Author: Tarisai Nyamweda

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) invites applications from qualified feminist consultants based in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon to undertake Monitoring and Learning Support Visits with funded partners.

Scope of Work

Consultants will conduct site visits, assess organisational systems (MEL, finance, governance), document impact stories, and produce country and organisational reports in line with AWDF’s feminist values and accountability framework.

Consultant Profile: Applicants must identify as feminists, be fluent in English and French, and demonstrate experience in evaluating donor-supported programmes, organisational capacity assessments, and feminist leadership coaching in Central Africa. Strong interpersonal skills, project management expertise, and the ability to deliver under tight deadlines are essential.

Timeframe

The consultancy will be conducted in May 2026 over 10–15 working days.

Application Requirements

• Technical proposal (max. 3 pages) outlining understanding of the TOR and proposed approach
• CV
• Indication of country of residence and daily rate (USD)
• Overview/sample of similar work undertaken
• Cover email (subject line: Application to Undertake Site Visit Consultancy – [Country]) explaining motivation and interest

Deadline

Applications must be submitted by 11:59 PM GMT, 13th May 2026, to consultants@awdf.org.

Read more HERE 

AWDF strongly encourages applications from diverse feminist voices committed to advancing gender justice and inclusive leadership.

The African Women’s Development Fund  is inviting applications for a participatory Grant Advisory Panel (GAP) that will play a key role in shaping funding decisions for initiatives addressing Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) across Africa. This panel brings together survivors of CSA (including those who choose not to disclose) and allies to ensure that grantmaking is informed by lived experience, community knowledge and contextual realities across the continent.

By participating, panel members will directly influence how resources are allocated to prevention, response, and survivor support efforts.

Who Should Apply

We welcome applications from individuals across Africa who are:

• Survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA), whether publicly disclosed or undisclosed
• Allies, including advocates, practitioners, community leaders, or individuals working in child protection, gender justice or related fields
• Passionate about advancing survivor-centered and trauma-informed approaches
• Able to commit time to reviewing applications and participating in discussions

How to Apply 

If you are interested in being part of this panel, please send your CV and a letter of interest to consultants@awdf.org  by Close Of Business  on May 18, 2026.

Important:

You are not required to disclose any personal experience of CSA at any stage of the application or participation process.

Read more in the Terms of Reference attached.

As women’s rights and feminist activists gather in Naarm (Melbourne), for the Women Deliver Conference, we do so in a moment shaped by urgency and possibility. Across the world, feminist movements are experiencing intensifying  backlash and a roll back of hard won feminist gains, yet even in this context they continue to organise, resist and reimagine feminist futures often with limited funding. 

As we gather, we arrive in this space with clarity of purpose and solidarity. We show up fierce, united, and unequivocal for the African feminist movement on the global stage. Our voices are critical, our presence is necessary, and we remain steadfast in ensuring that African feminists are both heard and sustainedWe are excited to share AWDF’s plans for the Women Deliver conference taking place 27–30 April: a space to strategise, resist, and build a future rooted in solidarity, justice, and joy.On the sidelines of Women Deliver, we are creating a space to listen, reflect, and speak honestly about where we are and where we are headed. We will share AWDF’s direction of travel, a bold three-pronged commitment to Defend, Disrupt, and Define resourcing resistance, disrupting harmful systems and narratives, and investing in the feminist futures we are building together and anchored in our strategic framework Lemlem.

Additionally, join us across the following spaces, where we will be speaking, engaging, listening, and connecting, all in service of building stronger African feminist futures.

If you would like to connect with us at Women Deliver, we would love to meet you. Reach out to us at communications@awdf.org. And if you are hosting a space and would like us to participate, share the details, and we will be glad to join.

Join the conversation, Watch Live on Instagram , The Enduring Power of African Feminisms: Celebrating 20 Years of the African Feminist Forum  hosted by Black Women Radicals featuring  Florence F/Khaxas  Founder and Executive director of Y-Fem Namibia Trust and Françoise Moudouthe CEO of African Women’s Development Fund.

The IG Live will take place on Friday, April 17 at 6 PM GST/1 PM EST on Black Women Radicals’ Instagram @blackwomenradicals.

