Consultancy, Review of IWDA’s partnership approach
The International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) is an Australia-based organisation, working with and resourcing diverse women’s rights and feminist organisations in Asia and the Pacific, and contributing to global feminist movements to advance our vision of gender equality for all. We exist to defend and advance the rights of diverse women and girls.
IWDA’s approach represents a third way between the models of women’s funds and international development NGOs: we resource the work of diverse women’s rights organisations, enable them to be more effective by providing support that goes beyond money, and we make our own contributions to feminist movements through advocacy, knowledge creation and translation.
IWDA currently manages a portfolio of 15 multi-year programs with 22 partners across 8 countries with a total value of approximately $32 million
Purpose
In line with our feminist and decolonial values and approaches, the purpose of this consultancy is to improve IWDA’s understanding of:
Whether our approach to partnership aligns to partners’ understanding of locally led development and decolonial approaches.
Whether our approach to partnership is delivering the anticipated impacts for our partners and the most effective ways to partner with women’s rights organisations.
It will do this by documenting with concrete examples and case studies, the ways, and the extent to which, IWDA’s approach to partnership and accompaniment has contributed to the operations, programming, governance and sustainability of their organisations. It will also identify where and how IWDA can improve our approaches to partnership and accompaniment support.
Whether our approach to partnership is delivering the anticipated impacts for our partners and the most effective ways to partner with women’s rights organisations.
It will do this by documenting with concrete examples and case studies, the ways, and the extent to which, IWDA’s approach to partnership and accompaniment has contributed to the operations, programming, governance and sustainability of their organisations. It will also identify where and how IWDA can improve our approaches to partnership and accompaniment support.
Findings from the consultancy will support IWDA to:
Identify how our approach to partnership has evolved and opportunities to continue to strengthen the ways in which we work;
Demonstrate accountability to our partners and our donors by detailing how our resources have been utilised to add value to our partners;
Advocate for appropriate level of resourcing for the costs of a feminist / decolonial partnership approaches to donors, to the benefit of both IWDA and partners.
Communicate our ways of working to other INGOs and Women’s Funds;
Contribute to the discussion on effective approaches to locally led development and decolonising international development.
Requirements
Substantial experience in cross-cultural communication;
Understanding of INGO landscape;
Experience conducting interviews, including remote interviews;
Experience in gender analysis and/or stakeholder analysis;
Deep understanding of feminist and decolonial research principles and partnerships; and
At least one consultant from, and based in, a Majority World country in Asia or the Pacific.
Tertiary qualifications in a relevant discipline, such as social science or international development.
Safeguarding
This consultancy is not anticipated to result in contact with children.
Specific issues may emerge during stakeholder engagement that relate to child protection, the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment, and other Reportable Conduct. The consultant(s) will be required to review, sign and adhere to relevant IWDA policies and procedures including the IWDA Child Protection Policy and Code of Conduct, IWDA Whistleblower Policy and Procedure, and IWDA Conflict of Interest Policy and Procedure.
Expression of interest
Candidates are invited to submit expressions of interest providing the following:
A cover letter that addresses the criteria as set out in the Requirements above (maximum 1 page);
A cover letter that addresses the criteria as set out in the Requirements above (maximum 1 page);
CV (maximum 2 pages per person);
An outline of the proposed process and timeline to complete all outputs (maximum 1 page), including an explanation of how the proposed process aligns with decolonial and feminist principles;
Proposals from a team must clearly outline the roles and responsibilities of the consultants, and how the consultants will navigate power dynamics within the team (maximum 0.5 pages); and
Daily rate and an outline of anticipated additional costs, to a maximum total of AUD24,400 (excluding GST for Australia-based consultants). The budget does not need to include translation costs.
Expressions of interest that do not cover these requirements will not be considered.
Required Skills