IPPF Humanitarian Advocacy Toolkit

Terms of Reference: IPPF Humanitarian Advocacy Toolkit

Background

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is a global leader in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). With Member Associations and partners in nearly 150 countries, the Federation provides essential SRH services, advocates for policy change, and promotes gender equality and human rights.

Through its humanitarian work, IPPF supports Member Associations (MAs) across the full disaster management cycle to deliver life-saving sexual and reproductive health in emergencies (SRHiE). These national civil society organisations are rooted in their communities, giving them a unique ability to respond quickly and effectively when crises occur. IPPF strengthens their efforts through funding, technical assistance, training and coordination, helping to ensure humanitarian services are locally led and responsive to the needs of women, girls and marginalised communities.

Alongside service delivery, there is a growing need to strengthen humanitarian advocacy with MAs. While many MAs are experienced providers of SRH services in crises and have deep knowledge of the communities they serve, their ability to engage consistently in humanitarian advocacy and influence humanitarian decision-making varies considerably. Some MAs may face barriers to accessing coordination and decision-making spaces, navigating complex humanitarian structures, translating programme evidence into clear advocacy asks, and influencing humanitarian policies and funding priorities.

Strengthening advocacy capacity will help ensure an enabling environment – that local voices are central to humanitarian coordination, SRHR remains on the agenda, and MAs can influence the policies, priorities and funding decisions that shape crisis responses. It also creates opportunities to utilise existing MA youth networks and other representative groups, enabling young people and communities affected by crisis to participate meaningfully in advocacy and help shape humanitarian priorities.

To support this, IPPF is commissioning a consultant or small team of consultants to develop a practical Humanitarian Advocacy Toolkit specifically designed for MAs through the SPRINT programme working in humanitarian contexts and utilized during preparedness, response and recovery. Specific focus MAs are likely to be located in the Indo-Pacific and Arab World.

While this is a remote consultancy position with no travel anticipated, consultant(s) need to be highly flexible about working hours and ideally located in Asia-Pacific region to have maximum overlapping working hours for SPRINT MAs in Indo-Pacific and the IPPF Humanitarian Team based in Malaysia.

Deliverables

The consultant or consultant team will deliver:

• An inception report, including methodology, workplan, consultation approach and proposed toolkit structure.

• A short summary of key findings from the desk review and MA consultations and how these will inform the toolkit.

• A first draft of the Humanitarian Advocacy Toolkit and any accompanying editable tools or templates.

• A revised draft following review by IPPF and selected MAs.

• Six interactive regional online workshops, with accompanying presentation and facilitation materials.

• A short summary of feedback and learning from the regional online workshops.

• Final, fully edited Humanitarian Advocacy Toolkit content and accompanying editable tools integrating learnings from the regional workshops, ready for separate graphic design and layout by IPPF in 2027.

• A short presentation deck and reusable facilitation materials to support future rollout and training.

• A complete script for a short video tutorial to accompany the toolkit (produced separately)

Purpose of the Assignment

The purpose of this consultancy is to develop a practical, accessible Humanitarian Advocacy Toolkit that strengthens the capacity of IPPF Member Associations (MAs) to influence humanitarian policy, practice, coordination and funding, and to position sexual and reproductive health in emergencies (SRHiE) as an essential component of humanitarian action. It is important that MA experiences and voices are central to the development of the toolkit.

The detailed scope, structure and proposed content of the toolkit will be developed by the consultant as part of the inception phase, informed by the desk review, consultation process and the consultant’s own expertise.

• The toolkit should primarily support advocacy at community, sub-national and national levels, while also helping MAs identify opportunities to influence or elevate issues through regional and global advocacy channels.

• It should be relevant across different humanitarian contexts, including conflict, climate-related emergencies, sudden- and slow-onset disasters and protracted crises, and across preparedness, anticipatory action, response, recovery and transition.

• It should provide practical, adaptable guidance and tools and adaptable templates for advocacy planning, key messaging and position statement development that MAs with different levels of advocacy experience can apply in their own contexts.

• Guidance on engaging with humanitarian coordination mechanisms for advocacy and mapping how to work with systems such as the humanitarian cluster system, Humanitarian Country Teams, government-led coordination bodies, donor groups, and civil society platforms.

• Strengthen MAs’ ability to navigate and influence relevant humanitarian coordination, policy and decision-making spaces.

• Guidance on engaging with youth networks, LGBTIQ+, PLHIV, PWD groups, women-led organisations, before, during and after an emergency- Support locally led advocacy and the meaningful participation and leadership of communities and groups that are frequently marginalised or excluded from humanitarian decision-making, including young people, people with disabilities and people with diverse SOGIESC.

