Organizational Context
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 192-member National Societies. 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.” The 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 the 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 delegation and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.
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.
Job Purpose
The consultancy will be for the preparation, delivery and evaluation of the 24th and 25th editions of the “Humanitarian Shelter Coordination” course and the 25th and 26th editions of the “Shelter & settlements in emergencies, natural disasters” course. Both courses are composed of an online module and a residential component. The 5-week tutored online module is followed by a 6-day face-to-face workshop that participants will attend in locations to be determined, depending on the course and cohort. The distance learning captures most of the theory needed to attend the courses such as Humanitarian Reform and the Global Shelter Cluster approach to cluster coordination, Sphere standards and Shelter after Disaster guidance on provision of assistance. It also serves as filter to ensure that participants who come to the face-to-face workshops have the minimum knowledge required to achieve the expected results. While the distance learning part deals with the theoretical content, the residential component focuses on its practical aspects. In partnership with Oxford Brookes University both courses are certified Masters-level credit-rated courses. These are competency based, assessed courses worth 10 Masters level credits (a complete Masters in the UK is worth 180 credits) that can be transferred to the masters in Development and Emergency Practice (DEP) from Oxford Brookes University or other similar postgraduate qualifications.
Project Objectives
To build the capacity of humanitarian actors to deliver a professional assistance in shelter interventions in response to a crisis.
The course “Humanitarian Shelter Coordination” aims to equip participants with the skills required to coordinate a shelter response in a humanitarian crisis caused by a natural disaster, a conflict or a combination of both. It will provide participants with an overview of the humanitarian reform process and the transformative agenda, the interagency cluster approach, the role of the Shelter Cluster and the principles and practice of humanitarian shelter coordination.
The course “Shelter & Settlements in Emergencies, Natural Disasters” aims to equip participants with the skills required to plan a shelter response in a humanitarian crisis after natural disasters. It will provide participants with an overview of shelter and settlement in emergencies, their relevance in humanitarian programmes and an understanding of the principles and practice of the humanitarian shelter response.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
Through the facilitation of the course “Humanitarian Shelter Coordination”, participants will receive the required support to be able to acquire strategic and practical knowledge of shelter coordination policies, methods, tools and procedures in the humanitarian response system and are prepared to apply these in the context of a humanitarian crisis.
- Demonstrate a depth of knowledge of the main foundations, principles, processes, and complexity of humanitarian shelter coordination.
- Develop an inter-agency shelter response and advocacy strategy, using current humanitarian shelter and settlements standards, principles, andsettlements standards, principles, and approaches.
- Effectively participate in shelter coordination teams at the country level, utilizing the most current knowledge, tools, and good practices at the forefront of the discipline.
- Apply leadership and coordination skills effectively and appropriately to a professional standard for different audiences in the field of humanitarian practice.
Through the facilitation of the course “Shelter & settlements in emergencies, natural disasters”, participants will receive the required support to be able to acquire strategic and practical knowledge of shelter and settlements policies, methods, tools and procedures in the humanitarian response system and are prepared to practice these in a sustainable manner from relief to recovery.
- Demonstrate a depth of knowledge of the main principles, standards, approaches, and the complexity of programming aspects in shelter and settlements in relief.
- Analyse alternative approaches to different aspects of shelter and settlements response using current humanitarian standards and principles.
- Synthesise an operational shelter response based on the main principles, standards, approaches, and programming aspects in shelter and settlements in relief.
- Evaluate with critical awareness successful scenarios in implementing programmes for shelter and settlements in relief, utilizing knowledge from the forefront of the discipline.
- Ability to apply communication skills effectively and appropriately to a professional standard for different audiences in the field of humanitarian practice.
Consultancy Outputs
- Facilitation of the online tutored component of both shelter courses “Humanitarian Shelter Coordination” and “Shelter and Settlements in Emergencies, Natural Disasters”. This will involve in both cases the introduction of different modules and supporting participant learning experience throughout the course, clarify questions from participants and provide additional materials or advice in the completion of the required activities. The Shelter Sr Officer, focus on Americas, Asia Pacific & Europe regions and Sr Officer, Shelter cluster coordination will provide back-up support.
- Correct and grade the assignments to be submitted by participants at the end of each module of the online component and provide final recommendation on participant’s qualification to access the residential component of both courses.
- Evaluation of the online components, including the submission of a brief report with general statistics on participants’ submissions, suggestions on ways to improve assignments and on the management of the learning process through the modules.
- Support the preparation and facilitation of the face-to-face component for both cohorts of the course “Shelter and Settlements in Emergencies, Natural Disasters”. This will involve any needed preparation work prior to deliver it and the co-facilitation of the six-day workshop working closely with other facilitators, resource people and course manager. This includes the revision or development of course documentation, and supporting the facilitation of different sessions as lectures, discussions, case studies and simulation exercises.
