Job Description

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA is the lead United Nations agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is intended, every childbirth is safe, and every young person's potential is fulfilled. The UNFPA Strategic Plan for 2026-2029 articulates the organization’s response to a complex global environment, providing a roadmap for resilience and renewal. It is designed to accelerate the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. This mandate is pursued through a focus on four interconnected outcomes: ending the unmet need for family planning; ending preventable maternal deaths; ending gender-based violence, harmful practices and HIV; and adapting to demographic change through evidence and rights-based policies.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates who transform, inspire, and deliver high-impact and sustained results and ensure effective external relations, communications, and partnership-building and resource mobilization in a rapidly changing development and funding landscape. We need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them, and who commit to delivering excellence in programme results.

Background and Purpose of consultancy:

The Resource Mobilization and Partnerships Unit at UNFPA ESARO is seeking to strengthen staff capacity in narrative and financial proposal development, as well as post-award management. Training materials/Toolkit for this initiative will be piloted at the Regional Learning Retreat in November 2026, organized in collaboration with the UNFPA ESARO Communications Team. The retreat will convene Resource Mobilization and Communications focal points, including select International Operations Managers from the 23 Country Offices within the East and Southern Africa region.

The Proposal Development and Post Award Management training package is aimed at responding to the increasing need of Country Offices to strengthen their capacity in proposal development, programming design, budgeting, and award management in an increasingly constrained development financing environment. The learning programme will institutionalize a standardized process for these core areas across the 23 Country Offices, while strengthening technical writing, budget development, proposal management, and award management skills.

UNFPA seeks to engage an experienced individual consultant to:

• Develop a three-day training module on proposal writing (narrative and financial) and post-award management.
• Develop practical training materials, including checklists and learning exercises.
• Facilitate a three-day in-person regional training workshop; and
• Produce a final training package that incorporates participant feedback from the 2026 regional retreat.

Scope of work:

The consultant will work under the guidance of the Resource Mobilisation and Partnerships team to produce a proposal development and post-award management training package as well as lead the in-person training/pre-testing for UNFPA staff.

Key Responsibilities & Activities:

1. Curriculum Development & Material Preparation:

Design a practical, interactive training module covering the 7 core sessions outlined below:

• Topic 2: Editorial Discipline and the "Short Pitch" (under 3-page executive pitches, Corporate Shared Value models, integrating visual evidence).
• Topic 3: Aligning Intervention Logic and Theories of Change (narrative pathways, risk mitigation, logical consistency).
• opic 4: Drafting Robust Logframes and Measurable Indicators (SMART output indicators, Means of Verification, baseline tracking).
• Topic 5: Activity-Based Budgeting, including Alignment and Costing Realities (cost justifications, direct and indirect costs, cost-effective budgeting, value for money, pre-budgeted visibility plans).
• Topic 6: Narrative Sign-Off Governance Workflows and Submission Governance (6-step proposal management workflow, internal review and quality assurance).
• Topic 7: Post-award management: program Implementation, M&E and close-out.

2. Prepare and design in-person training for the seven topics of the module using appropriate methodologies for adult learning.

❖ Develop presentations and training materials to pretest the module at the 2026 regional training retreat.

❖ Develop pre- and post-training evaluation tools to assess participant capacity gains

❖ In-Person Training Workshop Facilitation:

• Deliver and facilitate a 3-day interactive regional workshop in South Africa in November 2026 for resource mobilisation and communication focal points.
• Conduct and lead hands-on practical writing labs, peer-review exercises, logframe simulations, and financial alignment exercises.

❖ Post-Training Deliverables:

• Five-page report capturing key training outcomes, participant feedback, lessons learned, key capacity gaps identified, and practical recommendations for strengthening proposal development and quality assurance across the region.
• Proposal Development Toolkit comprising practical, editable tools for use by the 23 Country Offices, including a proposal development quality checklist and standardized proposal development templates and workflow. The toolkit should be designed for immediate post-training use.
• Consolidated and finalised standardized Proposal Writing and post-award management toolkit incorporating comments and lessons from the training.

