Terms of Reference: Human Resources Consultant – Organisational Culture and Transformative Feminist Leadership

Terms of Reference: Human Resources Consultant – Organisational Culture and Transformative Feminist Leadership

Introduction

CIVICUS exists to defend people power. As a growing global alliance of over 15,000 members in 188 countries, we work together to monitor violations of basic civic freedoms, call out the perpetrators of violations and strengthen the power of people to organise by supporting a more accountable, effective and innovative civil society. We strive to promote excluded voices, especially from the Global South.

Background

CIVICUS is undertaking a process to strengthen organisational culture, leadership practice, and collective ways of working in alignment with its values and strategic priorities. As part of this effort, the organisation is investing in leadership development grounded in transformative feminist leadership principles, with a focus on understanding and reshaping organisational power dynamics, strengthening collaboration, and fostering more inclusive and equitable decision-making.

In addition to leadership development, CIVICUS is seeking to strengthen the way it undertakes organisational planning. The annual planning process is a key moment for reflection, alignment, and collective priority setting across teams. CIVICUS aims to ensure that this process is participatory, inclusive, and grounded in the same principles of shared power, accountability, and collaboration that underpin its approach to leadership and organisational culture.

To support this, CIVICUS is engaging an external consultant to facilitate a combined in-person engagement that integrates leadership development with a structured annual planning process. This will create a coherent space for organisational reflection, shared learning, and forward planning — ensuring that insights from leadership and power analysis directly inform organisational priorities and ways of working.

Purpose

The purpose of this consultancy is to support CIVICUS to strengthen leadership practice, organisational culture, and collective planning through an integrated facilitation process. Specifically, the consultant will:

1. Facilitate a transformative feminist leadership and organisational power mapping session to deepen shared understanding of how power operates within the organisation and to identify practical shifts toward more collaborative and inclusive ways of working.
2. Co-design and facilitate a structured annual organisational planning meeting that supports reflection, alignment, and collective priority setting, while embedding principles of shared power, participation, and accountability.
3. Support CIVICUS to translate insights from leadership reflection and power analysis into practical organisational commitments and forward-looking priorities.
4. Through this combined process, the consultancy will help CIVICUS strengthen both how it leads and how it plans, ensuring that organisational direction, decision-making, and collaboration are aligned with its values and strategic ambitions.

Scope of Work

Phase 1 – In-Person Engagement (3.5 Days | Johannesburg - NB must be available 13-17 April)

Objective: Build shared understanding of organisational power dynamics and strengthen leadership practice while supporting organisational planning and alignment. Phase 1 will combine leadership development, organisational reflection, and forward planning through two interconnected components:

Transformative Feminist Leadership and Power Mapping (1 Day): The consultant will design and facilitate an interactive, participatory session that:

• Introduces transformative feminist leadership grounded in power analysis
• Facilitates organisational power mapping (formal/informal influence, voice, access to information, decision authority).
• Explores intersectionality within organisational structures.
• Identifies behavioural and systemic shifts needed to move from “power over” to “power with.”
• Translates learning into practical commitments at individual and team levels.

Annual Organisational Planning Facilitation (2.5 Days): The consultant will design and facilitate a structured annual planning process to support organisational alignment, strategic reflection, and collective priority setting. This process will:

1. Create a structured space for organisational reflection on priorities, progress, and emerging challenges.
2. Support leadership and teams to align planning processes with feminist leadership principles and “power with” practices.
3. Facilitate inclusive participation and shared decision-making in organisational planning.
4. Support identification of strategic priorities, key objectives, and areas of organisational focus for the coming period.
5. Integrate insights from the power mapping and leadership work into planning discussions.
6. Strengthen clarity of roles, accountability, and collective ownership of organisational direction.

The consultant will design the planning methodology, facilitate sessions, and support synthesis of outputs.

Pre-engagement preparation: The consultant will conduct a brief pre-engagement assessment (interviews and/or surveys) to identify themes related to collaboration, decision-making and power, and review any existing strategic or planning documentation relevant to the annual planning process. Key informant interviews anticipated with the SG, COO, CPO, HR lead and others as will be mutually agreed upon.

