Country Strategy Development Lead Consultant

Background Information

About CARE in Timor-Leste

CARE is an international development and humanitarian organization that has been working in Timor-Leste since 1994. With programmes that extend across all parts of the country, CARE works with partners to save lives, defeat poverty, and achieve social justice. CARE works with remote, rural communities and civil society partners to combat gender inequality, as this has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to create sustainable development outcomes.

Ensuring well-being and a voice for women and girls in rural, disadvantaged areas is at the heart of CARE's work. This is achieved in four priority areas of Education, Women's Economic Empowerment, Health, and promoting Women's Voice in society through development and humanitarian programmes.

About the Consultancy

CARE Australia has recently launched its 2026–2030 Strategy, which sets a bold direction to achieve greater impact at scale for women and girls, optimize resources for efficiency and effectiveness, and strengthen future delivery through innovation, partnerships, and evidence-based programming. In alignment with this strategic direction, and to ensure relevance to the Timor-Leste context, CARE TL will replace its existing Long-Term Program Strategy (LTPS) with a new Country Strategy.

To support this process, CARE TL seeks an experienced external Consultant to design and facilitate a country-led, participatory, and evidence-based strategy development process that is aligned with CARE Australia's strategic objectives and CARE International's Vision 2030.

The Consultant will report directly to the CARE Timor-Leste Country Director and will work closely with the Strategy Development Coordinator, who will coordinate the day-to-day strategy development process. The coordinator will support stakeholder engagement, provide relevant CARE data and documentation for analysis, coordinate interviews and workshops and meetings with senior and mid-level staff and other CARE offices, ensure timely information sharing, and manage logistics and administrative arrangements for strategy workshops.

Objective of the Consultancy

CARE TL seeks an experienced external Consultant to design and facilitate a country-led, participatory, and evidence-based strategy development process that is aligned with CARE Australia's strategic objectives and CARE International's Vision 2030.

Required Qualifications

The selected Consultant shall demonstrate the following minimum qualifications and relevant professional experience:

• Master's degree in international development, public policy, social sciences, economics, strategic management, organizational development, or a related field
• At least 10–15 years of progressive experience in international development, humanitarian action, organizational strategy, or related fields
• Proven experience leading the development of country strategies, organizational strategies, or multi-year strategic plans for international NGOs, UN agencies, government institutions, or development organizations
• Demonstrated experience working with international NGOs, preferably within the CARE Confederation or comparable international development organizations
• Strong understanding of development and humanitarian issues in Southeast Asia and/or the Pacific region, with experience in Timor-Leste considered an advantage
• Proven experience undertaking strategic analysis, organizational assessments, stakeholder consultations, and participatory strategic planning processes

Application Process

The application package must include:

• Technical proposal (methodology and work plan)
• Financial proposal; proposed daily rate or lump sum fee
• CV highlighting relevant experience
• Examples of similar work (any report or strategy published)
• Availability and timeline for assignment (most of the activities are to be performed in-person). The inception, desk analysis and writing may be done remotely, but the consultations and workshops should be performed in person
• Contactable 2-3 references from past assignments

How to Apply

The application should be emailed to the Procurement Committee at [email protected]. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.