Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member National Societies (NSs). 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 through its Disaster Law and Auxiliary role program is a leader in developing and disseminating guidance on best practice for disaster risk governance and the national societies’ auxiliary role.
IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas, the latest comprising thirty-four countries throughout its network of eight country cluster/offices.
The IFRC’s approach to collectively reducing the current and future humanitarian impacts of climate change is informed by its Strategy 2030 which places climate change and environmental crises as one the key challenges to be addressed in the coming decade. As part of this holistic approach the Early Warnings for All initiative (EW4All) launched by the UN Secretary-General in November 2022 at the COP27 meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh, calls for every person on Earth to be covered by an early warning system by the end of 2027. The evidence is clear: early warning and early actions systems are one of the most effective risk reduction and climate adaptation measures to reduce disaster mortality and economic losses.
The IFRC’s approach to collectively reducing the current and future humanitarian impacts of climate change is informed by its Strategy 2030 which places climate change and environmental crises as one the key challenges to be addressed in the coming decade. As part of the IFRC’s holistic approach the Early Warnings for All initiative (EW4All) launched by the UN Secretary-General in November 2022 at the COP27 meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh, calls for every person on Earth to be covered by an early warning system by the end of 2027. The evidence is clear: early warning and early actions systems are one of the most effective risk reduction and climate adaptation measures to reduce disaster mortality and economic losses.
Half of countries globally do not have adequate early warning/early actions systems and even fewer have regulatory frameworks to link early warnings/early actions to preparedness and emergency plans. Early warning systems have proven to be a cost-effective and reliable solution to protect lives and livelihoods from natural hazards such as floods, heatwaves, storms and tsunamis. The Global Status Report (2022) reveals that countries with substantive-to-comprehensive early warnings coverage have disaster mortality eight times lower than countries with limited coverage.

Job Purpose

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) seek to evaluate the
relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coordination and sustainability of the
Migration Action Plan of the Red Cross Movement in the Americas 2021-2024. This is in
line with the monitoring and evaluation actions described in the Action Plan, which
include the identification of lessons learned and final recommendations.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

• Inception report – The inception report should include the proposed methodologies, a data collection and reporting plan with identified deliverables, draft data collection tools such as interview guides, questionnaire, sampling method, a timeframe with firm dates for deliverables and travel (if applicable) and logistical arrangements for the evaluation.
• Debriefing – A debriefing will be conducted with the Evaluation Management Team and the IFRC Country and Regional Teams after data collection. The debriefing is to update the progress and initial findings with recommendations of the evaluation.
• Draft report: The consultant will produce a draft report (identifying key findings based on facts, conclusions, recommendations and lessons) which will be reviewed by the Evaluation Management Team. The consultant will be given the feedback to incorporate into the final report. The draft report will be also shared with the National Societies for validation.

Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)

Final report: A Final report highlighting key findings, conclusions, lessons learned, and
recommendations will be submitted within 10 days of receiving the feedback from the draft report.
The final evaluation report length should not exceed 40 pages (excluding executive summary and annexes such as copy of the ToR, cited resources, a list of those interviewed and any other relevant materials).
Final presentation: Within 10 days of receipt of the final report, a presentation will be led by the evaluator in coordination with the EMT highlighting key findings, conclusions, lessons learned and recommendations.

The findings and all products arising from this evaluation will be jointly owned by the National Societies involved and IFRC. The evaluator will not be allowed, without prior authorization in writing, to present any of the analytical results as his / her own work or to make use of the review results for private publication purposes. All case studies, anecdotes, any rough tool used and copies of participatory tools to be submitted to the IFRC teams to ensure scientific accountability and data protection of the
evaluation.

Education

Advanced degree in Law, Public Policy, Industrial Engineering or related field.

Experience

• 7-10 years of demonstrable experience in leading evaluations in humanitarian
  programmes responding to emergency and recovery programs.
• Previous experience in coordination, design, implementation and monitoring and
  evaluation of humanitarian programmes.
• Experience in the evaluation of both urban and camp programs and/or post disaster recovery programming and evaluation.
• Knowledge of activities generally conducted by humanitarian organizations in the sectors of Migration and PGI and CEA, among other sectors.
• Experience in participatory approaches to evaluations.
• Excellent English and Spanish writing and presentation skills, with relevant writing samples of similar evaluation reports.

Desirable:

• Very good understanding of the RC/RC Movement and types of humanitarian response.
• Field experience in the evaluation of humanitarian or development programs with prior experience of evaluating Red Cross programmes.

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

• The evaluator must have experience or significant knowledge of the humanitarian response mechanisms, specifically relief and recovery interventions, and have previous experience in Internal conducting evaluations for medium-to-large scale programmes. It is preferred for the evaluator to have a good understanding of the cash-based interventions.

Languages

• Advanced English and Spanish.

Competencies, Values and Comments

Location:

Remote, with field work in selected countries.

Comments

The following should be submitted with the application:
1. Cover letter clearly summarizing experience as it pertains to this assignment, daily rate, and contact details of three professional referees
2. Technical proposal, including budget: a technical proposal should accompany the
application, detailing the consultant’s understanding of the ToR with a detailed budget to undertake the work. The proposal should explain how the challenges and constraints
outlined in the ToR will be dealt with and include a timeline of activities.
3. Curriculum Vitae (CV)
4. Provide samples of previous work (reports of previous evaluations and reviews completed).