AWDF African Feminist Consultant Call 2026: Movement Accompaniment and Collective Strengthening (Closed)

AWDF African Feminist Consultant Call 2026: Movement Accompaniment and Collective Strengthening (Closed)

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) published this call for African feminist consultants on 26 February 2026. The call invited practitioners to apply for one or more assignments supporting movement accompaniment and collective strengthening. The application deadline was close of business on 20 March 2026. That date has passed, and the official announcement and its linked Terms of Reference do not announce a later round or replacement deadline. This page is therefore a historical reference, not an open application listing.

The original opportunity is still useful to people researching AWDF’s consultant model, preparing for a possible future announcement, or documenting the kinds of facilitation and movement-support work AWDF commissioned in this cycle. Do not send a new application to the address below unless AWDF publishes a new call confirming that submissions are open again.

Verified details

The official announcement describes the work as movement accompaniment rather than a standard, pre-packaged capacity-building contract. AWDF says each assignment calls for a distinct thematic expertise, facilitation modality, and level of engagement. The linked Terms of Reference describes the desired practitioner as a movement-rooted feminist co-conspirator who can hold difficult conversations about institutional health, power imbalances, exhaustion, fragmentation, safety, and organisational resilience.

What AWDF advertised

AWDF’s announcement lists seven possible pathways. The listing says consultants could apply for one or more of them, so applicants were expected to select work that matched their experience rather than submit a generic application for an undefined role.

1. Collective Care as Political Strategy: a two-day workshop focused on moving care beyond an individual burden and toward systemic organisational practice. AWDF framed wellbeing as part of a movement’s defence against backlash.

2. Digital Security and Collective Safety: a four-day, in-person training covering practical digital security and data protection. The stated outputs included organisational Digital Security Protocols and Cyber Harassment Response Plans.

3. Crisis Response and Preparedness Training: a four-day feminist crisis-response and communications-preparedness engagement for organisations facing political, digital, or reputational threats.

4. Research and Advocacy Teach-In: a five-day, in-person retreat connecting feminist research with political action. AWDF specifically identified feminists working in French- and Portuguese-speaking contexts for this pathway.

5. Peer Learning Exchange Programme: a six-month online programme with monthly facilitated peer-learning circles. The listed subjects were feminist governance, resource mobilisation, digital security, collective care, and advocacy.

6. Resilience Building Accompaniment: a six-month online programme covering advocacy in hostile spaces, collective care, and the development of organisational Resilience Action Plans.

7. Integrated Resource Directory and Toolkit: a living collection of practical tools, contextual knowledge, and peer connections intended to strengthen operational resilience and strategic response capacity for French- and Portuguese-speaking women’s rights movements.

The announcement and Terms of Reference use slightly different wording in places, but they describe the same call and the same set of listed assignments. The announcement calls them pathways for movement accompaniment; the Terms of Reference presents them under “The Work: Areas of Accompaniment.” The source does not provide a separate salary, grant, prize, stipend, or fixed consultancy fee for any pathway.

Who the call was for

The basic audience named by AWDF was African feminist consultants. The Terms of Reference adds the description “Feminist Co-conspirators” and says AWDF was seeking movement-rooted practitioners who could facilitate processes of interrogation and disruption. That language matters: the call was not a general internship, volunteer placement, or entry-level job posting. It was a consultancy invitation for people able to work alongside feminist movements and adapt their practice to the needs of participating collectives.

The official materials do not provide a checklist of degrees, years of experience, citizenship rules, or a universal minimum number of projects. They also do not say that every applicant must be both a specialist in all seven topics and an experienced facilitator. Instead, AWDF says each assignment requires its own thematic expertise, facilitation approach, and level of engagement. A credible applicant would therefore have needed to explain the pathway or pathways they could support and show relevant movement-facing practice for that choice.

The Terms of Reference points to several capabilities that were relevant across the call:

• designing content for specific sessions and advising on methodology and engagement;
• co-creating and holding interactive, participatory spaces rooted in African feminist principles and movement-building;
• developing the pedagogical flow and bringing in additional movement voices such as elders, healers, or artists where appropriate;
• conducting participatory reflections to understand partners’ needs, tensions, and contexts rather than imposing a pre-written curriculum;
• working with interpretation teams so materials and dialogue remain culturally and politically grounded in English, Portuguese, and French; and
• supporting participating collectives to draft action plans and curating tools or readings that remain useful after the sessions.

These are source-backed indicators of suitability, not a promise that AWDF would accept any person who used the same terminology in an application. The original call required applicants to connect their experience and method to a selected assignment.

What applicants had to submit

AWDF’s application instructions were short and specific. Interested practitioners had to send two components:

1. A Technical Expression of Interest detailing their methodology and the pathway or pathways for movement accompaniment they proposed to support.
2. A Financial Proposal.

Applications had to be sent to [email protected] by close of business on 20 March 2026. The official page directs readers to the Terms of Reference for more detail, but neither source specifies a required page limit, CV format, portfolio format, reference list, daily rate, or fixed budget template. The earlier version of this page presented several of those items as likely requirements; that was not verified by AWDF and has been removed.

For historical purposes, the technical submission would have needed to do more than repeat AWDF’s values. A useful expression of interest would have identified the selected pathway, described a participatory method, explained how the consultant would work with partners’ lived contexts, and connected the method to practical outputs such as protocols, response plans, action plans, peer-learning structures, or a resource directory. The financial proposal was a separate required component, but the published materials do not reveal the amount AWDF had available or how proposals would be priced.

Scope and expected working style

The Terms of Reference places the consultant in collaboration with AWDF’s Nurturing Feminist Movement’s Cluster. It describes work that begins with designing session content and continues through facilitation, participatory reflection, interpretation, action planning, and resource curation. That scope suggests a collaborative engagement rather than a consultant arriving with a finished workshop and leaving immediately afterward.

The source also makes clear that the format varied by pathway. Some assignments were short and intensive: the collective-care workshop was two days, while the digital-security and crisis-preparedness trainings were four days. The research and advocacy teach-in was five days and in person. Other work was intentionally longer: the peer-learning exchange and resilience-building accompaniment were each described as six-month online programmes. The directory and toolkit assignment was framed as a continuing, accessible ecosystem of tools and connections rather than a single event.

The language and delivery requirements were not identical across all seven options. French and Portuguese contexts are specifically named for the research and advocacy teach-in and the integrated resource directory and toolkit. The Terms of Reference also says the consultant should work with an interpretation team across English, Portuguese, and French. That does not establish a universal language requirement for every pathway, so applicants should have matched their language and regional experience to the assignment they selected.

Current status and how to use this page

The verified closing date is 20 March 2026. That date appears in the official page title, the application instructions, and the Terms of Reference. The AWDF page remains the correct official URL, and it is retained above so readers can review the original announcement and its source documents.

There is no verified next-cycle date in the official materials reviewed for this update. The page should therefore not imply that applications remain open or that submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. The retained deadline records the real closing date for the completed cycle, while historicalReference = true marks this entry as an archive record.

If AWDF later publishes a new consultant call, that announcement should be treated as a separate source check. A future page would need its own deadline, scope, eligibility wording, fee information, and submission instructions. Until then, this entry can help prospective consultants understand the 2026 brief and prepare evidence of relevant movement accompaniment, participatory facilitation, digital safety, crisis preparedness, research-to-advocacy work, peer learning, organisational resilience, or resource curation.

Official source

Read the original announcement at the African Women’s Development Fund. For the detailed scope, suitability language, and collaboration expectations, consult the Terms of Reference PDF.

This page preserves the verified facts of the closed 2026 call. It is not an active invitation to apply.