Consultant of CEA Policy

Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member National Societies (NSs). The overall aim of IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by NSs with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.” IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises. IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality. IFRC is led by its Secretary General, and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy and Corporate Services. IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. IFRC also has country cluster delegations and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat. IFRC has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, and lack of integrity (including but not limited to financial misconduct). IFRC also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles.

Job Purpose

Through Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS)’s National Strategy 2021-2025, ARCS has a vision as a national
humanitarian organization, independent, impartial, neutral, with voluntary services, going towards self-sufficiency,
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delivering humanitarian services to the people affected by natural disasters and conflicts, providing social protection
services, and reaching the communities whom others cannot reach. In addition, ARCS brings the strong value to
recognize the strengths of all men and women, boys and girls in all communities. Our local, ever-present members,
volunteers and youth provide support, training and skills development to build on these, helping people to take control
of their own lives and environments. Our local members and volunteers empower their communities to create their
own solutions that improve the lives of vulnerable people. ARCS’s goal is described to their 4 goals and commitments
to ensure their work are based on community needs.
• Goal 1: Communities with strengthened life-saving resources and capacities to respond to and recover
from natural disasters, health emergencies, and conflict generated shocks
• Goal 2: Communities with higher long-term resilience through risk reduction, improved health and
livelihoods, and adaptation to climate change and migration
• Goal 3: Communities respecting humanitarian values and principles; promoting diversity, human
dignity, tolerance, non-discrimination, social inclusion and peace.
• Goal 4: ARCS, a reformed National Society delivering impartial, neutral, effective, sustainable,
relevant, and accountable humanitarian services.
The CEA policy and plan of action for ARCS is a public document that will support ARCS in valuing and guiding the
integration and institutionalization of CEA within the ARCS National Strategy. Most importantly, the aim of this CEA
policy is to assist ARCS in adopting a more systematic and planned approach to engaging communities, inclusive,
and ensuring consistent and high-quality accountability across all our programs and operations. By institutionalizing
CEA into our ways of working, ARCS will:
• Improve its understanding of the community context and needs.
• Lead to better, more effective programs and operations.
• Contribute to stronger community ownership and resilience.
• Build trust, access, and acceptance in communities.
• Uphold Movement commitments to accountability.
• Strengthen the organization’s reputation with communities, donors, and partners.
Specific Objectives of the CEA Policy Development
• To review current contents with up-to-date evidence-based data and situation analysis. The sources of
evidence-based data could be from community surveys, stakeholder consultations, and feedback
mechanisms.
• To address/reflect policy gaps as it relates to existing policies and legislations addressing CEA in
ARCS. Include a thorough gap analysis comparing the current policy with international/national standards,
best practices, and recommendations from relevant organizations.
• To create a policy that incorporates new trends and issues for effective integration ofCEA in programs
and operations, and to make CEA a standard practice in the organization. Consider incorporating a
section on emerging challenges and opportunities, to ensure the policy remains relevant and adaptable to
changing contexts.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

