Nepal: External Consultant - Nepal Earthquake Response Operation 2015

Context
In the aftermath of the 25 April 2015 devastating earthquakes, the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) has implemented a wide range of relief (in more than 32 districts) and recovery interventions (in 16 worst affected districts1) with support from the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement members and other partners, in close cooperation with national as well local authorities in Nepal. Since April 2015, for such initiatives NRCS have received financial and technical support from many partners through multilateral and bilateral channels, while a unified programming recovery framework was agreed, focusing on building community resilience by providing support to the community to retake control of their lives after the earthquakes. Based on this framework, the partners adopted a Movement-wide Recovery Plan called “One Plan” under NRCS leadership and led by the Earthquake Response Operation (ERO) unit on the ground, in June 2016. The NRCS recovery framework articulates its integrated approach and its preferred components described as four plus one – provision of shelter solutions, water and sanitation (WASH), livelihoods support and rehabilitation of damaged health facilities, plus institutional capacity building (ICB). Social inclusion and disaster preparedness (DRR) are seen as crosscutting approaches in all the sectors.
From the beginning, 13 in-country PNSs supported the recovery efforts of NRCS however in line with the One Transitional Framework some of the PNSs phased out their bilateral support starting from June 2018. The in country PNSs who were directly engaged in the recovery interventions in Nepal namely American Red Cross, Australian Red Cross, Belgian Red Cross -Flanders, British Red Cross, The Canadian Red Cross Society, Danish Red Cross, Finnish Red Cross, Japanese Red Cross Society, Norwegian Red Cross, Qatar Red Crescent Society, Spanish Red Cross, Swiss Red Cross and The Republic of Korea National Red Cross.
The main Red Cross Red Crescent planned actions for recovery are:2
• 7,464 households to be provided with Shelter grants,
• 316,193 people to be provided with water and sanitation facilities and hygiene promotion
• 137,625 people to be provided with health services and community health activities,
• 124,696 people to be reached with livelihood activities,
• 16 Nepal Red Cross chapters to be supported with capacity building
As of June 2019, overall recovery operations are being completed (some construction components such as school building, health posts and district chapters are still continuing in some districts during 2019) while several final evaluations were undertaken to review and analyse the performance to date as well as draw lessons for future operations. In support of this process, a Movement-wide lessons learned workshop was held between 05-07 March 2019. In addition to various reporting mechanisms used for this operation, the Movement-wide reporting exercise was instrumental to showcase the overall achievements and celebrate our collective success.
The surge capacity is hired to prepare, compile and edit the final draft report that documents the Movement-wide achievements, stories of impacts, lessons learned and action photos, voice of the volunteers.

Purpose
Together with NRCS, the Movement partners supported affected communities to build their capacity, resilience and to prepared them further even better for future disasters. As part of its standard practice and Movement-wide commitments, IFRC continued to track and reported collective progress to account for resources provided and inform the public about our joint efforts through Movement-wide reports. The one-year progress report was published in June 2016 and this round of report will be the final report of this operation.
The audience of this final MW report is expected to be donor National Societies, institutional donors and partners, including government agencies, general public and other organizations with interest in assistance interventions.

Scope

The surge capacity will carry out the following tasks:

1. Finalizing the contents/themes, layout and design of the report in line with IFRC standards as well as Task Force based in Kathmandu.
2. Develop, compile, edit and finalize narrative essays to achieve an appropriate standard tone throughout the report that resonates with its intended audience. In this, the surge capacity will work closely with the IFRC and NRCS PMER team based in the Kathmandu.
3. Select, caption and credit an appropriate number of photographs from a given selection that best capture the essence of the report and express the best intentions of the operation. Photographs will include Red Cross Red Crescent branding where possible. This will be done with the support of the IFRC and NRCS communications focal points based at Kathmandu and APRO.
4. Collect/develop, edit and finalize text, photographs and diagrams for several information pieces/stories of impact of appropriate length to be inserted in the report as standalone text boxes. This will be done in consultation with the appropriate IFRC communications focal point/programme managers and coordinators based in the Kathmandu and Kuala Lumpur as needed.
5. Produce a final presentable document with all of the above incorporated for the approval of Senior Management, including the NRCS senior management, the ICRC and IFRC heads of office, and the Director of the IFRC office in Kuala Lumpur.
6. Drafting of sample forewords/editorial statements on behalf of IFRC/NRCS/ICRC.
7. Any necessary alterations will be made by the surge capacity in consultation with the appropriate counterparts, pending the type of alteration this entails.
8. The work of the surge capacity will be considered complete when the finished document is approved by the Senior Management for posting on the IFRC public website and for print production.

The surge capacity will work mainly with the IFRC PMER delegate, NRCS head of communications and PMER-IM unit, as well as other in-country PNSs managers.

Methodology

It is expected that the surge capacity will need to be flexible and find out best possible approach in order to collate, compile information and writing the report. Some of the primary methods that should be considered and can further developed based on consultation with the task force members and in country team as follows:

1. Desktop review of all documents related to earthquake response operation
2. Field visits to collect additional stories, best practices and photos, as appropriate
3. Interviews of key stakeholders/partners, institutions and beneficiaries as appropriate.
4. The surge capacity will meet with and/or over skype interview key Red Cross Red Crescent stakeholders at NRCS HQ and district chapters, PNSs, and the relevant IFRC Secretariat offices.**
   Deliverables**
   Draft Report: This report will provide an outline of the final report in correlation to 4+1 model with appropriate annexes. This report will be presented, according to the calendar (below), in electronic format to the IFRC APRO PMER Manager.

Final Report:
The surge capacity will review and incorporate feedbacks from the task force and APRO team in the final report. The final report is expected to total some 50 pages covering the background of the intervention reviewed, a description of the review methods and limitations, findings, conclusions, lessons learned, and clear recommendations. The report should also contain appropriate annexes.

Finalize the layout to post on the IFRC public website and for print production.

Qualifications
Selection of the international or national surge capacity will be based on the qualifications outlined below:
• Demonstrable experience in writing multi-sectoral, multi-partner reports and communications products related to major disasters.
• Excellent skills in writing narrative essays and producing graphic materials such as infographics and maps.
• Knowledge and experience of working with the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement and writing Movement-wide and/or Federation-wide reports.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to clearly synthesize and present information as well as humanitarian impact stories and to prepare well-written and well-designed reports in a timely manner.
• Strong team leadership and management skills including negotiation, facilitation and time management.
• Demonstrated capacity to work both independently and as part of a team.
• Excellent analytical writing and presentation skills in English.
• Immediate availability for the period indicated.

Interested applicants should submit their expression of interest to the following email: pmer.apzo@ifrc.org and dibakar.behera@ifrc.org by 13 September 2019 In the subject line, please state the surge position you are applying for, your last name and first name. (SUBJECT: Movement-wide final report on the Nepal Earthquake Response Operation 2015 - Last Name, First Name).
Application materials should include:

1. Curriculum Vitae (CV)
2. Cover letter clearly summarizing your experience as it pertains to writing multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral reports
3. Writing samples – Please provide a sample of previous written report as close to what is described in this TOR.Application material are non-returnable, and we thank you in advance for understanding that only short-listed candidates will be contacted for the next step in the application process. Please take note that incomplete application will be rejected.

• Agreed travel expenses will be reimbursed at cost in accordance with in the IFRC’s relevant regulations.

Appendices (to be presented after appointment)
• MW Recovery Plan
• MW 1-year progress report
• MW programmatic data
• Stories of smiles