Consultant, Support to the Africa Readiness Review

Organizational Context

Anticipatory action is increasingly recognized as an approach to address the impacts of climate change, extreme weather and more non-weather-related events. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) considers anticipatory action as “a set of actions taken to prevent or mitigate potential disaster impacts before a shock or before acute impacts are felt. The actions are carried out in anticipation of a hazard impact and based on a prediction of how the event will unfold”.

 

Anticipatory approaches have gained significant momentum in recent years and are now becoming increasingly accepted and gradually embedded within disaster risk management systems. Building on decades of experiences in disaster risk reduction and preparedness, in 2018, the IFRC launched a dedicated funding mechanism to finance anticipatory action, the IFRC-DREF Anticipatory Pillar.

 

In June 2022, another milestone was achieved, with the endorsement of the Council of Delegates Resolution on strengthening anticipatory action across the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. To operationalize the ambitions, the Operational Framework for Anticipatory Action 2021 - 2025 set out a road map for how these ambitious targets will be achieved. The targets include 80 National Societies implementing anticipatory action, 25% of the IFRC-DREF allocated for anticipatory action, reaching 4.3 million people annually and extending anticipatory approaches to more hazards including non-weather-related hazards and compounding risks.

 

To date, more than 50 National Societies are at different phases of planning, developing and implementing anticipatory action. This includes 29 National Societies in the Africa region currently working on anticipatory action.

 

Each EAP is composed of a stock prepositioning part, a readiness part and the early action part. The aim of the stock prepositioning is to have all stock in place as closely as possible from the expected impacted area, ready to be distributed as soon as the trigger is reached. The purpose of the readiness activities is to ensure that the National Society has the capacity in place to immediately select the targeted population and implement the early actions (including distribution of the prepositioned items) as soon as the EAP is activated. It often includes salary of key staff, refresher training for staff and volunteers in sectors related to the early action, IEC material development, risk monitoring, coordination mechanisms, simulations and drills, etc.

 

Under the current IFRC-DREF procedures, National Red Cross Red Crescent Societies can request funding from the Anticipatory Pillar of the DREF: up to CHF 500,000 for a full Early Action Protocol (EAP) or up to CHF 200,000 for a simplified EAP (sEAP). From these budget caps, National Societies can allocate up to a maximum of 65% combined for readiness and stock and a minimum of 35% for early action activities.  If readiness costs go significantly above 35%, this may need to be justified during the technical review of an s/EAP, in advance of approval.

 

The impact of those stock prepositioning and readiness activities still needs to be studied to ensure that they meet the intended objectives and to help us identify any potential measures that could enhance the added value of those activities.

 

This review is commissioned by the IFRC-DREF and financially supported by the Belgium Red Cross (BeRC-Fl and BeRC-Fr).

Job Purpose

The objective of this review is to assess to what extent the stock prepositioning and readiness activities implemented under s/EAPs have contributed to the National Societies preparedness capacity.

 

More specifically, this study will look at how readiness activities have contributed to National Societies capacity:

1. to act in advance of hazard targeted by the EAP hazard,
2. to act in advance of any other hazard in general (or the same hazard but with a different danger threshold) and
3. to the overall preparedness for disaster response.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Research questions

The proposed key research questions are:

• Have the readiness activities of the EAPs been implemented as planned? What are the main challenges met during its implementation?
• To what extent has the implementation of the readiness activities contributed to the ability of the National Society to efficiently implement the early actions of the protocol when the trigger was reached?
• Was the budget allocated for the EAP efficient and cost-effective? E.g. was the prepositioned stock sufficient or too much/ too little?
• Where the appropriate goods procured? / How much of the budget was allocated to indirect support costs (including indirect staff)?
• To what extent has the implementation of the readiness activities contributed to the ability of the National Society to act in advance of the hazard specific to the EAPs to reduce or mitigate the impact on at risk communities, under a lower danger threshold than the EAP trigger?
• To what extent has the implementation of the readiness activities and the maintenance of this protocol enabled the National Society to act in advance of another hazard not covered by an EAP to reduce or mitigate the impact on at risk communities? Has there been a paradigm shift in AA within the National Society, or is it still siloed to one specific hazard.
• To what extent has work done in preparing an EAP and the maintenance of this protocol enabled the National Society to be better prepared to respond to the disaster and to access DREF response faster?
• Overall, what are the enabling factors for AA and preparedness, and what are the inhibiting factors?
• Optional: To what extent have readiness activities influenced communities’ perception and understanding of disaster risks and preparedness measures?