Deliverables: Pre-session diagnostic summary, Leadership workshop design and materials, Annual planning facilitation design and methodology, Facilitated planning outputs (priorities, themes, or agreed directions as applicable), Post-engagement synthesis outlining key power dynamics surfaced, behavioural commitments, planning reflections and emerging priorities, system-level tensions and recommendations.

Phase 2 – Embedding and Systems Integration (Approx. 2-3 Months)

Objective: Move from awareness to embedded practice.

The consultant will co-design and support a structured process that:

1. Develops a clear roadmap for embedding feminist leadership into day-to-day work.
2. Defines behavioural indicators (e.g., decision transparency, meeting norms, voice inclusion, shared accountability).
3. Introduces structured learning spaces (e.g., peer learning sets, reflection cohorts, coaching conversations).
4. Supports leadership to model and reinforce “power with” practices.
5. Strengthens accountability mechanisms to sustain culture shift.

The consultant will facilitate selected virtual engagements and provide light-touch coaching to leaders/teams as agreed.

Deliverables: Monthly reflection touchpoints, Interim learning notes identifying progress, resistance patterns, and structural barriers, Final report summarising outcomes, systemic insights and sustainability recommendations.

Methodology

The consultant is expected to propose a clear and practical methodology that integrates leadership development with organisational planning and systems change. The approach should:

1. Be grounded in intersectional feminist leadership and power analysis.
2. Use participatory and inclusive facilitation methods suitable for diverse and global teams.
3. Create psychologically safe but constructive spaces for honest reflection and dialogue.
4. Integrate leadership reflection and power mapping insights directly into the annual planning process.
5. Support collective priority setting, alignment, and shared accountability.
6. Translate workshop discussions into practical outputs (e.g., behavioural commitments, planning priorities, implementation roadmaps).
7. Include light-touch follow-up mechanisms to reinforce learning and embed shifts into day-to-day practice.

Deliverables and Timeline

Pre-workshop assessment report - 2 weeks before Phase 1

Phase 1 in-person engagement (1 day leadership session + 2.5-day planning facilitation) and materials - 13-17 April in Johannesburg

Phase 1 summary & recommendations - 1 week after workshop

Phase 2 process plan & roadmap - 2 weeks after Phase 1

Interim reflections/report(s) - Monthly (as agreed)

Final consultancy report - End of engagement

Qualifications

Essential:

1. At least 8 years’ experience in organisational development and culture change.
2. Demonstrated experience in transformative feminist leadership and intersectional power analysis.
3. Proven experience facilitating multi-day organisational planning or strategy processes.
4. Strong facilitation skills, including the ability to guide senior leaders and diverse teams through reflective and challenging conversations.
5. Experience designing participatory, inclusive workshops and planning processes.
6. Ability to translate leadership and power analysis concepts into practical organisational actions.
7. Strong written skills, including the ability to produce clear summaries and recommendations.

Desirable:

• Experience working with international civil society organisations or global teams.
• Experience supporting leadership teams through organisational change.
• Familiarity with systems thinking or change management approaches.
• Coaching experience.

Expression of Interest

Proposals should clearly outline:

• The proposed structure and design for the 1-day leadership session.
• The proposed structure and facilitation approach for the 2.5-day annual planning process.
• How insights from Phase 1 will be embedded into organisational systems during Phase 2.
• How documentation, synthesis, and recommendations will be produced.
• The methodology should demonstrate how the consultant will move beyond a standalone workshop toward sustained organisational change.
• Indicative timeline and budget with key outputs.
• Proposals from consultant teams will also be considered.

Interested consultants are hereby invited to submit a PDF proposal by email to hrd@civicus.org, with the subject line: 'HR Consultant – Organisational Culture and Transformative Feminist Leadership'.

The deadline for submission of proposals is 12th March 2026. Short listed consultants will be contacted 2 weeks after the closing date to schedule interviews.

We appreciate and consider each application submitted. However, given the large volume of applications received, we find it impossible to respond to each applicant immediately. You will hear from us within three weeks only if you’re shortlisted for the next steps. We will update all applicants once the position has been filled.

CIVICUS reserves the right to withdraw any of our vacancies or consultancies at any time.