
      • The availability of legislative and policy provisions in the country, however, has 
      helped to gain significant progress towards increasing women’s active political 
      engagement that includes voting, exercising public power by holding public office 
      at different levels of administrations at local, regional, federal level 
      representations as enshrined in the Constitution
               BACKGROUND [CONT.] 
                             the representation of              improvements were                   In the judiciary, the 
                             women in the legislative           observed in the                     representation of women           the executive branch at 
                             branches at the Federal level      representation of women in          has reached 20% from 16.9%        Cabinet level has shown the 
                             has shown a significant            regional councils from 5.4%         in 2009/10                        biggest improvement in 
                             improvement from 2%                representation in 1995 to an                                          representation, going from 
                             representation in the House        average of 40% in 2015.                                               13% at Minister position 
                             of Peoples' Representatives                                                                              occupied by women in 2005, 
                             in 1995 to 38.8% in 2015.                                                                                to now constituting 50% at 
                                                                                                                                      the federal level
                                         1995                               1995                             2009–2010                             Now
    BACKGROUND 
     • This  study,  therefore,  provides  nationwide  data  on  the  number  of  women 
      represented  at  all  levels  of  the  federal  and  regional  governments  and  the 
      existing  cultural, structural as well as emerging barriers hindering women from 
      equal participation and effective representation in these government positions. 
     • The study also provides contextually relevant recommendations and strategies to 
      address the problems noted regarding women’s participation in leadership and 
      decision-making positions in the three branches of government at both federal 
      and regional level.  
         OBJECTIVES of the STUDY  
       The Purpose of the study is to assess the current status of women’s 
       representation in leadership and decision-making positions in Ethiopia. 
       •
       Specific objectives of the study include: 
        • Gaining a national sex disaggregated data on representation in leadership and 
         decision- making positions in the legislative, judiciary and executive branches of 
         the Ethiopian Government 
        • Identifying the measures undertaken by the federal and regional governments 
         to narrow down gender inequality
    OBJECTIVES [CONT.] 
       • Identifying  the  multifaceted  challenges  constraining  women  from  being 
        equally represented across the various levels of decision making and leadership 
        positions. 
       • Recommend strategic and tailored measures which can be undertaken to 
        increase women’s national representation and participation in leadership 
        and decision-making positions.
       • While doing so identify international, regional and national best practices to 
        achieve results in terms of increasing women’s participation and representation.