International Consultant to Develop an Organizational Resilience and Coalition Building Framework for UN Trust Fund Partners

Background:

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Established by UN General Assembly Resolution 50/166 in 1996, the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) is the first and remains the only global UN funding mechanism dedicated exclusively to providing direct grants to civil society organizations working to prevent and end all forms of violence against women and girls (EVAW/G). Since 2010, UN Women has administered the UN Trust Fund on behalf of the UN system, providing a strong institutional foundation and field support through a global infrastructure of country and regional offices. 

With nearly three decades of experience, the UN Trust Fund has become a key global mechanism for funding initiatives that aim to eliminate violence against women and girls. It plays a critical role in fostering collaboration across governments, UN agencies, and civil society to address the root causes and consequences of violence, aligning its work with broader international policies and frameworks. The UN Trust Fund focuses on providing long-term grants to organizations that work in diverse contexts, particularly those representing marginalized groups, such as indigenous women, women living with disabilities, and women from rural or conflict-affected areas. Its investments are survivor-centered and aim to have sustainable, long-term impacts. To date, the UN Trust Fund has funded over 700 initiatives in over 140 countries and territories, significantly contributing to global efforts to end violence against women and girls. 

The Advocacy, Coalition Building and Transformative Feminist Action (ACT)  Project is a new commitment between the European Commission and UN Women as co-leader of the Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence, in collaboration with the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women. Through direct investments in feminist movements, strengthening, intersectional alliances, and coordinating a shared advocacy agenda, ACT will amplify women’s rights movements as they coordinate their push for justice.   

Women’s rights organizations are at the forefront of efforts to end violence against women and girls and the work of women’s rights movements and activists is the bedrock of accountability to translate commitments into reality. The ACT Programme recognizes the need to invest urgently in strong, autonomous women’s rights organizations, networks, and coalitions to achieve effective solutions. 

The overall aim of ACT is to create an enabling environment for women’s rights organizations and to support the leadership and resilience of women's rights movements, their advocacy and campaigning efforts to influence EVAW policy. ACT will achieve its results through direct investments in feminist women’s rights organizations to strengthen institutional capacities, resilience, coalition building, networking, and leadership. 

 Against this background, the UNTF is seeking for an international consultant to lead the co-creation of a Framework for Coalition Building and Organization Resilience for UNTF partners, under ACT, in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). 

 Under the supervision of the  UNTF Programme Manager for ACT and Africa, the international consultant will be supporting the  UNTF Africa Regional Hub to develop  a framework to identify strategies for strengthening organizational resilience and coalition building and identify innovative ways to engage UNTF partners across Africa and LAC, in line with feminist, de-colonialism,  solidarity, and collective empowerment principles.  

 By working at sub-regional and continental levels for strengthening organizational resilience, the Initiative responds to the complexity of crises in the regions and the call by feminist movements for decolonizing practices of development, considering its legacy has contributed to the fragility of States and movements across the continent. Addressing VAWG in this context means that organizations need to counter these challenges via strengthened cross-movement connections and deepened intersectional analysis, which requires investing in self- and collective care within organizations and movements as a strategy for catalyzing sustaining change as articulated by many feminist advocates and organizations. 

 Effective Programming Strategies in Movement Building identified by the UN Trust Fund  consist of the following: Integrate an intentional feminist movement building approach in your strategic planning, implementation, and evaluation processes • Center the leadership and experiences of women and girls most at risk of marginalization and violence • Collaborate with local communities and women’s rights organizations to drive sustainable change • Document movement-building activities and develop replicable guidelines • Engage diverse stakeholders through dialogue, joint discussions, and learning opportunities to build trust and foster knowledge exchange. 

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work 

Under the ACT Project, the UNTF Regional Hub for Africa intends to co-create with its partners a strategy and action framework for organizational resilience, with a specific focus on coalition building, to support ACT and non ACT UNTF partners in the regions to strengthen coalitions and organisations to build their networks, strengthen their expertise and develop coordinated responses to VAWG to achieve Outcome 1 of the ACT project related strengthening the women’s movement: Strengthened coalition building, networking, leadership and resilience of global and regional feminist women’s rights movements 

Thus, UNTF is seeking an international consultant to co-create and implement a strategy and action framework to enhance organisation resilience and coalition building framework for Women's Rights Organizations (WROs) in Africa and LAC under ACT. This framework can provide a road map to  inform the way that the UNTF can facilitate organizational resilience for its partners in the region and under the ACT project. The Strategy will include an implementation plan for ACT partners to implement the framework, risk analysis and mitigation strategies, and an M&E plan to monitor the implementation of the framework and measure progress. 

The envisioned framework may include strategies and capacity development approaches for the following entry points to enhance organisational resilience and strengthen coalition building, under five key thematic areas:  i) Strategies and systems, ii) Mission and Values, iii) People and Community, iv) Networks and Partnerships, v) Finances and Resources. 

On e of the key strategies, will be on capacity building, with strong intersectionality lenses, that could be envision peer to peer and learning exchanges,  women’s empowerment trainings, Individual/one- on .one coaching and a help desk for specific support. 

The work on capacity building under ACT will complement the already existing interventions  on CD that the Trust Fund is implementing for all its partners. 

Deliverables 

Deliverable 

Expected completion time (due day)  

Inception Report and workplan & initial consultations 

First week of June 25 

Situational analysis report 

July 25 

Co-create a Strategy and Action Framework for Organisation Resilience and Coalition Building with UNTF partners 

October 25 

Organize at least 4  co-creation workshops and consultations with partners 

October 25 

Implementation of Action Framework for Organisation Resilience and Coalition Building  

October 2025- July 2026 

Capacity Development Methodology and Plan 

November 25 

Implementation of capacity Development Package with training and tools 

November 2025- JMay  2026 

Report on assessment of CD and recommendations to strengthen the Strategy and Action Framework CD Plan 

May 2026 

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel 

This is a home-based consultancy.  

As part of this assignment, there will be a maximum of  1 trip per quarter between LAC and Africa. 

 Competencies :

Core Values:

Core Competencies:

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

Proven experience of application of intersectional lens to programming 

Strong communication skills  

Strong participatory facilitation skills with sensitivity to power dynamics and cultural diversity 

Strong familiarity with feminist principles, Decolonising Aid and Shifting Power trajectories  

Education and Certification: 

Education:  

A Master’s degree in social sciences, human rights, gender/women's studies, international development, or a related field is required.  

A PhD in a relevant field is an advantage. 

Experience: 

At least ten 10 years of progressively work experience in designing and implementing institutional capacity development and coalition building  strategies for  CSOs and constituency-led organisations in the global south, 

At least ten 10 years of progressively work experience in ending violence against women and girls, 

Strong experience in the design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of capacity development and monitoring related to ending violence against women;,  

Experience  in designing and conducting participatory approaches to research, particularly in the field of EVAW is required  

Experience with facilitation, capacity development and training initiatives for UN, NGO and  community-based organisations is required. 

 Excellent analytical skills with strong drive for results and capacity to work independently. 

Excellent English communication and writing skills; 

Experience working in the UN System is an asset 

Languages: 

Fluency in English is required. 

Knowledge of [French] or [Spanish] is an asset. 

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.