Consultancy, Stakeholder perceptions of IWDA’s work
Time Commitment: The assignment must commence no later than 25th May 2026 and complete by
14th August 2026.
Budget: Up to AUD18,000 (includes all potential materials and/or software if required)
Location: Home-based
INTRODUCTION:
International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) is an Australian-based organisation, resourcing diverse women’s rights organisations (WROs) primarily in the Asia and the Pacific, and contributing to global feminist movements to advance our vision of gender equality for all.
VISION Gender equality for all
PURPOSE To defend and advance the rights of diverse women and girls
VALUES Feminist, Decolonial, Accountable, Collaborative, Transformative.
Within the ecosystem of women’s rights organisations, IWDA is both for and of feminist movements. We resource the work of diverse WROs, and enable them to be more effective by providing support that goes beyond money. We are committed to building a resilient and relevant feminist and decolonial organisation, and to becoming an explicitly anti-racist organisation.
Anchored by lessons from our 40-year history and guided by fiercely held feminist and decolonial values, our new Strategic Plan 2025 – 2035 lays out IWDA’s path towards realising our vision of gender equality for all.
OUR GOALS 2025-2035
• Shift resources to Women’s Rights and aligned organisations
• Engage in movement strengthening
• Advance feminist & decolonial knowledge for change
• Live our values by modelling a different way of being as a feminist organisation.
Our 4S Framework supports our commitment to decoloniality so that we know when to:
STEP UP and use our power to leverage resources and access for women’s rights organisations, and make our own contribution to feminist movements
STAND WITH feminist movements in solidarity and amplify the work of Majority World actors
STEP BACK when others are better placed to take the lead.
SIT WITH uncertainty, embrace communal learning and deep listening, and accept that time is needed to collectively discern the best course of action.
IWDA’s 10-year Strategy commits to expanding our work in Australia, deepening engagement with domestic feminist movements, and responding to urgent calls for feminist climate justice. The strategy sets out four main outcome areas we seek in the next 10 years:
1)Diverse WROs and aligned orgs across A/Pac have access to core, untied, flexible funding allowing them to deliver on their own priorities…
2) The realities, priorities, and knowledges of Majority World movements enrich thriving global feminist movements and decolonial impact
3)The creation and amplification of diverse feminist knowledge influences power holders.
4)IWDA is a living example of feminist transformation, continuing our journey of practicing decolonial, anti-racist values and modelling a different way of being in the development sector .
For IWDA, responding to these calls is part of decolonising our practice. Through our 10-year strategy, we commit to leveraging our platforms, networks and analysis to champion feminist climate justice in Australia, centring First Nations leadership and deepening solidarity with aligned movements to disrupt the systems that undermine our collective rights.
ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW AND PURPOSE
IWDA is committed to decolonising our practice. As part of this, we recognise that we are accountable in multiple directions, including to ourselves, our Board, our funders, the network of women’s rights and feminist organisations that we work with, and our valued colleagues in regional and global women’s rights movements. We therefore seek input and feedback on our work from these multiple stakeholders.
IWDA uses Strategic Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (Strategic MEL) to understand and improve our work, and optimise the design and delivery of our Strategic Plans. Structured consultations with the women’s rights and feminist organisations we partner with, and other external stakeholders, are a crucial part of our Strategic MEL and are incorporated into our annual process for reflection, learning and adaptation. We seek to enable these stakeholders to provide feedback in ways that are conscious of IWDA’s locational power.
The stakeholder perceptions review forms a part of our strategic MEL and is focused primarily on assessing the perceptions of our stakeholders on IWDA’s contribution to change. Understanding our contribution from the perspective of external stakeholders is an important opportunity to sensecheck our perceived results and question the role we’ve played, if any.
