Partner collaborative processes and feedback mechanisms - Consultant

Background:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is among the world’s leading nonprofit humanitarian relief and development organizations.  Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC’s mission is to assist those whose lives and livelihoods have been shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover and gain control over their lives. The organization has been at the forefront of virtually every major humanitarian initiative for the last 80 years.  At work today in over 40 countries and 26 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.

IRC has a 40-year history in Latin America, with on and off programming of various scales. IRC returned to the region in 2017 and consolidated as a regional approach in 2019. The IRC’s currently responds in the region to support vulnerable populations, individuals and families, whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future through protection, economic recovery and development, education, and health programming as well as work in resettlement asylum and integration activities and through Research and innovation efforts in evidence to action.  In Latin America, the IRC is currently active in seven countries, with three crisis responses: Venezuela Crisis Response (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru); Northern Central America Response (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras), and Mexico and Cross-Border Response.

Context:

In 2016 World Humanitarian Summit localization of aid came to the forefront of discussions, culminating in the Grand Bargain Commitments—where donors and aid organizations committed to providing 25 per cent of funding to local organizations by 2020.

IRC has developed an updated global strategy with a vision of who we want to be in 2033: After 100 years of service, we want the impact of our programs and the influence of our ideas to empower those caught in crisis to make lasting change in their lives. One of the five main goals is to reach this vision is to achieve Scale and therefore Reach More People, meaning increasing the number of people we reach now and over the long term. One of the key ways we see to achieve this is by working more and more profoundly with local partners to reach more people than IRC could alone, and to elevate the challenges and needs our clients face often better voiced through local partners since they are part of the communities we serve and often have deeper knowledge and understanding of the populations. This can make interventions more sustainable in communities.

Working with partners is a goal of Strategy 100, but is also a key approach to how IRC engages in Latin America, however there are more opportunities to build more collective and collaborative partnerships. This consultancy seeks to explore models that could be viable in the Latin America context.

Objective:

IRC is seeking a consultant to analyze possible models for IRC’s engagement with partners in the region in meaningful ways to share power and to formalize accountability to partners. IRC is interested in understanding best practices from collaborative program development as well as feedback mechanisms. This work is anticipated to take approximately two to three weeks of full time engagement, noting that it must be completed prior to 30 September.

Deliverables:

• Analysis of possible partnership models including sustained relationships, governance structures and accountability mechanisms with consideration for existing IRC systems and structures and to contextually appropriate approaches.
• Recommendation of preferred model for fulfillment of the Grand Bargain agreement and to centering local civil society actors.