About the event: This IG Live dFlorence F/Khaxas and Françoise Moudouthe, steering committee members of AFF 2026, who will discuss what to expect at the forum; why AFF is needed in this contemporary political moment for African and African Diasporic feminists; and the enduring power and imagination of African feminisms.

The African Feminist Forum (AFF) is a regional gathering that brings together African feminist activists to discuss strategy, refine approaches, and develop stronger networks to advance women’s rights in Africa. Created to affirm and uplift the progressive visions and strategies of African feminists, AFF held its inaugural convening in Ghana in 2006, where over 100 African feminists from the continent and across the diaspora gathered to strengthen feminist mobilization. During AFF 2006, the Charter of Feminist Principles for African Feminists was created, which established the collective values of AFF. Since then, AFF has hosted other convenings in Uganda (2008) and Senegal (2010).

Twenty years since the inaugural forum, AFF will convene this year in Windhoek, Namibia from August 10-12, 2026.

Original blog content courtesy of Black Women Radicals

The African Women‘s Development Fund is seeking an exceptional feminist leader to join the AWDF team as Director of Partnerships and Voice. This is an exciting leadership opportunity to work  at the intersection of resource mobilisation, strategic partnerships, thought leadership, voice and influence.

About AWDF

As a pan-African feminist fund, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) resources, strengthens and upholds women’s rights and feminist organisations and movements across Africa to make gender justice a reality for all on our continent and worldwide. Over the past 24 years, AWDF has awarded approximately USD 100 million to women’s rights and feminist organisations throughout Africa (and in selected Middle Eastern countries through one of our initiatives). Through its grantmaking, programmatic, and advocacy work, AWDF has supported work that has led to changes in law and policy, social norms, narrative, and movement-building for gender justice.

In 2023, building on its strong track record, AWDF launched Lemlem. This strategic framework guides AWDF’s efforts to advance gender justice for girls, women and gender-diverse people across Africa until 2033. At its core, the strategy focuses on resourcing, nurturing and strengthening those best placed to achieve transformative change: African women’s and feminist groups, organisations and movements.

About the role

Reporting to the CEO, the Director of Partnerships and Voice plays a critical role in developing and implementing the vision and direction for AWDF’s strategies and initiatives related to donor partnerships and resource mobilisation, strategic alliances, and external stakeholder engagement, in full alignment with AWDF’s strategic framework.

In close collaboration with the CEO and the Director of Programmes, she/they will represent AWDF on selected platforms, shape AWDF’s thought leadership and institutional voice,  and promote AWDF’s visibility.

The Director of Partnerships and Voice will manage a small team whose members work effectively together and with the rest of the organisation on fundraising, donor stewardship, partnerships and advocacy, and communications. As part of the Executive Leadership Team, the Director will contribute to strategic direction and management decisions regarding maintaining a healthy, accountable, and efficient organisation.

How to Apply

All applications for this role are managed by Mission Talent. For more detailed information on this vacancy and to apply  please visit https://www.missiontalent.com/openings/awdf-dpv/ 

On International Women’s Day we reflect on the current moment  facing feminist movements across the continent and  outline three key approaches shaping our work with partners across the continent. 

 

We are living through a moment of profound global upheaval. Across continents, societies are grappling with intersecting crises: genocides and violent conflicts and humanitarian catastrophes, deepening economic inequality, climate shocks, democratic backsliding, and the increasingly coordinated efforts of anti-rights actors to roll back hard-won gains for gender justice. Recent escalation in the SWANA region further exacerbates suffering and inequality amid polarised geopolitics.  

In Africa, these global dynamics intersect with complex regional realities. Conflicts in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and northern Mozambique are displacing millions. From Algeria to Tanzania, increased authoritarianism leads to shrinking civic space and increased restrictions on civil society. From Uganda to Ghana, anti-rights actors are weaponising the legal system to make homophobia institutional. Severe droughts in East Africa and repeated cyclones and floods in Southern Africa are having a devastating humanitarian impact. Everywhere, these crises expose girls, women and gender-diverse people to systemic sexual violence and economic precarity and expose social and gender justice activists to increased surveillance and repression.

For us at the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), marking International Women’s Day in such a context is not a vain ritual. It is an act of recognition, remembrance, and profound respect. Today, we honour the women, girls and gender-diverse people who bear the brunt of the polycrisis. We pay tribute to the feminist pioneers who paved the way through decades of resistance. We celebrate the organisers who put their lives and freedoms at risk to shape gender-just futures for generations to come.

