Purpose of Project and Background
The following are the Terms of Reference for the Shelter Cluster Coordinator in the Philippines.
Since October 2020, the Philippines has been hit by typhoons (Goni and Vamco) causing widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure, loss of life and displacement of population.
Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has created another level of complexity to existing emergency response operations that includes periods of community quarantine affecting already displaced persons. The shelter cluster will consider the impact of COVID-19 in current and future disaster events, working towards a holistic response model.
The affected communities, civil society, local NGOs, the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, the Government, and international NGOs and UN agencies with presence in the Philippines have been responding to the humanitarian needs brought about by these disasters.
The shelter cluster in the Philippines is convened by IFRC, in cooperation with the government lead, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). As co-chair of the shelter cluster, IFRC must ensure sufficient capacity to provide shelter coordination services to agencies in the country responding to the shelter needs of the affected population.
The shelter cluster coordinator will work with partners to advance shelter cluster preparedness and contingency planning activities. The shelter cluster coordinator is exclusively dedicated to the task of cluster coordination and will work closely with humanitarian shelter agencies and national and local authorities, providing technical advice, coordination and information management, assessment, strategic planning, advocacy, monitoring, evaluation, reporting and capacity building services to ensure the core cluster functions are met.
Alignment to the IFRC’s objectives and strategy (IFRC’s Strategy 2030)
IFRC’s Global Shelter Cluster leadership role contributes to Strategy 2030 Goal 1: People anticipate, respond to and quickly recover from crises. It also promotes the Agenda for Renewal effective global coordination and leadership ambitions. IFRC’s GSC role sits within Strategic Priority 2: Evolving Crises and Disasters and Enabler: 1 Engaged - with renewed influence, innovative and digitally transformed with greater emphasis on National Society Development of the IFRC Plan and Budget 2021 – 2025.
Project objectives
The purpose of the shelter cluster coordinator is to fulfill the cluster mission to:
· provide leadership in emergency shelter and crisis preparedness, response, and recovery
· work in partnership to prevent and reduce shelter-related morbidity and mortality
· ensure evidence-based actions, gap-filling and sound coordination
· enhance accountability, predictability and effectiveness of emergency shelter actions.
Desired outcomes
The main outcome of the shelter cluster coordinator is to meet the core cluster functions, through the provision of shelter coordination services. The core cluster functions include:
1. Supporting service delivery
o Provide a platform to ensure that service delivery is driven by the agreed strategic priorities
o Develop mechanisms to eliminate duplication of service delivery
2. Informing strategic decision-making of the HC/HCT for the humanitarian response
o Needs assessment and response gap analysis (across sectors and within the sector)
o Analysis to identify and address (emerging) gaps, obstacles, duplication, and cross-cutting issues including age, gender, environment, and HIV/AIDS
o Prioritization, grounded in response analysis
3. Planning and strategy development
o Develop sectoral plans, objectives and indicators that directly support realization of the HC/HCT strategic priorities
o Apply and adhere to existing standards and guidelines
o Clarify funding requirements, prioritization, and cluster contributions for the HC’s overall humanitarian funding considerations (e.g. Flash Appeal, CAP, CERF, Emergency Response Fund/Common Humanitarian Fund)
4. Advocacy
o Identify advocacy concerns to contribute to HC and HCT messaging and action
o Undertake advocacy activities on behalf of cluster participants and the affected population
5. Monitoring and reporting the implementation of the cluster strategy and results; recommending corrective action where necessary
6. Contingency planning/preparedness/capacity building in situations where there is a high risk of recurring or significant new disaster and where sufficient capacity exists within the cluster.
Key functions
As applicable depending on the situation and the existing capacity in country, the shelter cluster coordinator will perform the following key functions:
Identification of key partners
· Identify and build relationships with key humanitarian partners for shelter response, respecting their respective mandates and program priorities.
· Identify and build relationships with other key partners, including national and regional authorities, national academic institutions, International Financial Institutions and other relevant development actors.
· Build cooperative relationships with OCHA and relevant clusters, particularly WASH, Protection, CCCM, Education, and Health clusters.
Assessment
· Provide general oversight of shelter needs assessment implemented by shelter agencies.
· Promote and adopt standardized methods, tools and formats for common use in shelter needs assessments to ensure predictable action within a common strategy.
· Maintain an overview of market prices, quantity, and quality of building materials and other shelter-related non-food items available in the country.
· Ensure predictable action and a common strategy within the Shelter Cluster for the identification of gaps in the shelter sector and in the overall humanitarian response.
Coordination of program implementation
· Ensure the establishment and maintenance of appropriate shelter coordination mechanisms, including a strategic advisory group and technical working groups as appropriate, dependent on total number of shelter actors and the size of the shelter response.
· Chair or co-chair Shelter Cluster coordination meetings at national level as applicable.
· Actively promote the inclusion of all stakeholders in the Shelter Cluster by creating an enabling environment for their participation. In particular, promote the participation of national NGOs and civil society organizations, as well as academic institutions, the private sector and diaspora organizations in coordination with the GSC WG on Diaspora Engagement in Shelter Response.