- Evaluation of student participation (including the marking of participants’ assignments during the workshop) and the face-to-face workshop itself with the support of other facilitators, resource people and course manager.
Method of Delivery and Reasons for Selecting that Method
Even if some discussions are still in place to fix the final dates this is the tentative calendar for the Global Shelter courses: The tutored on-line modules will be run in the IFRC learning platform: from 20th March to 23rd April 2023 and from 7th August to 10th September 2023 for the online component of two Humanitarian Shelter Coordination courses and from 24th April to 28th May 2023 and from 2nd October to 5th November 2023 for the online component of two Shelter & Settlements in Emergencies, Natural Disasters courses.
In both cases, participants follow a tutored distance learning taken by participants from home. Each online component takes an estimated amount of 50 hours of student effort.
The learning process is based in the learning platform from the IFRC “Cornerstone” (www.ifrc.org/learning). )In both cases the different modules of the online components are loaded in the platform to be completed in a sequential order. Students are encouraged to follow a suggested calendar. However, it is up to each individual to select the speed to complete the course before the deadline. This requires certain flexibility from the facilitators to be able to adjust to the participant needs. The new modules become available as the student completes the steps included in the learning plan. Students are not alone, as it is a tutored self-learning course. The facilitator needs to be available during the online component to accompany participants through their learning process providing guidance, recommending additional up-to-date documents and answering questions.
This method of delivery allows adequate time during the residential components of the training to focus on the practical application of the principles and policies learnt during the online components. It also serves as a filter to ensure that participants that attend the face-to-face workshops (residential component) have the required skills and interest, as well as the theoretical knowledge base to take full advantage of the learning during the residential module.
As per the online component, the dates for the face-to-face workshop of the two cohorts of the Shelter & Settlements in Emergencies, Natural Disasters courses are not fixed yet. The tentative planned dates, that can be modified for either of the two residential components, are: from 3rd to 8thJuly 2023and from 27thNovember to 2nd December 2023. The workshop sessions, exercises and case studies are designed to engage students actively and encourage reflection and deliberation. They will include the sharing of personal experiences among students as a method to advance learning.
Support to be Provided to the Consultant
During the online component of the course the consultant will be briefed and will receive backstop in dealing with any questions that training participants may raise regarding the learning platform, the training content and the required assignments. The Shelter Sr Officer, focus on Americas, Asia Pacific & Europe regions and the Sr Officer, Shelter cluster coordination will be the main focal points for the consultant and available throughout the consultancy period to provide support as required.
During the residential component of the course: The consultant will receive support from the facilitators and other IFRC staff (resource people and course manager), during the delivery of this person's duty.
Time Allocation, for Budget Purposes
This assignment is for a maximum of 100 working days, during the period: 20th March to 31st December 2023.
Management of Consultancy
The consultancy shall be managed by the Shelter Sr Officer, focus on Americas, Asia Pacific & Europe regions and Sr Officer, Shelter cluster coordination. Both will provide the required briefing to the consultant and have once every two weeks monitoring discussions to assess progress. Other ad hoc communications with the consultant will be held as required.
Position Requirements
Education
Required
- Bachelor degree or equivalent qualification in pedagogy or on the construction environment as structural/civil engineering, architecture, construction management, project management or related field.
- IFRC global shelter courses: Shelter & Settlements in Emergencies, Natural Disasters and Humanitarian Shelter Coordination (or equivalent courses).
Experience
Required
- In delivery courses accredited by university/academic institution.
- Experience working in Humanitarian responses designing and implementing shelter interventions after crisis (disaster and/or conflict).
- Experience with the IASC shelter cluster coordination and contingency planning, in particular working successfully with National Government Ministries.
- Familiarity with current standards and guidelines for humanitarian emergency response, in particular Sphere.
Knowledge, skills and languages
Required
- Fluently spoken and written English.
- Good professional communication skills, both written and verbal.
- Knowledge of IFRC policies and procedures, particularly with regard to shelter.
- Knowledge of the Humanitarian Reform/ IASC Cluster system.
- Excellent computer skills including Microsoft Office applications.
- Ability to use own initiative and problem-solving skills.
- Pedagogic skills to develop and delivering trainings and clear message to facilitate learning.
Preferred
- Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic).
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.
IFRC values equal opportunity, diversity and inclusivity. We encourage applications from all suitably qualified candidates, irrespective of sex, gender, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, nationality, class, political opinions, ethnic or social origin, disability, religion, or belief.
How to apply
- Please only apply via IFRC website.
- Please submit your application in English only.
- In the cover letter, please outline your interest in this consultancy and how your experience, qualifications and skills make you an ideal candidate for the role, and include your preferred daily fee (required).