Report Writer Consultant

Background:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity, and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The IRC Education Unit currently has programs in conflict and post-conflict contexts in over 20 countries around the globe. Our programming approach is one that promotes and supports the realization of the rights of children and young people. Currently, our programs include formal and non-formal education and life skills training for children and youth ages 0-16, with a focus on psychosocial well-being and cognitive development.

Scope and Objectives:

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRC in Bangladesh designed and has begun implementation of remote programming reaching prenatal and perinatal Rohingya mothers and their families as well as the same population in the Bangladesh host community through an integrated ECD, health and nutrition approach.

The entry point for the intervention has been prerecorded interactive voice response (IVR) messages and live call follow up to support these families. Beyond outcomes the IRC aims to achieve with the specific beneficiaries, this project also hopes to fill a gap in indicative evidence on ECD in humanitarian settings. Tools have been developed to track the interactions of these families with the programming and test success. This initial part of this pilot will run for three months, from October 2020 through December 2020.

Specific Tasks and Deliverables:

The Consultant must produce a single, detailed report on the current remote-response initiative in Bangladesh written in English to achieve the following:

• Raise the profile of the IRC’s ECD work (particularly beyond the MENA region), specifically discuss how the IRC is leveraging humanitarian reach for ECD
• Assuming the pilot is successful, make the case for phone-based, pregnancy-infant interventions for hard-to-reach populations
• Showcase the feasibility and acceptability of an ECD intervention through health and nutrition services
• Influence donors to include ECD in health and nutrition Requests for Proposal (RFPs) and to provide continued funding to the IRC for this and related efforts

The intended audience of the report will be:

• ECD, health and nutrition donors, including technical officers involved with health system project design and implementation
• Humanitarian health, protection and education professionals

The outline for this report has already been written by the IRC and approved by the donor. This contract will require a draft and final report submitted to the donor:

• Draft Report: due November 23, 2020 to the IRC
• Final Report: due January 8, 2020 to the IRC

Date for deliverable submissions are non-negotiable. The Consultant will receive the approved outline and IRC style guide upon selection and contract completion.