Consultant, Proposal Design and Knowledge Management on Nature-based Solutions

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC or “the Federation”) is the world’s largest humanitarian network. The Federation is a membership organisation established by and comprised of its 192 member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Along with National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Federation is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent (RCRC) Movement. 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.” It works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises.

The Federation is served by a Secretariat based in Geneva, with regional and country offices throughout the world. The Secretariat is led by the IFRC Secretary General and provides the central capacity of the International Federation to serve, connect, and represent National Societies. The Secretariat’s focus includes providing support to the IFRC governance mechanisms; setting norms and standards; providing guidance; ensuring consistency, coordination, and accountability for performance; knowledge sharing; promoting collaboration within and respect for the RCRC Movement; influential representation with global level partners; and expanding engagement with partners. The Secretariat’s headquarters is organized under three divisions, including National Society Development and Operations Coordination (NSDOC). The NSDOC Division is in turn organised in three Departments, each of them led by a Director. The Disasters, Climate and Crises (Prevention, Response & Recovery) Department consists of four teams, of which Climate & Resilience is one.

Addressing the climate and environmental crises is the first Strategic Priority of IFRC’s Strategy 2030, which stresses the urgency to massively scale-up climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in view of increasing disasters and climate-related impacts on vulnerable people.

The consultancy is part of the “Greening Red Cross and Red Crescent Disaster Risk Reduction: Saving Lives through Working with Nature” project funded by USAID and led by IFRC’s Climate and Resilience team.

Background

Disaster risk reduction has been one of IFRC’s key focus areas over the past three decades. Today, IFRC is one of the biggest DRR actors in the world. In 2018, the IFRC network invested 207 million Swiss francs on community-based DRR and climate adaptation projects, reaching 52 million people in 160 countries.

Nature-based solutions[1] (NbS) are increasingly being recognized as one of the most effective means to reduce disaster risks and build community resilience. While RCRC National Societies around the world are implementing NbS, we believe it should become a more integral part of our network’s DRR and climate adaptation work. Scaling up NbS and notably ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction[2] (DRR) was identified as one of the transformative priorities of the IFRC Secretariat for 2020 and has been included as one of the flagship targets for the IFRC Plan & Budget 2021-2025. The aim is for a majority of RCRC National Societies to implement NbS by 2025. This is seen as a key contributor to operationalizing IFRC’s vision to scale up our climate action as reflected in Strategy 2030, the Movement Ambitions to address the Climate Crisis and our pledge at the 33rd International Conference in 2019.

With the support of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, IFRC will implement a three-year project (2020-2023), titled “Greening Red Cross and Red Crescent Disaster Risk Reduction: Saving Lives through Working with Nature”, to increase the resilience of communities facing natural hazards through the implementation of NbS. The objectives of the project are to: 1) enable National Societies and communities to design and implement DRR projects incorporating NbS in diverse settings; 2) update existing IFRC tools/methodologies and develop new guidance for National Societies on ecosystem-based DRR; and 3) promote NbS and disseminate lessons learned within and beyond the RCRC network.

Recently IFRC has signed Memorandum of Understanding with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). IFRC wishes to further develop these partnerships into projects on Nature-based Solutions and Climate change adaptation.

[1] Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are defined by IUCN as “actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems, that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits”.

[2] Ecosystem-based DRR (Eco-DRR) is defined by PEDRR as “the sustainable management, conservation and restoration of ecosystems to provide services that reduce disaster risk by mitigating hazards and by increasing livelihood resilience”.

Objectives

The objective of this consultancy is design project proposals on NbS and CCA/DRR and write up case studies on NbS to support evidence building.

Management

The consultant(s) will report to the Senior Officer, Climate Action. He/she will work closely with the Climate and Resilience team.

1. Proposal Writing
   • WWF-IFRC project proposal
     • Coordinate with NbS Technical adviser, WWF and IFRC on project development
     • Develop project proposal development workshop agenda
     • Facilitate face-to-face proposal writing workshop in Nairobi
     • Undertake donor mapping
     • Write a 50-page proposal based on the workshop for donor submission
   • Reforestation project concept and proposal
     • Coordinate with IFRC and partners on project concept note development
     • Draft a project concept note
     • Coordinate with partners to develop a project proposal
     • Write a 50-page proposal for donor submission
   • NbS in humanitarian contexts project proposal (Sphere)
     • Coordinate with NbS Technical adviser partners to develop a project proposal
     • Undertake donor mapping
     • Write a 50-page proposal for donor submission
2. Case Study Development
   • USAID NbS project case studies
     • Draft a case study on Jamaica NbS project
     • Draft a case study on Philippines NbS project
     • Draft a case study on Vietnam NbS project
   • Case studies across National Societies
     • Update mapping of NbS projects undertaken by RCRC
     • Develop 3 further NbS case studies

The main deliverables are:

1. WWF-IFRC project proposal workshop
2. WWF-IFRC project proposal document
3. Reforestation project concept
4. Reforestation project proposal
5. Sphere project proposal
6. Mapping of NbS projects
7. 6 case studies on NbS

Depending on the time available, and findings of the consultancy, further products may be agreed between IFRC and the consultant and content/direction of the aforementioned deliverables may be adapted.

Timeframe and Consulting Days

This consultancy will last approximately 145 days in the period between September 2023 and September 2024.

Travel

Travel will be required to support the proposal development. Provided advance approval is given, the IFRC shall cover the costs of economy class transportation and reasonable, safe and appropriate accommodation. Daily subsistence allowance is 65 CHF for Kenya.

Required

• University degree in disaster risk management or climate change adaptation (or relevant area) or equivalent experience. 

Required

• Minimum of 10 years’ experience in nature-based solutions.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in proposal writing.

Preferred

• Experience working with a humanitarian or development organisation on nature-based solutions.

Required

• Fluently spoken and written English.
• Excellent writing and communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a multicultural environment.
• Ability to work and coordinate with various stakeholders.
• Proactive, self-starter that can work with minimal oversight.

Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability.

Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust.

Application Instructions

• Please submit your application in English only.

• If you have the required qualifications and are interested in this contract, please submit your proposal that includes the following:

  • A portfolio of previous relevant work.
  • A financial proposal. The lump-sum fee in CHF which you propose for the consultancy should indicate the breakdown of all costs. This fee should be inclusive of ALL considerations.
  • A proposal describing your proposed approach to meet the objectives and specifications described above.

• The proposal should be no more than 5 pages. In addition to this, please submit your CV and/or the CVs of all key staff.