Country: Switzerland
Closing date: 15 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 International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC or “the Federation”) is the world’s largest volunteer-based humanitarian network. The Federation is a membership organization established by and comprised of its member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Along with National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Federation is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The overall aim of the IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies 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.” It works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises. The Secretariat - led by the Secretary General - is the central capacity of the International Federation to serve, connect, and represent National Societies. The mission of the Secretariat is to build a humane, dignified and peaceful world by helping National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to become stronger, promote their interests globally, and enable them to work together effectively as the International Federation. The mission of the Programs and Operations Division is to provides vision, leadership, strategic management and operational coordination for the Secretariat’s work and resources along the continuum from disaster risk reduction and crisis prevention, to building safe, healthy and resilient communities, to disaster and crisis response and recovery. The Programme Services Division is organized in three Departments, each of them led by a Director. The Health & Care Dept. is organized in three Teams, each led by a Team Leader.
Job Purpose
The Red Cross Movement (RCM) is seeking to hire a consultant/consultancy company to create a Red Cross-specific guidance that will support health programme and operations managers in preparing for, managing, and responding to epidemics.
Background
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC or “the Federation”) is the world’s largest volunteer-based humanitarian network. The Federation is a membership organisation established by and comprised of its member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Along with National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Federation is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. More and more often, the Red Cross Movement is being called upon to both prevent and respond to health emergencies including epidemics.
At present the National Societies with the support of the IFRC and partners respond to approx. 20 public health emergencies each year, in addition to health programming in natural disasters and complex emergencies. The community based focus of the Red Cross response requires tailored support to ensure quality programming that impacts and limits transmission. Lessons learnt during a number of recent epidemics responses including Ebola, Zika and Yellow fever have clearly identified the significant ‘value add’ of these community based interventions, however a need for further guidance and support to National Societies related to the program management of such operations is required to ensure consistent and quality public health response.
Current guidance related to implementation is provided by the IFRC Epidemic Control for Volunteers (ECV) toolkit created in 2008—a training package intended for volunteers and their facilitators in local Red Cross branches. The toolkit is used to familiarize volunteers with common epidemics and encourages them to use evidence-based actions and approaches to control the spread of communicable diseases in their communities, provide appropriate care for the sick, and reduce the number of deaths. ECV includes a set of modules designed to cover various areas of epidemic control including introductory and general information on epidemics, principles of epidemic control, actions to be taken in epidemic control and how to use the ECV toolkit.
ECV is now 7 years old and requires a review and update to ensure it remains evidence based and up to date. As part of this process an additional guide focused on support for program managers will be created. The new ‘implementation guide’ will support health and operation managers identify the need for a response, design, implement and monitor epidemic operations. The guide will ensure that programme managers have the practical steps needed to support their communities in epidemic response as well as be able to develop management systems to monitor progress and make adaptions to ensure impact.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
Objectives:
The review and update of ECV will be a practical reference point to use in future health emergencies by programme and operations managers in their support to volunteers. It will highlight best practices in epidemic situations and will provide guidance on how to use evidence-based actions and approaches to design prevention, early detection, response, and recovery strategies to epidemics at a community level.
Purposes:
The users and intended use of these guidelines are as follows: Audience Intended Use National Society branch offices and volunteers
- Update of current ECV tools to include new evidence and emerging threats National Society health programme managers involved in epidemic response
- To increase awareness and understanding of detecting, preventing, and responding to an epidemic
- To be used as an education/training tool for future health programme managers and to draw lessons for responding to similar health emergencies NS with Emergency Response Units (ERUs) and/or a health focus/response capacity
- To share the guidelines with NS who have the capacity to assist epidemic-affected NS in order to ensure future response is sustained and improved
IFRC operations managers managing an epidemic response
- To provide the operations manager with guidance to manage epidemic response operations
- To be used as an education/training tool for future operations managers and to draw lessons for responding to similar health emergencies
Suggested Structure of Guidelines
The revision of ECV will remain in the same format with the addition of any newly identified risks and update of current evidence. The implementation guidelines will be modelled on the format of the Implementation guide for Community-based Health and First Aid Implementation (CBHFA) to ensure continuity with development programming and support rapid roll out and uptake of new tool. The guideline will be approximately 50 – 60 pages in length. A large amount of content for the guidance exists and the focus of this consultancy will be on interpreting and collating best practice in to a format that is accessible for program managers in low resource, high risk settings. A focus on instructional design as well as public health content is imperative as the guide will act in part as a learning tool to support National Societies. *It is important to note that the information provided in these guidelines will link to several other Red Cross internal documents that may serve as points for consideration for program and operations managers responding to epidemics.
This includes:
- Contingency planning IFRC document
- CBHFA toolkit
- CBS guidance
- Rapid Mobile Phone-based survey (RAMP) guidance
- Global RCM tools such as Emergency Response Units (ERUs), Regional Disaster Response Teams (RDRTs), explanation of Surge Information Management Support (SIMS)
- Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) –what it is and what are the rules for health emergencies
- Working with Disaster Management (DM): how health and DM work collaboratively in health emergencies
Process
To support the development of the guidance and ensure it is operationally relevant with in the Red Cross Movement a steering committee comprising of technical experts and end users has been established. A technical focal point to manage the process will be established and will act as the main interlocutor for the consultant(s) The steering committee will support the collation of existing internal and external content to help support the initial phases of the development. The consultant(s) will work collaboratively with the steering group and technical focal point to agree on structure, content and final product. If necessary, a face to face meeting towards the end of the process to review and agree on the final product may be required.
Deliverables
- Evidence based revision of existing ECV tool
- Up to 6 additional ‘disease’ tools
- Up to an additional 10 ‘action’ tools
- Implementation Guide of 50-60 pages
Outside of this consultancy
- A graphic designer will be hired to make guidelines in line with ECV brand
- Following the completion of the guidelines, it will be translated into the four official RC/RC languages
- Based on the end product, the steering group will gauge whether elements of this reference guide can be extracted for other purposes (such as the construction of an ECV e-learning course similar to the CBHFA version).
Education
- Degree in instruction design or curriculum development or other relevant degree
Experience
- At least 5 years’ experience in curriculum or guideline design related to humanitarian or public health topics, with an emphasis on material designed for low literacy audiences.
- Experience in working with a graphic designer.
Knowledge, skills and languages
- Proficient in English.
- Knowledge of public health or humanitarian sector Advanced skills in curriculum or guideline design
Competencies and values
Comments
The Federation is an equal opportunity employer.
How to apply:
Please apply on the organisation's website: Click Here