1. General information
1.1 Introduction
Fòs Feminista is as an intersectional feminist organization centred around the sexual and reproductive rights and needs of women, girls, and gender-diverse people. Led and governed by the Global South, Fòs Feminista works as an alliance of organizations in 40+ countries worldwide to advance sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice. As the connecting fabric of this alliance, Fòs Feminista orchestrates transnational and transregional action, amplifies partners’ work, and promotes South-South learning and collaboration toward achieving common objectives.
Together with our partners, we provide access to sexual and reproductive health care, including contraception, abortion, and care for victims of gender-based violence, and we reach young people with comprehensive sexuality education. We recognize that the ability of women, girls, and gender-diverse people to make free and informed choices about their sexual and reproductive lives, including access to safe and legal abortion, is central to their life plans and to achieving gender and reproductive justice. As such, we are at the forefront of advocating for sexual and reproductive health and rights from an intersectional lens in national, regional, and global spaces, coordinating with our partners to ensure that diverse experiences, priorities, and voices of the Global South are represented in these spaces.
In December of 2021, Fòs Feminista signed a four-year grant agreement for the project titled Pathways to Reproductive Justice: Intersectional Feminist Approaches to Advancing Health and Rights in Latin America with Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The overall objective of the project is to advance an intersectional feminist development agenda in Latin America that centres reproductive justice.
This consultancy falls under the third objective of this project. The third specific objective of the project is to strengthen and amplify evidence-based feminist approaches to emergency preparedness and response, including migration, public health, and climate emergencies. Work toward this objective aims to generate evidence of the need for intersectional feminist responses that position sexual and reproductive health as essential for women, girls, and gender-diverse people wherever they are, including in emergency settings and along migration routes.
Under this objective, the intent of this consultancy is to develop a practical tool for our partners to use to evaluate and share information on their feminist responses, in terms of service delivery and advocacy, in humanitarian settings, as defined by Fòs Feminista as part of a recently commissioned study. The application of this tool will allow Fòs Feminista to better measure and bring visibility to our partners feminist responses in humanitarian settings.
The deadline to submit a proposal according to the specifications included in these Terms of Reference is May 30, 2025. The consultancy will take place within the timeframe of July 1, 2025, to September 30, 2025.
1.2 Consultancy Rationale
In collaboration with the Center for Transnational Development and Cooperation, Fòs Feminista has recently developed a feminist definition of a humanitarian setting as one that is “heterogenous, changing, and dynamic, where a new emergency occurs that exacerbates the pre-existing needs of communities already experiencing oppression from intersecting political, social, economic, and/or environmental systems and structures of power.”
Feminist humanitarian responses by our partners to these settings are characterized by political praxis, and responses tend to address the root causes of problems, and not solely focus on symptoms. They also include a focus on the process of how the response is being done, with an emphasis on contextualizing the response, avoiding homogeneity, recognizing diversity, and addressing power asymmetries. Feminist responses by our partners can also be characterized by their adaptability and flexibility and their engagement of local networks and allies. Partners tend to carry out holistic assessments that lead to the provision of technical support to strengthen other non-governmental and governmental actors. Finally, a feminist humanitarian response holds close the concept of collective care, including mechanisms for protecting safety and security.
These definitions provide a conceptual framework for understanding humanitarian settings and feminist approaches to these settings, however, there is a need to translate this framework into a practical assessment tool for partners so that they, and Fòs Feminista, can generate evidence on the magnitude of humanitarian needs and feminist responses to them, bringing greater visibility to their contexts and work. This tool will need to be accompanied by a manual for its application and use and will need to fit into existing data sharing mechanisms for carried out by Fòs Feminista and partners.
The development of this measurement tool may also draw on the results of research commissioned by Fòs Feminista in years prior which documented feminist emergency responses carried out by partner organizations in Latin America, including advocacy responses, and is aligned with Fòs Feminista’s cross-cutting commitment to responding to humanitarian settings.
2. The Assignment
2.1 Intended Use and Intended Users
The purpose of the consultancy is to develop a tool for measuring and reporting on feminist humanitarian responses by our partners, both in service delivery as well as in advocacy.
The primary intended users of the deliverables of this consultancy are:
· Fòs Feminista
· Alliance partner organizations
The consultancy should be designed to meet the needs of the intended users.
The consultant will be expected to describe and justify an appropriate approach/methodology for developing the aforementioned tool and piloting/validating it for this consultancy. This approach/methodology will be contained in the first deliverable, which is the inception report. The inception report is a mechanism to ensure common understanding and agreements and will form the basis for this consultancy, approved by Fòs Feminista before implementation proceeds. Limitations to the chosen approach/methodology and methods shall be made explicit by the consultant and the consequences of these limitations discussed in the inception report. The consultant shall, to the extent possible, present mitigation measures to address them.
The inception report should also include a specific timeline and work plan for the remainder of the consultancy. The timeline shall allow space for reflection and learning for the intended users.
2.3 Time schedule and deliverables
The consultancy shall be carried out from July 1, 2025 to September 30, 2025:
2.4 Consultant Qualifications
The consultant shall have the following competencies:
· Proven experience in:
o Feminist monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning methodologies.
o Developing tools for measuring work in humanitarian settings.
o Partnering with feminist organizations in the Global South.
· Academic profile:
o Master’s degree or PhD in a relevant field.
· Additional skills and experience
o Fluent verbal and written communication skills in English and Spanish.
o Commitment to and knowledge of the sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice landscape across the Global South.
o Superb interpersonal skills and the ability to collaborate effectively in multicultural settings across multiple time zones.
o Ability to be a self-starter that adapts to challenges and opportunities as they arise.
o Excellent communication and planning skills, with the ability to work under tight deadlines.
o Capacity to work independently and in collaborative teams.
It is desirable that the consultant have the following competencies.
· Familiarity with Sida requirements or reporting.
· Fluent verbal and written communication skills in one of Fòs Feminista’s other working languages (French or Portuguese).
2.5 Financial and Human Resources
The maximum budget amount available for the consultancy is $10,000 USD.
Invoicing and payment shall be managed according to the following: The consultant may invoice based on hours or days of services rendered or by deliverable with a maximum of 30% after approval by Fòs Feminista of the Inception Report and a maximum of 70% after approval by Fòs Feminista of the Final Report and when the assignment is completed.
This consultancy will be carried out 100% virtually. Fòs Feminista will support the consultant to arrange the logistics, including virtual platforms and interpretation, for meetings and interviews with our partners.