The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), Urgent Action Fund – Africa (UAF-Africa), and Fonds pour les Femmes Congolaise (FFC) seek an external, independent, and diverse African feminist evaluation consultancy team to conduct a final programme evaluation of its work carried out as part of the No to Backlash: Supporting the Collective Resistance of Feminist and Women’s Movements in Africa initiative. Lessons learned from the evaluation will inform and improve the development of future programming, grant-making support to our partners, advocacy strategy and stakeholder engagement. The evaluation inception phase will start in August 2026, with the final report submitted on 23rd October 2026.

About the project 

The “No to Backlash” project is a multi-country initiative implemented across ten African countries by a consortium of three feminist funds: AWDF, UAF-Africa, and the Congolese Women’s Fund, with funding from French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) . The project responds to the growing threat of anti-gender and anti-rights movements in Africa by funding, strengthening, and connecting feminist organisations and movements to better resist backlash and advance gender justice. The full project presentation has been attached in the Terms of Reference (TOR).

Objectives of Assignment 

Retrospective Objectives

• To produce a consolidated assessment of all activities carried out throughout the “No to Backlash” FEF project, covering all three consortium partners and all ten target countries.
• To assess the extent to which the project has achieved its stated objectives and produced the expected results, based on the evaluation questions defined in Section 4, and by reference to the indicators and targets established in the original project presentation report.

Forward-Looking Objectives

• To identify and document key lessons learned from the design and implementation of the project, including what worked well, what did not, and why, to inform future feminist fund programming in Africa.
• To formulate actionable recommendations for AWDF, UAF-Africa, the Congolese Women’s Fund, and MEAE regarding: (i) the potential consolidation, replication, or scale-up of effective project mechanisms; (ii) the design of future similar initiatives targeting anti-gender and anti-rights backlash in Africa; and (iii) strategies to strengthen the sustainability of results achieved, including the durability of partnerships and networks built.
• To generate knowledge and evidence on the role of feminist funds in countering anti-rights movements in Africa that can be shared with the broader feminist philanthropy and development community.

Timeline

The consultancy will run from August -October 2026, with key milestones including:

Budget 

The maximum budget available for this evaluation is 40000 EUR, excluding tax. 

How to Apply 

Interested consultants should submit their application to consultants@awdf.org no later than 24 August 2026 at 11:59 PM GMT.

The application must include:

– A technical proposal (maximum 15 pages) presenting: an understanding of the project context and evaluation objectives; the proposed methodological approach, including a description of all data collection tools; a plan for field missions and stakeholder consultations; and a provisional implementation timetable;

– A provisional breakdown of the number of working days per phase, using the financial annex template (Annex 1);

– The CVs of all consultants proposed to carry out the work, clearly indicating relevant expertise in: feminist movement-building and gender justice; evaluation of development and/or civil society projects; African contexts, particularly French-speaking Africa; and any relevant thematic expertise (anti-rights movements, digital security, philanthropic funding mechanisms);

– Bank details, quote/invoice reference, and any other documents required for contractual engagement.

Enquiries 

For any questions regarding this Terms of Reference, please contact: impactconsultant@awdf.org

Read full details in the Terms of Reference provided in English and French HERE 

AWDF reserves the right to request clarifications from shortlisted applicants prior to making a final selection. The selected service provider will be notified, and a contract will be issued in accordance with AWDF’s procurement procedures.