• Reflect the realities of advocacy in politically sensitive, restrictive and conflict-affected environments and promote safe, ethical and context-sensitive approaches.

• Draw on practical examples, case studies and learning from MAs working across different regions and humanitarian contexts.

• Align with IPPF’s feminist humanitarian principles, humanitarian priorities and localisation agenda.

Scope of Work

The consultant or consultant team will:

• Conduct a rapid desk review of relevant internal and external humanitarian advocacy toolkits, guidance and resources to identify good practice, gaps and opportunities to build on existing materials.

• Consult with a representative sample of MAs across IPPF’s regions to understand their humanitarian advocacy priorities, needs, barriers and existing good practice.

• Where feasible and appropriate, ensure that relevant youth and representative networks or organisations inform the development of guidance relating to meaningful participation and inclusive advocacy.

• Develop an inception report setting out the proposed methodology, workplan, consultation approach and recommended structure and content of the toolkit for agreement with IPPF.

• Develop a practical and accessible draft Humanitarian Advocacy Toolkit, including adaptable tools and templates where appropriate.

• Facilitate an iterative review process with the IPPF Humanitarian Team, relevant IPPF colleagues and selected MAs.

• Revise the toolkit based on feedback received through the review process.

• Design and facilitate six interactive regional online workshops, one per IPPF region, to introduce and test the toolkit, support MAs to apply its approaches to practical advocacy challenges and gather structured feedback.

• Incorporate relevant learning and feedback from the regional workshops into the final toolkit.

• Produce final, fully edited toolkit content and accompanying editable tools ready for IPPF to commission separate graphic design and layout in 2027. Graphic design and layout are not part of this consultancy.

• Develop a short presentation deck and reusable facilitation materials to support future rollout and capacity strengthening.

• Develop a complete script for a short video tutorial introducing the toolkit and demonstrating how it can be used in practice.

Working Arrangements

The consultant or consultant team will work closely with the IPPF Humanitarian Team throughout the assignment. IPPF will provide relevant internal resources and support access to selected MAs and stakeholders for consultation. Key review and approval points will be agreed during inception. The consultant will be expected to manage the consultation and drafting process efficiently across different time zones and incorporate consolidated feedback within the agreed timeline.

Profile of Consultant(s)

We are looking for a consultant or small team of consultants with strong, practical experience in humanitarian advocacy and a solid understanding of SRHR and the humanitarian sector. They should be confident in translating complex ideas, systems and policy processes into clear, engaging and user-friendly tools, and experienced in working with diverse teams and contexts. The ideal consultant or team will be highly organised, collaborative and committed to feminist, rights-based, locally led and inclusive approaches.

While this is a remote consultancy position with no travel anticipated, consultant(s) need to be highly flexible about working hours and ideally located in Asia-Pacific region to have maximum overlapping working hours for SPRINT MAs in Indo-Pacific and the IPPF Humanitarian Team based in Malaysia.

Essential

• At least 8 years of proven experience in humanitarian advocacy, including practical experience engaging with humanitarian coordination and decision-making systems such as the cluster system, Humanitarian Country Teams, government-led coordination bodies and civil society platforms.

• Demonstrated experience developing practical advocacy toolkits, guidance materials, training resources or similar products for INGOs, humanitarian organisations or civil society networks.

• Demonstrated understanding of SRHR in humanitarian settings, including key policy and advocacy issues affecting access to SRH in emergencies.

• Strong understanding of gender equality, feminist approaches, and locally led humanitarian action.

• Experience supporting advocacy capacity strengthening with national or local civil society organisations in humanitarian contexts.

• Excellent English writing and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex information into clear, accessible and actionable guidance and tools.

• Proven ability to design and facilitate effective online workshops using interactive and adult-learning methodologies.

• Experience conducting consultations with multiple stakeholders across different regions, cultures and contexts.

• Experience working across multiple regions, including Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, the Pacific, the Americas and Europe, with an understanding of contextual differences.

• Strong organisational and project management skills, with the ability to manage timelines, integrate feedback and deliver high-quality outputs independently.

• Commitment to rights-based, gender-sensitive, inclusive, ethical and do-no-harm approaches in humanitarian and advocacy work.

Desirable

• Proficiency in another language, particularly French, Spanish or Arabic.

• Knowledge of donor priorities and humanitarian funding landscapes related to SRHR.

• Experience working with youth networks, representative organisations and groups that are frequently marginalised or excluded from humanitarian decision-making such as people with disabilities and people with diverse SOGIESC.

• Experience working on the ground in humanitarian contexts or crises.

• Experience working with national civil society organisationsin humanitarian contexts