Background
The Emergency Response Unit (ERU) mechanism was created in 1994 to give immediate support to National Societies in disaster-affected countries. ERUs form an important part of the IFRC's disaster response tools.
An ERU is made up of specialized personnel and equipment to deliver a defined service. It is made up of a team of trained technical specialists, ready to be deployed at short notice, which uses pre-packed sets of standardized equipment. ERUs are designed to be self-sufficient for one month and can operate for up to four months. The units can deploy to both sudden and slow onset disasters in the sectors of emergency health, water and sanitation, logistics, IT & Telecom, basecamp and relief. ERUs can provide specific preventive as well as life-saving services when local facilities are destroyed, overwhelmed or non-existent. To date there are 45 ERUs maintained by 19 National Societies. In 2019 alone, there were 12 ERU deployments.
Recognizing the various surge tools that are available to respond, a review was commissioned (Global Tools Review (GTR) in 2013 at the General Assembly in Sydney). This review had the objective of ensuring the global surge tools were fit to respond, given the changing nature of disasters and changing needs of disaster-affected communities. The review was undertaken in two phases between September 2015 and November 2016. Both phases took into consideration perspectives across the Movement (sending and receiving NS; the IFRC; the ICRC; external humanitarian actors; and representatives from affected communities) and involved interviews with over 160 individuals.
Based on the findings from the GTR (see the GTR Final report, including findings and recommendations as annex to this document) a comprehensive process was launched in 2017 known as Surge Optimisation (SO)[1] process to action the recommendations of the GTR and improve performance and accountability across the wider IFRC system. While the results of the Global Tools Review yielded some general findings about the ERUs, the review did not include the ERU in great depth. However there are certain elements of the Global Tool Review that are valid for this review, for example, the analysis on the weaknesses and strengths of the tools, the required functionality, the global trends and the response tools gaps (see page 9 of the GTR as a summary).
Given the significant investment that National Societies have made and continue to make to acquire, maintain and deploy ERUs, plus the length of time without any review of the ERU process, it was decided to undertake a review of all the ERUs to fully address the recommendations of the GTR. This review is being commissioned by the members of the Disaster and Crisis Working Group (DCWG) in consultation with the ERU Technical Working Groups.
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How to apply:
Interested candidates should submit their application material by 31 October 2020 to susana.kopoboru@ifrc.org.
Applicants may be required to provide examples of previous written work, similar to that described in this Terms of Reference. Application materials will not be returned and we thank you in advance for understanding that only short-listed candidates will be contacted.