Background
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organization, with 192 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 IFRC of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian network. The IFRC is a membership organisation established by and comprised of 192-member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Addressing climate and environmental crises is the first Strategic Priority of the IFRC’s Strategy 2030, which stresses the urgent need to massively scale-up climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, in view of increasing disasters and climate-related impacts on vulnerable people. Early warning and early/anticipatory action are acknowledged as a critical component of this work.
Building on the IFRC network’s experience in disaster preparedness and community early warning systems, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre (RCCC) and German Red Cross piloted forecast-based financing (FbF) in 2014. FbF is an innovative approach that enables the automatic release of funds ahead of a hazard’s impact based on risk analysis and forecast. In May 2018, the IFRC launched the first global funding mechanism designed to fund forecast-based action as part of the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF), representing a critical turning point in making early action possible.
Job Purpose
Background
In December 2017, the IFRC Secretary General approved, by way of Decision Paper #204, the establishment of the Forecast-based Financing (FbF) Window to the DREF (FbF Window), which is a new working modality for flexible early action funding, which will allow for the strengthening of National Societies' capacities to implement anticipatory action.
The Decision Paper also included the decision to evaluate the pilot phase of the IFRC funding mechanism (later named Forecast-based Action by the DREF) at the end of its first 2 years (2018-2020) before moving to a longer-term fund.
In May 2018, the IFRC launched the Forecast based Action by the DREF (FbA by the DREF), as a funding mechanism to support anticipatory action by National Societies. The FbA by the DREF was established with the support of the German Government and the German Red Cross and became operational in November 2018, when the fund’s procedures were signed off by the IFRC’s Secretary General. After two years of implementation of the FbA by the DREF, the mechanism has approved 12 Early Action Protocols (EAPs) and activated four of the 12 EAPs. Early Action Protocols are plans that guide timely and effective implementation of early actions when a severe weather or climate forecast shows a high likelihood of critically impacting people. Once and EAP is approved financial resources are released automatically when the pre-agreed trigger is reached (EAP activation).
As per the original decision, the IFRC seeks now to review the Fund’s relevance, sustainability, effectiveness and efficiency to assess whether FbA by the DREF is having the desired outputs and outcomes and identify areas that need to be revised or further developed to ensure the continued improvement of the running and delivery of the Fund.
Objective and Scope
The objective of this consultancy is to conduct a comprehensive review of the FbA by the DREF pilot phase, by assessing the overall design of the mechanism in terms of relevance, sustainability, efficiency and effectiveness, gather evidence on its performance and progress during the two year pilot and capture data on good practices and challenges to inform and improve future delivery. Emerging lessons and recommendations will be specifically highlighted to enable the IFRC, in consultation with partners, to make necessary adjustments in the Fund’s concept, design and functioning to determine its future moving forward.
The consultant should focus on reviewing the process of the FbA by the DREF, from the EAP development until they are submitted to the IFRC for review and approval and their subsequent implementation. It is not expected that the consultant will assess each individual EAP but more focus on recurring issues faced during the development and implementation. Similarly, the consultant is not expected to review the effectiveness of each individual EAP but more to extract lessons learned and recommendations from existing documents as they relate to the effectiveness and efficiency of the FbF methodology and to the structure, modalities and management of the FbA by the DREF.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
Process and Methodology
The methodology for the review will use the following methodology:
- Desk review all relevant documentation, including reports, lessons learned, evaluation, procedures, guidelines and templates related to the Fund and the related processes.
- An additional desk-based review of some other approaches (methodologies) to Anticipatory Action for comparison and to enhance wider learning.
- Key Informant Interviews (KII) and Focus Group Discussions with a range of stakeholders, including from Host National Societies, Partner National Societies, IFRC Secretariat offices including in Geneva, the Americas, Africa and Asia Pacific Regions, and at Country or Country-Cluster level, the Climate Centre, the Validation Committee (who reviews and approves the EAPs) and donors. The key informant list will be finalized jointly with review management team (around 35 interviews or discussions).
The overall consultancy methodology should seek to address the following key questions on Relevance, Sustainability, Efficiency and Effectiveness.
