Country: Switzerland
Closing date: 23 Oct 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 per year. Managed centrally from the IFRC Secretariat office 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 preparedness and response. The DREF, available to all 190 National Societies, now has two main purposes:
- Start-up funding for the IFRC and National Societies to respond to large-scale disasters – the “loan facility”;
- Funding for National Societies' responses to small- and medium-scale disasters and health emergencies for which no international appeal will be launched, or when support from other actors are not foreseen – the “grant facility”.
Both the loan and the grant facilities are also used to help National Societies prepare for imminent crises. Over the years, the DREF has proved a flexible tool that can finance immediate action in response to sudden onset disasters or provide a timely response in the case of slow onset or silent disasters or crises. As such, it is a key element of the International Federation’s disaster response work.
Job Purpose
Rationale for the review:
While a review of the DREF in 2014 confirmed the relevance and appropriateness of the scope and function of the Fund, the increased use of the fund due to the changing landscape of disasters and events, and a focus on transparency and accountability by the IFRC has challenged the process and procedures last revised in 2011. In addition, the humanitarian needs and the types of disaster response provided by National Societies continue to evolve, and it is found vital for the fund to revise its procedures to remain fit for purpose.
Using experience and information from the past years, the IFRC Secretariat will look at this revision to identify the needs and demands arising from the field to make the Fund easy to access while maintaining the necessary accountability measures to beneficiaries and donors. The revised procedures need to take into consideration the changing trends in disaster response and to reflect the new innovative approaches for defining triggers and forecast that can form the basis of early actions.
Objective:
Review the current use of the guidelines and the efficiency of the procedures and propose a set of revised DREF procedures and guidelines. Accordingly, this includes consideration of financial and disaster management processes (Emergency Response Framework), IFRC and National Societies' capacity to plan, implement and report on allocations as well as consideration of the financial sustainability of the Fund. The review is not intended as a review of the functioning and scope of the Fund overall but limited to the procedures and guidelines for the use of the Fund.
Audience:
The review will aim to inform the following audience, to ensure their support for recommended future developments of the procedures and guidelines:
- National Societies as potential recipients of DREF allocations; IFRC Senior Management and staff responsible for the management of the DREF – that is the Under Secretary General for Programmes and Operations, the Director of the Disaster and Crisis Department, the DREF Appeal Manager, and the DREF Senior Officer, the DREF finance analyst, as well as the relevant technical and support services and relevant teams in the IFRC regional and country offices responsible for the implementation of the DREF operations;
- Donors to the DREF, including partner National Societies (both members and non-members of the DREF Advisory Group), governments, the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO) and corporate supporters, as well as potential future donors.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
Focusof the review:
The primary focus of the review is to study and analyse, based on evidence from past years, how the current procedures and guidelines are contributing to the efficiency and effectiveness of the DREF and examine their relevance towards the suitability of the Fund in the current circumstances and context, including that of the global humanitarian environment, the IFRC disaster response system and the donors. It will also consider how the DREF procedures are supporting the DREF functions as part of the IFRC’s overall disaster management system: preparedness for early action and emergency response planning, national response, supported by regional and global resources and to what extent it supports innovative response and best practice. It is expected that the review will include an evidence-based analysis of data related to allocation timing, size, type of operation ect. as well as a qualitative analysis of the main bottlenecks and challenges for fast and easy access to the Fund.
The review will specifically focus on the following areas:
- Guidelines and procedures supporting the overall purpose of the DREF
- Triggers to ensure timeliness in relation to different types of disasters and crises
- Analyse the implementation timeframe and suggest procedure for more timely response
- Cost Efficiency
- Appropriateness of the allocations in terms of effectiveness (type of activities, size)
- Accountability to beneficiaries
- Accessibility to the Fund (procedures and lessons learned
- New innovative approaches such as forecast-based financing for early action
Management of the review:
The review of the DREF guidelines and procedures is commissioned by the IFRC director of the Disaster and Crisis Department, 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 and the IFRC DREF team in Geneva.
Methodology:
The review team will meet with and/or be briefed by the Director of the Disaster and Crisis department, the DREF Appeal Manager, the DREF team and the IFRC 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 review of the current DREF procedures and guidelines, previous DREF reviews and audits, the review of the Africa DREF delegate position, DREF operations, a secondary data analysis as well as key stakeholders' interviews.
Interviews will be held with representatives of the following:
- Relevant Geneva departments of the IFRC Secretariat, in particular Disaster and Crisis, health and finance, as well as technical units such as Planning and Evaluation, Audit and Risk, etc.
- Disaster Management, Health, PMER and finance units, and senior management in IFRC Regional Offices
- National Societies using the DREF and also those who are funding the DREF
The review will have to apply the IFRC 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 technically 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 review objective, outputs, and timeframe.
After the review of data and documents, and interviews, the team leader will gather and analyze the input from the team and will deliver a written draft report (approximately 10-15 pages maximum). The report will have an executive summary and clear findings and actionable recommendations. It will also draw up different options for the process to update the procedures. As far as possible, the report should include a draft set of updated procedures.
The review will be presented in a debrief to the director of the Disaster and Crisis Department, the DREF Manager, Response and Recovery team, and the DREF Finance Analyst 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 review, with input from the relevant IFRC departments and Regional 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 Regional offices. It will be shared with the DREF Advisory Group for discussion and follow up action.
The Review Team:
The team will comprise two persons:
- One independent external consultant with relevant review/evaluation experience, who will be team leader and will have overall responsibility for the review 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. The role of this team member will be to assist the team leader in collecting information, and will not influence the development of the recommendations.
Timeframe:
The review will be carried out over 30 days. This will include:
Phase 1: 5 days
- Briefing by IFRC Geneva Secretariat
- Planning of review/definition of tasks of team members
- Pre-scoping / inception report
Phase 2: 20 days
- Pre-reading and analysis of primary and secondary data, preparation of interviews
- Interviews with key stakeholders
- Debriefing
- Drafting of the report and submission for the management response
Phase 3: 5 days
- Finalization of the report based on the management response and feedback The management response will be written outside this timeframe (2 weeks).
Education
- An advanced university degree (master's or equivalent) is required
Experience
- 5 years of relevant experience is required
Knowledge,skillsand languages
- Fluency in English is required, knowledge of another IFRC official language (French, Arabic, Spanish) is preferred
Competencies and values
Comments
The Federation is an equal opportunity employer.
How to apply:
Please submit your application to IFRCjobs