25 years  of  service to the movement

We feel honoured to have journeyed alongside these changemakers for over 25 years. Since 2000, we have awarded over USD 100 million in grants to more than 1,500 organisations and movements advancing gender justice across Africa. Beyond funding, we have contributed to strengthening feminist knowledge, convening spaces for movement dialogue and solidarity, and amplifying African feminist voices in global debates on development, philanthropy and social justice. 

In 2025 alone, we awarded over USD 12 million in grants to partners who challenged discriminatory laws, defended bodily autonomy, fostered women’s leadership and political participation, created new spaces for collective power and political participation, and forged cross-border solidarity that redefines power itself. In Zimbabwe, for example, feminist activists are pushing for stronger legal protections and expanding leadership opportunities for women and girls through advocacy and mentorship. In Chad, feminists are mobilising communities to promote women’s leadership, combat gender-based violence, and create new spaces for feminist dialogue. In the Gambia, we continue to support movements fighting against repeated efforts to decriminalise female genital mutilation. These few examples represent a glimpse of a vibrant and determined feminist ecosystem across Africa.

Harsh realities are forcing impossible choices

This year, we particularly commend African feminist activists, organisations and movements for the extraordinary ways they are responding to multiplying disruptions in a rapidly shifting funding landscape. Across the globe, Official Development Assistance is declining or being redirected (ODA to Africa faced 16-28% cuts in 2025 according to the OECD). Meanwhile, philanthropic funding for gender justice remains a small fraction of overall giving. AWID’s ‘Where is the Money?’ report (2025) revealed stark precarity: 28% of feminist organisations had no budget secured for 2025, 46% had none beyond 2026, and 64% could operate for less than 6 months without external funding. Most grants they received remained short-term, project-tied, and restrictive. Such funding models cannot match the scale or urgency of the work feminist movements are undertaking. 

Yet even under these pressures, feminist movements continue to organise with remarkable creativity and determination. Many are holding the line, ensuring protection, resilience and survival in the face of repression and crisis. Others are making strategic shifts, moving from reactive programmatic responses to collective and proactive approaches that tackle the root causes of inequality. Across movements, we are also witnessing the recognition of care as infrastructure: organisations are centering wellbeing, collective healing and sustainable organising as essential components of long-term feminist power. African feminist movements are not merely weathering the storm of crisis. In many ways, they are a storm in their own right: a powerful force for change reshaping the political, social and economic futures of their communities.  

Yet harsh realities force impossible choices. With limited resources, AWDF partners are having to choose between delivering essential services and advocating for laws and policies, between health and education programmes, or between office rent and staff insurance. Sometimes, funding cuts take away the choice altogether, with the closing of programmes targeting sexual and reproductive health and rights and LBTQI rights, and other issues perceived as contentious.

Defend, Disrupt, Define: How AWDF is meeting the moment

AWDF itself has had to make some difficult decisions in anticipation of funding cuts. We decided to prioritise funding to community-based and marginalised groups, over larger-scale and regional groups. We decided to prioritise grantmaking over some of our other flagship knowledge-building or solidarity-building programmes, and to channel our non-grantmaking programming through the work of the African Feminist Forum. Most critically, we choose depth over scale: resourcing fewer movements more impactfully, because true power builds from strong roots.

We are deepening, not contracting, our work through the bold 3D framework which will guide how AWDF will implement its Lemlem strategy in the next few years. Through our grantmaking, movement-strengthening and thought leadership work, we plan to resource and accompany our partners to:

• Defend hard-won gains, by resourcing and nurturing feminist movements to sustain their impact, to protect and secure human rights, to oppose the backsliding of feminist wins, and sustain the core infrastructure of African feminist movements. This includes expanding resources for feminist groups in underfunded linguistic and geographic contexts, including Portuguese-speaking countries, and strengthening support for feminist responses in crisis and conflict settings.