The purpose of this consultancy is to enable organisations that engage with IWDA, including the women’s rights and feminist organisations we partner with, to provide anonymous feedback on our work during July 2024 – June 2026 (FY2024/25 and FY2025/26)
We are particularly interested in stakeholders’ perceptions of the effectiveness and relevance of IWDA’s work, as well as the extent to which we live our values. We are also interested in stakeholders’ insights into how IWDA has supported partner organisations. With our Behavioural Capability Framework (see Annex) as a way of framing our feminist and decolonial ways of working, we want to understand where we Step Up, Stand With, Step Back and Sit With, and what we have done well during FY2024/25 and FY2025/26, and how we can do better with the following questions:
• What achievements are attributable to our work? What is the work of others? How can we be more effective in the roles we play? Are these the right roles?
• Has IWDA partnered well with stakeholders or have we displaced others? Are we using our power appropriately? Are we a strategic ally? Do we magnify the voices of others?
• How do we continue to decolonise our practice? Are there barriers to how IWDA is approaching our decolonial practices?
Those questions will also provide results for IWDA’s outcome indicators:
− % of grantee partners (demographically disaggregated) who believe that IWDA funding terms supported autonomy, responsiveness to context, and alignment with their organisational priorities;
− Number and % of partner capacity-strengthening plans developed collaboratively and grounded in partner self-assessment;
− % of grantee partners who feel IWDA is effectively supporting the amplification of Majority World agendas, voices, or leadership in regional and global feminist movements;
− % of partners/ stakeholders reporting that organisational capabilities operationalize feminist, anti-racist, and decolonial principles.
• What are challenges when stakeholders partnering with IWDA and how can we improve?
Outputs from the consultancy will set the baseline for and contribute to IWDA’s understanding of what value our feminist approach adds to our partners, how well we are delivering against our Strategic Plan (are we doing things right?), whether our Strategic Plan is appropriate (are we doing the right things?), and what our next actions/operational plans could look like to implement our Strategic Plan (how do we decide what is right?).
It will give us an opportunity to triangulate IWDA’s sense of our key outcomes and give us a legitimate evidence-base to interrogate our decisions about when to Step Up, Stand With, Step Back and Sit With, as well as how we decolonise our practice.
ASSIGNMENT SCOPE
Within this review, the consultant(s) are expected to engage with three stakeholder groups:
(i) Convening/Movement Strengthening Partner organisations (women’s rights, feminist organisations and Feminist Climate Collective in Australia, the Pacific and Asia that receive funding support from IWDA);
(ii) Resourcing stakeholders (bilateral, multilateral and philanthropic organisations that fund IWDA and, through us, the work of our partner organisations); and
(iii) Advocacy and Evidence/Knowledge Creation (Collaboration) stakeholders (organisations that IWDA works jointly with and where funding, if any, is limited to one-off or collaboration-related support, for example advocacy collaborations).
IWDA has a commitment that consultations with partner organisations will be undertaken by a consultant from, and based in, a Majority World1 country in Asia or the Pacific or a First Nations individual or group. There are no restrictions on who may conduct consultations with resourcing or collaboration stakeholders. Proposals from a team must clearly outline the roles and responsibilities of the consultant(s), including who has responsibility for submitting draft and final reports.
REQUIREMENT
The consultant, or team of consultants, should be able to demonstrate the skills and experience listed below:
Essential
• Substantial experience in cross-cultural communication;
• Experience conducting interviews, including remote interviews;
• Experience in gender analysis and/or stakeholder analysis; and
• Deep understanding of feminist and decolonial research principles and partnerships.
Desirable:
• Tertiary qualifications in a relevant discipline, such as social science or international development.
EXPRESSION OF INTEREST
Candidates are invited to submit a study proposal providing the following:
• Study methodology;
• An outline of the proposed process and timeline to complete all outputs (maximum 1 page), including explanation of how the proposed process aligns with decolonial and feminist principles; and
• Daily rate and an outline of anticipated additional costs, to a maximum total of AUD18,000 (excluding GST for Australia-based consultants).
Expressions of interest that do not cover these requirements will not be considered.
Study proposal is required by 4 May 2026 and should be sent to tluu@iwda.org.au with the subject ‘Study Proposal – Stakeholder perceptions of IWDA’s work’.
Please find the Terms of Reference here