Relevance
- To what extent can the FbA respond to needs and gaps in the National Societies access to funding for anticipatory action?
- How satisfied are RCRC National Societies that have applied to the FbA by the DREF with the performance of the Fund (from submission to activation)? Is the Fund meeting the expectations of National Societies as recipients of the Fund?
- Is the Fund meeting the expectations of the Partner National Societies that support National Red Cross Red Crescent Societies to develop the Early Action Protocols?
- How well adapted is the FbA by the DREF to the current Anticipatory Action landscape and to other existing funding mechanisms (internal and external)?
Sustainability
- To what extent has the financial stability of the FbA by the DREF been secured?
- What are the main issues to ensure the sustainability of the Fund in the future (beyond the financial perspective)?
- What are the opportunities and risks of scaling up the FbA by the DREF in the future (in line with the new five year DREF strategy)? What recommendations would form a strategy for the next five years of the FbA?
- Are there other anticipatory action approaches that the IFRC could be supporting in the future?
Efficiency
- Examine whether the institutional and organisational set-up (including existing procedures) has been effective for achieving the original objectives of the fund? And if not, what adjustments might be needed to accomplish this after the pilot phase?
- How efficient is the current process from submission, approval to activation of the FbA by the DREF?
- Are there aspects of the Fund’s policies, procedures or structure that should be amended, or streamlined?
Effectiveness
- To what extent have the original objectives of the pilot phase been met?
- increasing interest of NSs in anticipatory action,
- setting up a funding mechanism including readiness funding,
- putting procedures and templates in place
- increasing donor base
- Identify the major factors that have facilitated or impeded the progress of the FbA by the DREF in achieving its intended results.
Responsibilities and duties
IFRC
IFRC will support the consultant with the necessary access to working material/documents and will also support the development of the KII list. IFRC will support the consultant in the setting up of contacts and arrangement of interview dates with stakeholders. IFRC will provide timely feedback on drafts of each product at each stage and provide input on desired direction and content. The process will be supported by a management group consisting of 3 people from the IFRC DCC and PMER teams and by technical support where necessary.
Consultant
The consultant shall lead and coordinate the review process, including defining its methodology. The consultant shall take care that the relevant actors actively take part in the process and their views and expertise are considered in the products. He /she has the responsibility to revise drafts, based on the comments from IFRC. This consultancy will be homebased and the majority of meetings will be conducted virtually. The consultant must be prepared to work across a variety of time zones.
Deliverables
The consultant is expected to deliver the following outputs:
- A review workplan - to operationalize and direct the development of the consultancy. The workplan will describe how the review will be carried out, bringing refinements, specificity, and elaboration to the terms of reference (timeframe with dates for deliverables) and will outline the support needed from the IFRC consultancy management group.
- Draft review report - The consultant will prepare a draft report for submission to the consultancy management team for their review prior to finalization. Feedback should focus on accuracy and omissions.
- Final review report - Informed by feedback on the draft report, the final report will be a consolidated, concise and well-structured report, showing exactly where the FbA by the DREF stands in terms of relevance, sustainability, efficiency and effectiveness as well as clear lessons and recommendations for each of these areas. The report should also include an executive summary to share the key findings and lessons from the review for communication purposes.
- Short Presentation - Prepare and deliver a presentation highlighting key findings, conclusions and lessons from the review and present to relevant stakeholders.
Depending on the time available, and the findings of the consultancy, further products may be agreed between IFRC and the consultant, and content/direction of the aforementioned deliverables may be adapted.
The final deliverables will be approved by the consultancy management group.
How to apply:
The application should be done through this link and should include:
- Curriculum Vitae
- And in one attachment, please include the following:
- Brief letter of motivation summarising relevant experience, publications if applicable and qualifications for the consultancy
- Statement of availability for work between January 2021 to March 2021
- Daily rate and financial offer indicating the (net) sum for 40 days
- Sample of previous work
The selection of the consultant will be based on the following criteria:
- Experience in leading similar reviews or studies, with demonstrable evidence of producing high quality written publications (30%)
- Relevance and quality of sample previous work (20%)
- Experience working within the RC/RC Movement (10%)
- Language skills (10%)
- Daily rate (30%)
- Availability (pre-condition)