 

Methodology

This work will consist of a mix of desk review, interviews (key informant and focus group) and field visits.

 

The desk review will focus on reviewing EAP (narrative and budget), annual EAPs reports and EAP activation reports, contingency plans, operations plans and reports, reports of any mitigation interventions outside EAP activation and any other relevant documents. (such as PER assessment).  Data collection and analysis tool will be developed by the external contractor.

 

For all reviewed countries, a sample of people will be interviewed to contribute to responding to the key research questions, such as NS staff and management, IFRC delegation representatives, partners, and possibly government representatives. Interview questionnaires will be developed by the external consultant.

 

Field visits will be organised to a selection of countries to enable more comprehensive information gathering from the National Society and government actors, as well as community consultation where possible.

 

The external consultant will lead a small review team, comprised of two BeRC colleagues, who will support the work of the consultant in the desk review, in the data collection and analysis. The external consultant will be responsible for drafting the final report and case studies, with input from the other two team members.

 

Scope and targeted countries

This review will focus on Africa region. The proposed targeted National Societies and EAPs are:

• Niger (Drought EAP – approved, activated and under revalidation and Floods EAP under revision)
• Mali (Floods EAP – approved, activated and under revalidation)
• Uganda (Floods EAP – approved and activated)

Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)

Expected deliverables

1. Inception report to be presented during a meeting with IFRC and BeRC (can be virtual).
2. Research data collection and analysis tools, interview questionnaires.
3. Key findings (format to be determined by the contractor) to be presented during a meeting with IFRC and BeRC (can be virtual), and to the IFRC’s PNS Coordination Group (may also be virtual).
4. Final report (no longer than 30 pages).
5. Short case studies will be developed for each of the reviewed countries (approximately 2 pages each, including at least one picture).

The details of the data collection and analysis and of the interviews and field visits outcomes will be transmitted to the IFRC-DREF upon completion of the final report.

 

Duration of the consultancy

The contract is entered between the IFRC and the external consultant. The estimated number of working days is maximum of 60 working days. The approximate start date is 1 September 2024. All tasks are expected to be implemented and completed, with final products delivered by 30 November 2024.

 

Logistics and administrative support

The IFRC and BeRC can support the consultant in identifying and providing contact information for key informant interviews and connecting with field teams to organize the field trips. The contractor is responsible for scheduling interviews (virtual and field based).

Logistics/travel arrangements for the field visits will be the responsibility of the external consultant and associated costs will be reimbursed at cost in accordance with in the IFRC’s relevant regulations.

 

Management of consultancy

The consultant will report to the IFRC-DREF Global Team with Senior Officer, Capacity Strengthening as the focal person.

Education

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in development work or disaster management, or equivalent working experience.

Experience

Required

• Experience with mixed methods research approaches (qualitative and quantitative) related to humanitarian/disaster relief programs. 
• Demonstrated experience conducting interviews/collecting data with diverse stakeholder groups. 
• Experience conducting remote/virtual meetings using Microsoft Teams, Zoom and/or Google Meet. 

Preferred

• Proven knowledge and experience of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement and the IFRC-DREF. 
• Experience evaluating/researching disaster-related anticipatory action or early action/early warning interventions. 

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

Required

• Fluency (written and spoken) in English and French.
• Demonstrated knowledge on disaster risk management and anticipatory action.
• Strong ability to synthesize learnings in a clear and participatory way. 
• Excellent writing skills with ability to deliver a cohesive and well-structured report and visual presentation.
• Sound verbal communication skills in order to present the outcomes or the preliminary findings to a variety of stakeholders. 
• Ability to lead a team, providing capacity strengthening to team members, if required, on qualitative research methods and analysis.

Preferred

• Demonstrated knowledge on organizational development.

Competencies, Values and Comments

Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability.

Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust.

 

Application Instructions

• Please submit your application in English only.
• Please submit a copy of your motivation letter and Curriculum Vitae.
• Please include in your motivation letter your availability between September to November 2024 and your current Daily Fee Rate in CHF.

 

Notes

• The consultant will be contracted by the IFRC and the standard contractual terms will apply.
• Agreed travel expenses will be reimbursed at cost in accordance with in the IFRC’s relevant regulations.