Country: United States of America
Closing date: 02 Mar 2018
1.BACKGROUND
The landscape of humanitarian action has changed considerably over the past years. Inter-related global trends, such as climate vulnerability, demographic change, and forced migration have led to increased demand for humanitarian action. There is ample evidence that women, children and adolescents are disproportionately affected by crisis. In the immediate aftermath of disasters, women and girls are further vulnerable to violence and exploitation, including FGM, trafficking, forced and early marriage, domestic violence and sexual assault (Global Fund for Women, 2005). Providing accessible, affordable, acceptable and quality Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent Health services across the humanitarian-development continuum is a global public good. This is also a priority of the UN Secretary-General’s Every Woman Every Child movement and essential for the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
UNFPA's humanitarian imperative is to ensure that every woman and girl affected by an emergency or crisis has access to the services and protection she needs to preserve her health and dignity. Addressing the specific needs of women and girls in emergency settings therefore requires integrated SRH and GBV information and services. In this regard, building surge capacity is focused on strengthening GBV and SRH profiles that will work together and support partners to deliver an integrated response for affected women and girls. Ensuring appropriately qualified human resources to coordinate implementation of the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for Sexual and Reproductive Health is critical to providing life-saving services in humanitarian settings. Appropriate staffing is even more critical for the leadership and management of field-based GBV coordination mechanisms, including sub-clusters, and the Fund’s operational capacity to programme for GBV prevention and survivor support. To remain effective, programmatic profiles are further supported and coordinated by operational profiles that cover communications, logistics, resource mobilization, humanitarian coordination and monitoring and evaluation functions.
The UNFPA surge mechanism has seen significant improvement over the last 18 months. Of note, there has been an almost 50% increase in surge deployments, with a 23% increase recorded during 2017. Some 100 persons surged for UNFPA in 2017, in contrast to 67 persons surging in 2016. This improvement is largely a result of the investment made into strengthening UNFPA's Global Surge Roster which is now comprised of close to 300 person which includes both internal staff and externally qualified humanitarian professionals in our two key areas of interventions of GBV and SRH, as well as in our support functions of communications, operations, logistics. UNFPA continues to be supported by four standby partners including CANADEM, RedR Australia, NRC and DRC, and are in the process of finalising agreements with both the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency which we hope will continue to support our needs particularly in SRH and GBV. Over the course of the last two years, UNFPA has also made significant steps in systems strengthening which we hope will bring improvement in the overall efficiency, monitoring and evaluation and responsiveness of the mechanism. In close collaboration with our Division for Human Resources, UNFPA continues to improve mechanisms for Duty of Care. These efforts combined are not only resulting in improved responsiveness of UNFPA'S humanitarian efforts, but have been key in ensuring our service delivery is not compromised in times of crises.
At the same time, UNFPA takes a continuous improvement approach to its surge mechanism to ensure its readiness and responsiveness during times of emergencies is maximised. As a result, given the work and resources invested into the mechanism, particularly over the last two years, it is opportune time to both review the results achieved by UNFPA and its surge mechanism, and identify areas for ongoing improvement and sustainability.
2. PURPOSE FOR THE LESSONS LEARNED EXERCISE (LLE)
2.1 Purpose
The purpose of the proposed Lessons Learned Exercise (LLE) is to document and assess the extent to which UNFPA has achieved it’s objective of being able to develop a relevant SURGE roster mechanism which is able to deploy appropriately qualified Human Resources particularly with experience in SRH and GBV into emergency contexts. Since 2015, the SURGE mechanism has evolved and this LLE is intended to review, gather lessons learned and make recommendations on how to improve the mechanism for the future. The proposed LLE will include a full stakeholder analysis, with a focus on the overall development life cycle. The LLE will be sure to encapsulate the views and ideas of previous and present Surge deployees including their experience, stories and recommendations for improving their experience while on surge. To ensure a holistic understanding of the mechanism, the LLE will also be sure to interview users of the mechanism, i.e. staff at the Country and/or Regional office level who regularly request and avail of surge assistance. In addition, to be able to effectively understand key bottlenecks impeding the surge team’s ability to remain responsive in times of crises, the consultant will take time to interview the surge team members and relevant personnel in HFCB and DHR to gain their input into the overall process. The consultant may also want to consider interviewing existing Standby Partners to gain an understanding of their opinion, suggestions and input into the UFNPA surge mechanism and their overall experience as a Standby Partner for the agency. process.
