Closing date: 13 Mar 2017
Background
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organization, with 190 member National Societies. As part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, our work is guided by seven fundamental principles; humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.
Organizational Context
The Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) was established by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in 1985 to provide immediate financial support to Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies, enabling them to carry out their unique role as first responders after a disaster or crisis. The Fund has grown in recent years and now provides rapid and flexible funding to between 60 to 80 National Societies, to a value of up to CHF 24 million each year. Managed centrally from the IFRC secretariat’s offices in Geneva, the IFRC raises funding for the DREF on an annual basis, based on expected needs and is currently supported by over 30 Red Cross Red Crescent, institutional and corporate donors. All allocations made by the DREF are based on needs and on requests by National Societies for support for immediate disaster response. Since 2008 the number of DREF operations carried out by African National Societies has risen from 48 to 63 in 2011. The amount of allocations disbursed has risen from CHF 7.7 million in 2008 to CHF 11.7 million in 2011. In response to this, the DREF delegate position was created in 2012-13 as a pilot position for 12 months, to: 1. provide closer, direct technical support to National Societies and IFRC delegations involved in DREF operations within the Africa Region, 2. to support effective and rapid DREF requests, ensuring adherence to established criteria, and to ensure that the operations achieve their goal, objectives and expected results. The DREF Delegate works under the management of the Head of Disaster and Crisis (Prevention, Response and Recovery) Unit to ensure that Africa region DM SoPs are respected for DREF operations. The DREF delegate works closely with PMER Coordinator and Finance and Administration Manager and with the respective country or cluster teams involved in the disaster response operations, to guide and support IFRC project managers and National Societies to increase the timeliness and quality of DREF requests, and of the implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of DREF operations. The DREF delegate also provides training to IFRC colleagues and National Society staff on planning, monitoring and reporting on DREF operations, both through workshops and by direct operational support. The DREF Delegate provides an overview of the quality, relevance and accountability of DREF operations, with the aim of ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of DREF-funded operations. She/he also assist in assessing and recording key achievements and challenges, and make recommendations to replicate or improve future disasters response. The DREF Delegate has a technical reporting line to the Senior Officer DREF in Geneva, who advises the DREF Delegate on DREF technical issues and parameters, and holds and manages the budget for the position and reports to donors on the progress achieved.
Job Purpose
Rationale for the review
The DREF delegate position was a 12-month pilot initiated in Africa zone. Africa zone was selected due to the high number of DREF operations carried out by African National Societies (approximately 50% of the global total). The DREF delegate position was subsequently extended to 31 December 2014 in October 2013 to allow for greater impact of the position and capacity building initiatives to continue. However, based on the DREF advisory group meeting held in April 2014, this decision was subsequently revised and the consensus reached, with agreement and continued financial support from the DREF Advisory Group, was made to keep the position in place for 2 more years, up to December 2016. Due to delays in conducting the review, this has been extended until April 2017.
With the departure of the second DREF delegate in the last four years and the pilot coming to an end in December, this review seeks to inform the IFRC DREF management team and the DREF advisory group on the relevance and sustainability of the position as a part of the wider DCPRR Africa team.
Objective
Review the current functioning of the DREF delegate and its development from 2013 – 2016 (four years) and evaluate its efficiency, effectiveness and achievements against the agreed job description as well as relevance and sustainability of the position, including the funding model and possible alternatives.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
Audience:
The DREF officer review will aim to inform the following audience:
- IFRC Secretariat staff responsible for the management of the DREF – that is the director of the Disaster and Crisis (Preparedness, Response and Recovery), the DREF manager (Team leader of emergency operations and information management) and the DREF senior officer, as well as the relevant technical and support services (e.g. Health and Care, Finance, Audit & Risk Management)
- the DREF Advisory Group, who fund the position jointly as a pilot position from 2013 - 2016
Focus of the review
The prime focus of the review is to review and analyse how the DREF delegate position has developed since its inception, the strengths and weaknesses of the current position, and whether terms of reference are appropriate and efficient.
Management of the review
The review of the DREF delegate position is commissioned by the IFRC director of Disaster and Crisis in consultation with the DREF advisory group.
The review process and team will be managed by the IFRC Disaster and Crisis department, supported by a member of the DREF advisory group the DREF Manager (Team Leader, Emergency operations and Information Management) Senior Officer and Senior Assistant.
Methodology
The review team will meet with and/or be briefed by the Director of Disaster and Crisis, the team leader of the Emergency Operations and Information Management unit, the DREF senior officer and the team lead for response and recovery, prior to the review to discuss the final ToR and to clarify expectations from the review.
The review will be conducted through a desk top analysis of DREF operations, procedures and a secondary data analysis as well as key stakeholder interviews.
Interviews will be held with representatives of the following:
- relevant Geneva departments of the IFRC secretariat, in particular Disaster and Crisis, technical units including health, Planning and Evaluation, and Finance
- DM, health, PMER and finance units, and senior management in Africa Zone
The review will have to apply the evaluations principles:
- Utility: Evaluations must be useful and used.
- Feasibility: Evaluations must be realistic, diplomatic, and managed in a sensible, cost effective manner.
- Impartiality & Independence; Evaluations should be impartial, providing a comprehensive and unbiased assessment that takes into account the views of all stakeholders.
- Transparency: Evaluation activities should reflect an attitude of openness and transparency.
- Accuracy: Evaluations should be technical accurate, providing sufficient information about the data collection, analysis, and interpretation methods so that its worth or merit can be determined.
- Participation: Stakeholders should be consulted and meaningfully involved in the evaluation process when feasible and appropriate.
- Collaboration: Collaboration between key operating partners in the evaluation process improves the legitimacy and utility of the evaluation.
Key Deliverables
The team will initially produce a short inception report outlining its plan to deliver against the evaluation objective, outputs and timeframe.
After the process or interviews and review of data and documents, the team leader will gather and analyse the input from the team and will deliver a written draft report (approximately 6-10 pages maximum). The report will have an executive summary and clear findings and actionable recommendations. It will also draw up a short vision of the position in the next 3-5 years.
The evaluation will be presented in a debrief to the director of Disaster and Crisis and the DREF Manager (team leader, EOIM) and shared with the DREF advisory group. The IFRC secretariat, led by the director of Disaster and Crisis and a nominated representative from the unit, will compile a management response to the evaluation, with input from the relevant IFRC departments and Zones offices, which will form part of the final report.
The report and management response will be shared with all appropriate departments of the Secretariat and with all Zone offices. It will be shared with the DREF Advisory Group for discussion and follow up action.
The Evaluation Team
The team will comprise two persons:
- One independent external consultant with relevant evaluation experience, who will be team leader and will have overall responsibility for the evaluation and for the writing of the report.
- One representative of a National Society, who is a member of the DREF Donor Advisory Group and who has evaluation experience and knowledge of the DREF and of the IFRC DM systems.
Timeframe
The evaluation will be carried out over 10 days. This will include:
Phase 1: 1 day
- Briefing by IFRC Geneva Secretariat
- Planning of review / definition of tasks of team members
pre-scoping / inception report Phase 2: 6 days
pre-reading and analysis of primary and secondary data, preparation of interviews
Interview with key stakeholders
Debriefing
Drafting of the report and submission for management response Phase 3: 3 days
Finalization of the report based on management response and feedback The management response will be written outside this timeframe (2 weeks). The final report and management response should ideally be ready by 15 March 2017.
Education
Experience
Experience in disaster management and in evaluations.
Working experience with RC/RC movement preferably with the International Federation.
Knowledge, skills and languages
Proficiency in English.
How to apply:
Please apply on the organisation's website: Click Here