· Facilitate appropriate coordination with all humanitarian partners (including UN agencies, national and international NGOs, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, and other international organizations), as well as with national authorities and local structures.
· Seek commitments from cluster partners in responding to needs and filling gaps, ensuring an appropriate distribution of responsibilities within the cluster, with clearly defined focal points for specific issues as required.
· Support Shelter Cluster members to work collectively in a spirit of mutual cooperation and through consensual decision-making, ensuring complementarity of various stakeholders’ actions as far as possible.
· Promote timely, effective and coordinated emergency response actions while at the same time considering the need for early recovery planning as well as prevention and risk reduction concerns, based on participatory and community-based approaches.
· Ensure effective links with other sector working groups.
· Act as focal point for inquiries on emergency shelter response needs, plans and operations.
Planning and strategy development
· Develop preparedness and response strategies and action plans for the Cluster and ensure that these are adequately reflected in overall country strategies.
· Draw lessons learned from past activities and revise strategies and action plans accordingly in the light of these and needs as they evolve.
· Ensure full integration of the IASC’s agreed priority cross-cutting issues, namely human rights, HIV/AIDS, age, gender and environment. In line with this, promote gender equality by ensuring that the needs, contributions and capacities of women and girls as well as men and boys are addressed.
· As soon as appropriate, initiate preparatory work and a strategy for the recovery phase, developing the transition from emergency shelter to longer-term shelter recovery programming, in close consultation with the other agencies, as well as the handover to other partners and the national and local authorities.
· Develop input into the IFRC Philippines Country Office operational plan and reporting progress against inputs as required.
Application of standards
· Ensure that Shelter Cluster members are aware of relevant policy guidelines, technical standards and commitments that the Government has undertaken under international humanitarian and human rights law.
· Promote that shelter responses are in line with existing policy guidelines, technical standards, and relevant Government human rights legal obligations.
Monitoring and reporting
· Establish adequate monitoring mechanisms to review the impact of the shelter coordination and response and progress against implementation plans.
· Promote and adopt standardized methods, tools and formats for common use in monitoring trends, activities and outcomes in support of strategic decision-making.
· Promote use of participatory mechanisms for monitoring of shelter programs.
· Ensure the tracking of performance and humanitarian outcomes using agreed benchmarks, indicators, and data (disaggregated by age and gender) so as to provide a systematic accountable arrangement to assess the timeliness, coverage, and appropriateness of shelter-related humanitarian action, as well as wider humanitarian assistance, in relation to the targeted populations.
· Ensure the IASC Cluster Performance Monitoring system is in place to assess the shelter coordination performance of the shelter cluster as applicable.
· Ensure the development, collation, and analysis of simple, user-friendly shelter response reporting formats in consultation with the local authorities, providers of shelter assistance and other key stakeholders.
· Ensure adequate reporting and effective information sharing of shelter activities, needs and gaps, through regular production of situation reports, bulletins, factsheets, and/or other relevant information to partners and stakeholders.
Information management
· Establish shelter information management needs and call on additional IM resources as applicable.
· Ensure the development of information management strategy for effective integration and sharing of data and information for shelter response planning, monitoring, and reporting.
· Provision of information and documents to be uploaded to the operation site at the shelter cluster website (www.sheltercluster.org)).
· Promote and ensure training on the use of information management tools among shelter agencies and other stakeholders.
· Ensure coordinated work with OCHA Information Management Units and relevant clusters in developing common information management architecture for data collection, collation, dissemination, and analysis, including archiving, and application of common tools, standards, and indicators.
Representation, advocacy and resource mobilization
· Identify core advocacy concerns, including resource requirements, and contribute to key messages on broader advocacy initiatives of the Humanitarian Coordinator and other actors.
· Identify common strategies for communicating with public, media, and policy makers, including for the marketing and advocacy of appeals to donors.
· Advocate for donors to fund humanitarian agencies to carry out priority shelter activities, while at the same time encouraging agencies to mobilize resources for their activities through their usual channels.
· Represent the interests of the Shelter Cluster in discussions with the Humanitarian Coordinator, appropriate Governmental representations, donors and other key agencies on prioritization, resource mobilization and advocacy.
· Call on additional local and international partners, and advocate for additional donor commitment to meet priority shelter needs and fill gaps.
· Establish mechanisms for accountable financial resource allocation at cluster level for projects funded through the cluster lead.
Training and capacity building of national authorities and civil society
· Promote and support training of humanitarian personnel and capacity building of humanitarian partners.
· Support efforts to strengthen the capacity of the relevant authorities and civil society.
· Develop and implement a common strategy within the Shelter Cluster for capacity building and training.
Evaluation
· Promote a common and joint system of reviews, assessments, and evaluations conducted with due transparency, accountability and objectivity.
· Support the conduct of a review of the IFRC-led shelter cluster as applicable.
Other
· The Shelter Cluster Coordinator will advise the Global Shelter Cluster Coordinator on the approach to and resources required to provide the required shelter coordination services to humanitarian agencies.
· The Shelter Cluster Coordinator will coach other staff as needed.