CEA within ARCS is still evolving. Significant efforts are needed to address issues related to roles and responsibilities,
coordination, and standardization to ensure high-quality programming and services aligned with the CEA approach.
Recently, ARCS appointed a focal point for CEA as part of its commitment to mainstreaming CEA. Therefore,
technical support from IFRC is still necessary to enhance CEA within the ARCS program. In terms of PGI itself,
ARCS has a Gender Department that mostly the staffs are rotated or occupied with other task PGI related yet, the
capacity building and technical support still needed as well. A primary challenge in ARCS is the insufficient capacity
within the programs and operations team to effectively execute CEA activities, which should be integrated into their
programs, especially the feedback mechanism and sensitive feedback mechanism. The operational standards for
integrating CEA also need to be strengthened within programs. Community participation during responses is still not
implemented well or systematically. A 2023 CEA and PGI assessment report revealed that beneficiaries still lack
sufficient information and communication regarding the aid services provided by ARCS. Despite the initiation of CEA
and PGI capacity building within ARCS a few years ago, there remains a high demand for technical implementation
throughout the program cycle (assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation).
ARCS is currently lacking integration in PGI components in the programs or operation. The components are Dignity,
Access, Participation, and Safety. Based on the ARCS-IFRC Community Feedback report, some women have a
challenge to look for information, particularly related to aid distribution. Women communities are difficult to be
reached as more male volunteers or staff from humanitarian organization were being mobilized, instead of women. It
affects the women in having less access and information to get assistance. Reliable data also reflects that thousands
of women are left behind as women-headed households as most have been widowed due to the conflicts and disasters.
However, most of them are engaged as caregiver i.e. household tasks, childcare and taking care of the elderly parents.
Their engagement prevents the women accessing income-generating activities and trainings that would help them to
improve their livelihood.
A key component of this Policy is to improve coordination among department or unit in ARCS at all levels to ensure
that decisions with significant integration of CEA and PGI within the programmes and operations are taken.
Key Activities, Outputs and Deliverables
It is expected that the consultant will undertake the following proposed strategy approaches and priorities in
accordance with the objectives of this ToR:
Proposed Strategy Approaches
1. Conduct an analysis to decide on a new date and duration for the policy.
2. Analyse data and review the policy to reflect the current status of CEA in ARCS.
3. Identify key issues in programs and operations and develop actionable strategies and activities in the plan of
action.
4. Perform a desk review and analyse relevant documents and information to inform policy formulation.
5. Conduct Key Informant Interviews (KII) and needs analysis to map who is doing what and where, including
the stakeholder mapping
6. Review the level of implementation of the relevant policy.
7. Prepare a first draft of the CEA policy.
8. Update and finalize the draft policy for managing CEA in line with available strategies and principles.
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9. Share the draft policy with ARCS and IFRC leadership in consultative meetings for inputs.

Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)

10. Collate inputs from ARCS and IFRC leadership and consolidate them to reflect feedback.
11. Present the consolidated policy to ARCS and IFRC CEA and PGI team for final review.
Proposed Priorities in CEA Policy
1. Scope and audience of policy: Who the policy applies to within ARCS and what departments or work it
impacts upon. It is not limited to include external stakeholders such as communities, partners, or donors.
2. Key principles of the policy: The overall principles or commitments of ARCS in relation to CEA, to ensure
a consistent approach to how ARCS engages with and are accountable to communities, transparency,
responsiveness, inclusivity, and feedback mechanism. Also, the specific actions ARCS will take to ensure
these commitments are met.
3. Roles and responsibilities: Who has responsibility in implementing the CEA policy and what their
responsibilities are, at different level within ARCS, including leadership, staff, volunteers, to ensure
accountability and effective coordination.
4. Implementation and monitoring of the policy: How the CEA policy will be implemented and monitored,
mechanisms for regular review and adaptation based on feedback and lesson learned.
5. Related policies, strategies, procedure, and guidelines: List the existing ARCS policies, procedures, plans,
guidelines that CEA will be integrated into or that link to CEA policy, to ensure coherence and harmonization
across organizational frameworks.
6. Adopt a more systematic and planned approach to protection, gender and inclusion, and to ensure minimum
standards consistent in emergency operations and long-term programmes.
7. Access and inclusion for people with disabilities, marginalised, most vulnerable including children
emphasising on the DAPS principle (Dignity, Access, Participation and Safety).
Based on the above activities, it is expected that the consultant will provide the corresponding deliverables in
accordance with the objectives of this ToR:
Deliverable 1. First Draft of the CEA Policy and plan of action, with a summary PPT presented to IFRC and
ARCS team for feedback clarifications, comments etc.
Deliverable 2. Final clean of CEA Policy and plan of action with a summary PPT presented to IFRC and
ARCS team.
The final policy needs to be provided in at least 2 local languages Pashto and English, given ARCS's main
language is Pashto

Education

The ideal consultant for developing the Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA) Policy for the Afghan
Red Crescent Society (ARCS) should possess a postgraduate degree, preferably in fields such as humanitarian studies,
social sciences, or public policy.

Experience

The ideal consultant for developing the Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA) Policy for the Afghan
Red Crescent Society (ARCS) should possess a postgraduate degree, preferably in fields such as humanitarian studies,
social sciences, or public policy. With at least 7 years of experience in policy development within Afghanistan,
including at national or local levels, the consultant should demonstrate expertise in humanitarian responses,
particularly in conflict or disaster-affected contexts. Experience in leading policy development processes andproducing high-quality written publications related to humanitarian, community engagement, and accountability and
genderis essential. International experience and familiarity with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement are
advantageous.

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

Fluency in English, Pashto, and Dari, written and verbal, is mandatory.