Consultancy Announcement – Proposal Development Consultant

1. Background information

Since 2018, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and Peace Track Initiative (PTI) have worked together to deliver the project ‘Enhanced space for Yemeni women to lead an inclusive and sustainable feminist peace process’ with support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Through this project, WILPF and PTI have strengthened feminist spaces for strategic collaboration, trust building and exchange of information between different women inclusion platforms. This led to the development of the Core Group, a mechanism that strategically and collaboratively brought together women leaders with different experiences and expertise and enabled the development of a feminist vision for peace by them that culminated in the Feminist Peace Roadmap. To address the exclusion of women from high-level meetings, peace negotiations, and other decision-making spaces, WILPF and PTI have also continued to strengthen their engagement with numerous stakeholders, bodies and agencies involved in the peace process including the Office of the Special Envoy, the Sanctions Committee, UN Women, and OHCHR to facilitate Yemeni women’s access to different spaces of negotiation and delegations.

WILPF has had a long-term commitment to the foster the feminist movement in Yemen. WILPF works to further the agenda for feminist peace in Yemen through supporting civil society for feminist movement building, enhancing advocacy for inclusion of women and increased gender analysis and input to peace processes, and advocating for grassroots-led, gender sensitive approaches to seeking accountability and justice for harms experienced.

Since its establishment in 2017, PTI has grown in five years into a leading feminist Track II partner that does not compromise on accountability, human rights-based approach, and feminist values with the support from WILPF and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. PTI acts as the technical secretariat for the Women Solidarity Network that has more than 300 women leaders who are inside and outside the country. PTI worked with women leaders to draft the Feminist Peace Roadmap in 2021, which is a guiding framework for peace mediators and negotiators based on human rights that brings forward gender-responsive recommendations on the main issues related to the peace process.

At the same time, the challenges to the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in the Yemeni context remain significant. Yemen has one of the biggest gender gaps in the world. Women in Yemen face systemic discrimination, patriarchal structures, restrictive social norms, and SGBV (including online harassment). The Netherlands seeks to promote a just and inclusive peace in Yemen. According to its new Multi-Annual Country Strategy, NL will seek to promote the leadership of representative women within the peace process and other political processes. The NL will also seek to apply a new feminist foreign policy.

Building on the advancements and gains in the previous project cycles, WILPF, PTI and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, referred to as the Project team, seek a consultant to assist in the review and finalization of PTI’s strategic plan for the coming years, assisting PTI in clearly defining its niche and impact as it relates to this partnership, and support them in drafting a new project proposal.

2. Objectives

As PTI continues to grow and we build on this partnership in implementing the feminist peace project and in order to move forward into building the project into a flagship project on women, peace and security and gender equality, the Project team seeks to hire a Consultant to support the Peace Track Initiative (PTI) to review and finalize its strategy and developing a new project proposal.

The consultant will lead the development of a multi-year project strategy with a strong theory of change and clearly defined outcomes along a clear results-based framework, contextualized to Yemen, aligned with the priorities of the project team partners and building on the added value of PTI and WILPF. Such a strategy will strengthen PTI as an institution going forward, which in turn will support the project’s aim of strengthening the role of Yemeni women as political actors. This will be done through a process of co-creation between the Project Team (WILPF, PTI and The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

3. Main Deliverables:

1. A short two-pager on PTI-vision with clarity on End December their role and added value( Deadline: end December)

2. A concise concept note based on the vision, with End January theory of change, objectives showing relevance
Dutch results framework. (Deadline: end January)

3. A full project proposal including a ToC, clear First week of March objectives and activities designed based on
strategy plan, risk analysis, and lessons learned of previous WPS Dutch projects. (Deadline: First week of March).

4. Methodology

• Document review:
• (Limited) Interviews with PTI Staff, members of the Women Solidarity Network and Dutch Embassy and WPS experts in Yemen.
• 2 hybrid workshops: one on PTI Vision and theory of change and one on main elements concept note/project document.

5. Process and Timeline

First month (November)

• Consultant TOR circulated, and consultant identified.

Second month (December)

• Internal consultations, document review, limited interviews.
• First co-creation workshop to identify clear understanding of PTI’s mandate/goals and lessons learned from prior experiences.
• Formulating vision document and agreed theory of change for the project.

Third month (January)

• Second co-creation workshop to discuss the concept note and main elements of the project document with results framework (including outputs and indicators).
• Formulation of a multi-year human resource plan, budget, and risk analysis in collaboration with PTI and WILPF.
• A concise concept note based on the vision, with theory of change, objectives showing relevance to Dutch NAP results framework, in collaboration with PTI and WILPF, is submitted to the NL MFA for review and feedback.

Fourth month (February)

• Drafting proposal in consultation with PTI & WILPF.

• First draft of proposal consulted with NL MFA for review and feedback.

• Finalization of proposal and annexes with PTI and WILPF.

• Final draft of proposal submitted to NL MFA for approval.

• 6. Qualifications

  1. Advanced degree or equivalent in social science or any relevant field.
  2. At least 10 years of experience in project development design and resource mobilization.
  3. Demonstrated fluency in Arabic and English, both written and spoken.
  4. Demonstrated expertise on the Women, Peace, and Security agenda and gender equality.
  5. Experience working on Yemen or in the MENA region is a plus.
  6. Experience in strategic planning, fund-raising and proposal writing is a plus.