In addition, the LLE will put into consideration the gender balance of Surge deployees and its impact.
2.2. Scope & Specific approach
The LLE will be formative and provide essential understanding of how the different components of the SURGE mechanism have been working together and managed in its different dimensions (across departments and countries); it will highlight the progress and main milestones achieved from 2015 to 2017. It is important to document how surge has evolved and developed, what the progress has been and what lessons were learned. The lessons learned shall cover 2 main knowledge areas. Each knowledge area shall also include specific recommendation for future programming. These knowledge areas consist of:
Surge effectiveness, efficiency and relevance: The LLE shall look at both the structural and functional aspects of the surge mechanism and assess their evolution over time as well as their relevance to the country/regional emerging needs.
Surge impact: to capture the breath of intended and unintended results achieved through the surge mechanism, with a particular focus to role the surge had played in building the capacity of humanitarian specialists and country offices, particularly around GBV and SRH.
The LLE will apply a mixed methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Specific methods are to be determined by the LLE Consultant and approved by UNFPA in the inception report.
3.LLE MANAGEMENT AND OVERSIGHT
3.2 LLE Consultant
It is envisaged that the LLE will be undertaken by an independent consultant who will provided with oversight from the Performance Management /Career Development Specialist, DHR and close support from relevant staff from DHR (including the surge team) and HFCB.
The key responsibilities of the Consultant related to the assignment will be to:
● Communicate regularly with the UNFPA DHR ensuring that deliverables and project outputs remain on track
● Deliver deliverables on a timely manner as outlined in the action plan.
● Maintain an impartial and professional approach during the review process and during the overall course of the LLE process
● Based on the LLE assessment findings, provide a comprehensive report with clear recommendations and detailed lines of the actions to address the strengthening of the surge mechanism
UNFPA’s role
● Share necessary documentation and other material with the consultant as per the agreed action plan
● Create necessary linkages and introductions with relevant staff members and partner agencies, other stakeholders
● Provide feedback on the outputs in a timely manner
The Consultant must have proven expertise in relevant areas, such as humanitarian experience as well as human resources in complex emergencies. The consultant must be able to demonstrate expertise and experience in conducting similar type assessments on humanitarian subjects; the ability to create quantitative and qualitative tools for assessment purposes, excellent writing skills as well as the ability to conduct interviews in a sensitive, yet constructive manner.
3.3 Timeline
The LLE will ideally be conducted between 15 March to 15 April 2018, yet this can be negotiated with the consultant. The final deliverables including LLE report, and communication products will be submitted by 30 April 2018.
4.RELEVANT DOCUMENTATION TO USE:
- Relevant Project Proposals, including budget, log-frame and work plans if available (year 1 and year 2)
Interim Narrative Reports submitted to donors
Surge Standard Operating Procedures
Operational Staffing matrix and Surge Roster files
-Copies of standard Terms of Reference for surge requests
Stand-by-partners MOU’s and other agreement documents
Surge Workshop content and accompanying material
Surge onboarding and orientation website and accompanying on-boarding material
End of Mission reports submitted by surge deployees
Monthly and annual surge reports
Surge team job descriptions and annual work plan
5.EXPECTED OUTPUTS:
● A draft work plan to be submitted to UNFPA within five days of commencement of the assignment
● 1 full LLE report for UNFPA use (maximum 30 pages) in Word and Pdf formats; with a draft submitted for initial review
● 1 communication product highlighting achievements, milestones, and key recommendations (maximum 6 pages) that can be used for both internal and external use
How to apply:
Interested Consultants should send their daily rate in USD, an updated CV and a cover letter to Holly White hwhite@unfpa.org and Mira Cuturilo cuturilo@unfpa.org outlining how their skills and experience meets the requirements of this role.
Deadline: 2 March 2018