• Disrupt oppressive ecosystems, by challenging and transforming the narratives, behaviours and practices that hinder feminist movement’s impact, safety and sustainability, thus creating a healthier and more supportive environment for gender justice in Africa. Because disruption cannot happen in isolation, AWDF is working alongside other feminist funds including through the Leading From the South consortium, the pan-African Komboa alliance to counter the anti-backlash, and the Feminist Response Fund, and renewing its partnership with the Equality Fund. At a time when competition for shrinking resources is intensifying, choosing collaboration and solidarity is itself a powerful act of disruption.
• Define visionary futures, by catalysing and supporting innovative, long-term initiatives and providing spaces and opportunities for movements to think beyond resistance and lay the grounds for the feminist realities we want to see in the future. The African Feminist Forum is one of the key spaces for co-creating these futures through strategy sessions and knowledge archives, and we look forward to collectively articulating the feminist futures we want to build when we meet in Namibia in August 2026.

As AWDF Chief Executive Officer, Françoise Moudouthe affirms, “With this 3D framework, AWDF turns crisis into an opportunity to resource African feminists not just to survive, but to lead the long-term transformation we all need. This strategic evolution, shaped by movement wisdom, makes us more impactful, even as we are made to operate at a smaller scale.”

A call to the donor community

In this moment of adversity, we extend deep gratitude to funding partners who have stepped forward with top-up funding, additional flexibility and decreased restrictions. We call on all funders who care about gender justice to fund more and ease the bureaucratic restrictions and risk-averse approaches that hamstring our collective impact. Gender justice can only be achieved if the movements that champion it are provided the space to thrive and innovate, not asked to survive on fragmented, short-term and risk-averse funding models.

As Nana Zulu, AWDF’s Director of Programmes, reminds us, “feminist organising thrives when funding prioritises people, care, safety and collective resilience, and when philanthropy stands firmly with feminist movements even when it appears risky or unpopular. As a feminist fund rooted in African feminist movements, AWDF is committed to deepening long-term support, centering trust over control and adapting to the evolving realities of feminist movements across the continent.”

Especially when funding through women’s and feminist funds, donors should provide multi-year and flexible funding that allows us to resource our partners strategically, not pass on excessive requirements and restrictions. This moment requires supporting programmes, but also to invest in movements’ safety, resilience, healing and infrastructure. It requires philanthropy to stand firmly against anti-rights forces, not shy away from funding politically inconvenient issues.

This is not a call to charity. It is a reminder of our collective responsibility.

On this International Women’s Day 2026, we call on governments, philanthropy and the international development community society to match the courage, urgency and imagination that African feminist movements demonstrate every day. The future of gender justice will be shaped not only by those who resist injustice, but by those who choose to resource that resistance.

 

In alignment with the  African Women’s Development Fund commitment to flourishing, we have identified  key pathways for movement accompaniment and invite African feminist consultants to support us.

We are calling  on you to apply for one or more of the following assignments. Each requires a distinct thematic expertise, facilitation modality and level of engagement.

1. Collective care as Political Strategy: A two day workshop shifting care from individual burden to radical, systemic organizational practice, framing wellbeing as a primary defense against backlash.

2. Digital security and Collective Safety: A four- day in-person training building practical digital security and data protection skills; developing organizational Digital Security Protocols and Cyber Harassment Response Plans.

3. Crisis Response and Preparedness training: A  four-day Feminist crisis response and communication preparedness for organisation facing political, digital or reputational threats.

4. The Research and Advocacy Teach-In: A five-day in person retreat designed as a strategic forge where feminist research meets political action. Here, we will equip partners to transform their lived evidence into the narratives and power required to shape to collective futures. Feminists operating in French and Portuguese speaking contexts.

5. Peer Learning Exchange Programme: Six-month online journey monthly facilitated peer learning circles feminist governance, resource mobilisation, digital security collective care and advocacy.

6. Resilience building Accompaniment: Six -month online programme. A cyclical journey of learning covering advocacy  in hostile spaces collective care and developing organisational Resilience Action Plans.

7. Integrated resource directory and Toolkit: a living and accessible ecosystem of practical tools, contextual knowledge and peer connections designed to strengthen the operational resilience and strategic response capacity of French and Portuguese speaking women’s rights movements.

Application Process

Interested practitioners should submit

1. Technical Expression of Interest ( detailing methodology and pathway(s) for movement accompaniment).

2. Financial Proposal

Send you applications to Consultants@awdf.org by 20th March, 2026.