The Shelter Cluster Coordinator is responsible for overseeing any local staff engaged in support of the IFRC Shelter Coordination Team; any such engagement and the development of appropriate job descriptions is to be undertaken in consultation and agreement with the IFRC Country Office.
· Contribute to the development of an exit strategy for shelter coordination and provision of adequate handover to relevant agencies.
· Prepare a short summary report at the conclusion of the assignment on lessons learned and recommendations for future deployments.
· Provide general surge support to the IFRC Philippines Country Office upon request of Head of Country Office.
· Be available to travel/work short missions overseas as agreed with Head of Country Office.
· Any other tasks that may be required to achieve the objective of this assignment.
Priority functions
Amongst all the functions listed above, the priority functions for this position include:
· Represent the Shelter Cluster at the national level at ICCG meetings, as well as HCT meetings if requested by the IFRC Head of Country Office.
· Liaise with partners at the national level to ensure coordination of assessment and response activities at the provincial and regional levels.
· Agree with partners with significant local presence to take on hub level shelter coordination responsibilities for the affected regions and provinces.
· To consolidate an overall picture of the shelter needs and ongoing response to the various disasters at the national level.
· To promote the use of common information management tools for monitoring of the response.
Method of delivery and reasons for selecting that method
To coordinate the Shelter Cluster at the country level, the IFRC deploys a Shelter Coordination Team (SCT). The shelter coordination team serves as a ‘secretariat’ of the Shelter Cluster. Its dedicated, full-time staff work exclusively on coordination services to shelter agencies. The SCT does not engage in any IFRC operational activities, and thus is able to provide independent and neutral coordination services to the Shelter Cluster members. The IFRC establishes a firewall between its role as Shelter Cluster convener, and its operational role as shelter implementer.
The SCT is a flexible coordination mechanism. Its composition varies depending on the size and needs of a disaster. Resources allowing, the IFRC typically deploys a dedicated team of 3-4 people, but if a disaster response requires additional support from the Shelter Cluster, the SCT can incorporate several additional roles. In large scale disasters, the team can exceed 20 people. The key positions of the SCT ensure that core services are provided to shelter agencies, delivering consistent and predictable support that is easy for partners to understand.
SCT key positions include a Coordinator, and Information Manager, a Technical Coordinator, and a Recovery Advisor. The deployment of the SCT is funded through a globally managed project within the country-level Emergency Appeal.
The Shelter Cluster Coordinator will, at all times when carrying out this assignment, ensure that he/she adheres to the conditions of the International Federation commitments[1] to undertaking a leading role in emergency shelter in natural disasters, namely:
the Federation shall at all times adhere to the Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, its policies, procedures as well as those of the Movement, relevant to international disaster response;
[1] IFRC-UNOCHA Memorandum of Understanding, signed September 19th 2006.
the Principle of Independence will be upheld in respect of extra funding required to exercise this lead role;
the Federation will not accept accountability obligations beyond those defined in its Constitution and own polices; and
the responsibilities of such leadership will be clearly defined, leaving no room for “open ended” or unlimited obligations.
The Shelter Cluster Coordinator will report directly to the IFRC Head of Country Office in the Philippines, or as otherwise advised. The technical reporting line will be to the Head of the Shelter and Settlements Unit, International Federation, Geneva, who represents the Federation as co-chair of the Global Shelter Cluster.
The Shelter Cluster Coordinator will liaise closely with the UN Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator, other coordination staff of UN OCHA, national authorities and clusters carrying out coordination functions in other sectors/areas.
The IFRC Head of Country Office is the primary authority on issues regarding security and safety. The Shelter Cluster Coordinator will function as other Federation delegates in this regard and will comply with all security and safety guidelines. The Shelter Cluster Coordinator will be the primary liaison with the IFRC Head of Country Office on all security, safety and travel issues for the Shelter Coordination Team.
The location of the Shelter Cluster Coordinator will be at the IFRC office in Manila.
Support to be provided to the Shelter Cluster Coordinator
The IFRC Senior Officer, Shelter Cluster Coordination, the Australian Red Cross Asia-Pacific Roving Focal Point for Shelter Coordination, the IFRC Asia-Pacific Shelter Coordinator and Global Focal Points for Coordination, Information Management and Technical Coordination will provide remote support to the Shelter Cluster Coordinator as required. Other members of the Global Shelter Cluster Support Team will also provide support in their respective areas of expertise.
The IFRC Country Office will provide logistics and administration support to the Shelter Cluster Coordinator as required.
Timeframe
The timeframe of this assignment will be until December 2022 unless otherwise agreed. If additional time is required to meet the overall objective of this assignment, IFRC will endeavour to extend the assignment or find a replacement for an additional period to be determined and subject to the availability of resources.
How to apply:
This is a Philippines National Consultancy contract. Those who are interested should send their CV, letter of interest, and daily consultancy rate in PHP (Philippine PESO) to Joanna.Pellerin@ifrc.org
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview. CV must be save in this sample format: Juan Dela Cruz_Shelter Cluster Coordination Consultant
Email subject: Shelter Cluster Coordination Consultant
Closing Date: 31st of December 2021