The duration of the consultancy is 20 working days spread over three months (September – November 2026), starting from contract signature:

The following key activities will be carried and the actual days to be charged are shown.

• Inception Meeting with UNFPA Resource Mobilisation Team to determine the understanding of the assignment and sharing of relevant documents (1 day - September)
• Content Development: Module and Quality Control Toolkit(10 days - September- October)
• Addressing comments on the two drafts - 2 days (October)
• In-Person Facilitation: 4 days including travel and setup (November)
• Reporting on the training, incorporating comments from training and finalization: 3 days (November)

Duration and working schedule:

The duration of the Consultancy is for 20 days working days spread over three months, starting from the contract signature

Place where services are to be delivered:

Module development will be done remotely. The three-day training will be held in person in South Africa.

Delivery dates and how work will be delivered:

The consultant shall utilise the following implementation plan and the deliverables payment structure;

Monitoring and progress control, including reporting requirements, periodicity format and deadline:

The selected consultant will be required to provide regular updates via email to the Resource Mobilisation Unit to monitor adherence to tight deadlines.

Supervisory arrangements

The selected consultant will work under the supervision of the hiring manager, the Regional Resource Mobilisation and Partnerships Advisor.

Expected travel:

The consultant will be expected to travel to attend the in-person training. UNFPA will be responsible for the travel costs in accordance with applicable UNFPA travel policies.

Required expertise, qualifications and competencies, including language requirements:

Qualifications, Experience and Skills:

• Advanced university degree in Development Studies, Economics or a relevant social science discipline;
• Practical experience in resource mobilisation, partnerships and donor engagements
• The individual consultant must speak fluently in English. French and Portuguese will be an added advantage.
• Demonstrated experience in module development in the area of funding and financing for UN agencies and International INGOs. (Submit two samples)
• Demonstrated knowledge of Results-Based Management, Logical Framework Approach and Theory of Change. (Submit two samples)
• Excellent communication and presentation skills

Specific Professional Experience:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible professional experience in proposal development, grant writing, resource mobilization or programme design.
• Knowledge of donor requirements including EU, Global Fund, FCDO, Sida, GIZ, USAID, foundations and private sector partnerships.
• Demonstrated experience developing successful funding proposals for bilateral and multilateral donors.
• Proven experience designing and facilitating adult learning programmes.
• Experience working with UN agencies, international organizations or development partners.
• Demonstrated experience facilitating highly participatory regional workshops.
• Excellent analytical, facilitation and report-writing skills.

Languages required:

Essential: Expert knowledge of English (as native language)

Other relevant information or special conditions, if any:

Candidates are to submit an expression of interest and detailed CV demonstrating past experience of similar work as outlined in the section above. Submission of samples of past work, as requested, will be used to evaluate the applications. Only candidates demonstrating relevant and comparable experience and satisfactory quality of previous work will be considered for the assignment.

Required Competencies:

Values:

• Exemplifying integrity
• Demonstrating commitment to UNFPA and the UN system
• Embracing cultural diversity
• Embracing change
  

Core Competencies:

• Achieving results
• Being accountable
• Developing and applying professional expertise/business acumen
• Thinking analytically and strategically
• Working in teams/managing ourselves and our relationships
  

UNFPA Work Environment:

UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, diversity, integrity and healthy work-life balance. We are committed to ensuring gender parity in the organization and therefore encourage women to apply. Individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, minority ethnic groups, indigenous populations, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply. Reasonable accommodation may be provided to applicants with disabilities upon request, to support their participation in the recruitment process. UNFPA promotes equal opportunities in terms of appointment, training, compensation and selection for all regardless of personal characteristics and dimensions of diversity. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the heart of UNFPA's workforce - click here to learn more.

Disclaimer:

Selection and appointment may be subject to background and reference checks, medical clearance, visa issuance and other administrative requirements.

UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process and does not concern itself with information on applicants' bank accounts.

Applicants for positions in the international Professional and higher categories, who hold permanent resident status in a country other than their country of nationality, may be required to renounce such status upon their appointment.