For more details, find out more in the Terms of Reference.

 

Are you experienced in leading the design and implementation of a monitoring, evaluation and learning strategy, ensuring that the evidence learning and reflection strengthen feminist grant making; accountability to movements doors and stakeholders and strategic decision-making?

Are you experienced in working to drive internal and external learning, impact documentation and contribute to thought leadership grounded in rigorous evidence and grant making experience?

Are you ready to lead a dynamic team providing technical MEL expertise, programme leadership, strategic operational leadership and people and relationship management?

Then the African Women’s Development Fund has an exciting opportunity for you. Learn more about the Programme Manger – Impact and Learning role HERE.

Job Summary

The Programme Manager- Impact and Learning leads organisational learning, evidence generation and feminist impact leadership. The Manager will work to champion a culture of reflection and accountability that stregthens internal practice and amplifies AWDF’s influence across the philanthropic ecosystem . The Manager will work to drive internal and external learning, impact documentation and contribute to thought leadership grounded in rigorous evidence and grant making experience.

Reporting to the Director of Programmes, the Programme Manager –  Impact & Learning leads the design and implementation of AWDF’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Strategy, ensuring that evidence, learning and reflections strengthen feminist grantmaking ; accountability to movements, donors and stakeholders; and strategic decision-making. The role combines technical MEL expertise, programme leadership and relationship management. The role also plays a management role providing strategic operational leadership to the impact and learning functional area.

Please follow this link to apply for the position

Applications must reach AWDF  no later than 20 February 2026.

In line with AWDF’s Mission, qualified African women and gender-diverse persons are encouraged to apply.

 

 

 

 

Are you interested in leading and contributing to Impact and Learning work in a pan-African feminist fund. This opportunity may just be right one for you. Application submissions have been extended to  23 January  2026. Read more about the position HERE.

As a Pan-African feminist fund, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) resources, strengthens and upholds women’s rights and feminist organisations and movements across Africa to make gender justice a reality for all on our continent and worldwide. Through its grantmaking, programatic and advocacy work, , AWDF has supported work that has led to changes in law and policy, social norms, narrative, and movement-building for gender justice.

Role overview

We seek an Impact and Learning (I&L) Specialist on a consultancy basis to support the management of external end of project evaluations and impact documentation processes including data, story collection and dissemination. The Specialist will work alongside two I & L Officers and work collaboratively in support to the programs team and wider AWDF team. The role will report to the Director of Programmes.

Scope of Work 

The successful candidate will;

• Lead and manage baseline, midline and enplane evaluations including drafting terms of reference, overseeing consultants and ensuring methodological rigor.
• Coordinate evaluation logistics, sampling, data collection, quality checks and analysis and ensure that evaluations generate clear and actionable insights for programing.
• Facilitate collaborative interpretation of evaluation findings with stakeholder including grantees.
• Support the documentation of impact stories, case studies, lessons learned and best practices.
• Lead the production of learning briefs, synthesis papers and presentations for dissemination to partners, donors, internal teams and the board.
• Lead the development and updating of monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) frameworks including theories of change, results frameworks, indicators and MEL plans.
• Lead the design and refining of data collection tools, and methodologies and protocols to ensure high quality and consistent data.
• Coordinate the development of MEL guidelines and instruments for internal and external stakeholders
• Support the development of the AWDF MEL framework to track the implementation of the strategic plan, Lemlem.
• Support project close out and documentation processes including data repository.
• Contribute  MEL expertise for the development of project proposals and internal and external reporting requirements (board, donor, project reports, etc.)

Application Process

Interested applicants can find out more details about the job and  submit their cover letter and application not later than Friday 23 January 2026 HERE.

 

 

In line with the global 16 Days of Activism Campaign, AWDF  co-created and hosted  a virtual event on 3rd December 2025 on Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence (TFSV). AWDF leveraged of the 16 Days OF aCTIVISM Campaign to raise awareness on TFSV and amplify the voices of the most affected: women, girls, gender-diverse persons, survivors and actors working to address TFSV.

AWDF sough to amplify voices of partners and increase visibility for our work on TFSV and advocate for a feminist approach to ending it. The event Brough together women’s rights and feminist organisations and activists,  donors, and other actors working to address TFSV. 

Missed the event here are some key insights shared during the convening