Humanitarian Strategy Development Specialist

Background

SOS Children’s Villages International (SOS CVI) is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit and non-denominational international umbrella organisation that has been active in the field of children’s rights and has committed itself to address children’s needs and concerns. It is one of the oldest (since 1949) and largest organisations working with vulnerable children, which operates in 134 countries and territories around the world.

In recent years, SOS CV has been increasingly engaged in emergency preparedness and response activities to protect children from abuse, neglect and exploitation and minimize the negative effects that natural disaster and war could have on children and their families. The Global Emergency Response network drives and manages the emergency preparedness and response activities of SOS CVI and supports member associations to fulfil the urgent humanitarian needs of children. Currently SOS CV has ongoing humanitarian projects in all region where it operates: Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East

Objective of the assignment

SOS has gained valuable experience and expertise in the humanitarian action sector and has engaged in most of large scale disasters and complex humanitarian crisis across the globe, all continents. Recently, following the war response in Ukraine, we experienced as organization a series of limitations and constraints in terms of emergency response capacity and systems readiness. While we can handle smaller emergency responses in those Member Associations having a minimum humanitarian capacity, we acknowledge that in order to deal with large scale emergencies we need to consider revising key elements around program focus, leadership, operating model, talent, capacity and funding of our humanitarian work.

In this context, the legal bodies and federation leadership of SOS sees a need for to have a greater outreach and the organization has to be strengthened accordingly to enable scaled up ER capacity. As a result, we have agreed to review our current response capacity and capabilities and prepare a proposal on how to scale up, building on the existing experience and expertise.

The overall objective and task for this assignment is to develop a proposal for a humanitarian strategic scale up framework around 3 strategic pillars:

• How to increase quality in our programs?
• How to scale up capacity and capabilities in member associations and globally?
• How to grow funding?

Deliverables

The consultant is expected to deliver no later than 25 September 2022:

1. Detailed Scale Up Strategic Framework (word document) developed around the following elements:

A. Quality Scale up:

• Program focused, strategic positioning and niche, approach.
• Nexus approach to enable transition from Emergency Response to Humanitarian Action (preparedness-emergency relief-recovery-risk/ vulnerability reduction)
• Program Quality Assurance (CHS, Sphere, PSEA, Safeguarding)
• Integration of advocacy, gender, climate, other cross cutting issues

B. Capacity Scale up

• Federation wide approach (staffing and use of expertise with a network model)
• Surge Capacity in place for large scale responses with centralized coordination
• Staffing requirement for regular humanitarian projects in member associations (retention of minimum skillset)
• Scaled up Organizational Preparedness
• Operational model integrated with enabling functions (orgchart)
• Mandate to Respond (3 Levels of Response)
• Geographical Focus with sub regional scaling up (Middle East, HoA, SE Asia, etc.)

C. Funding Scale up

• Expanded Humanitarian Funding Pool
• Funding mix optimized: IPD (big Institutional Funding) growth combined with unrestricted funding to enable financing of capacity and preparedness.
• Analysis of large institutional donors funding strategies and their priorities
• Scaled up local fundraising

In addition, the Framework should indicate how much it cost to implement the scale up elements defined above and what is the overall investment needed (resources (re)allocation including staffing, cost structure and indicative investment budget along with a roll out and implementation indicative timeline).

2. Benchmarking against humanitarian industry similar operational models; proposed agencies: Care, Plan and IFRC (word document)

3. Summary of the key elements constituting the strategic framework (PPT document)

A debriefing and kick off call facilitated by the Head of GER with the consultant will take place the week of 18 July 2022. The consultant will work on the inception and work plan which includes a clear schedule for interviews and task split with key SOS CV technical contributors. The inception plan will define the progress reporting timelines on each deliverable to Head of GER.

The Tasks / Deliverables and estimated workload (total 45 working days) will be as follows:

• Project kick off / Virtual meeting with Head of GER – 1 day
• Define the Project inception and work plan / Project inception, work plan with interviews and task split schedule – 3 days
• Review and define the elements for Quality Scale up / List of key issues identified, analysis of implications, proposal for changes, improvement or elements to stop – 10 days
• Review and define the elements for Capacity Scale up / List of key issues identified, analysis of implications, proposal for changes, improvement or elements to stop – 10 days
• Review and define the elements for Funding Scale up / List of key issues identified, analysis of implications, proposal for changes, improvement or elements to stop, Analysis and list of major institutional donors and funding strategies per region – 10 days
• Consolidate the final Framework in one document and fine tune / Main word document detailing the most suitable strategic frame for SOS to enable scale up and better disaster preparedness – 3 days
• Conduct industry benchmarking with 3 agencies / Detailed benchmarking analysis and summary of key elements proposed for SOS frame – 5 days
• Summary of Framework / PPT with key elements defining the overall proposed strategic framework – 2 days
• Presentation of the final outcomes and deliverables / Meeting with Head of GER – 1 day
• Perform a final review after feedback from contractor / Revised deliverables after review and approval from Head of GER (after consultation with COO) and incorporation of final changes and feedback – 3 days

Methodology

• Desk review and research based on guidance documents indicated in this TOR
• Briefings / interviews (online) for progress validation, input consultation and next steps with Head of GER
• Structured interviews (online) with technical contributors indicated in this TOR

Expertise and qualification required

• Bachelor or Master Degree in development studies, international relations, business administration, other related field or substantial proven work experience
• Minimum 5 years of work experience in the humanitarian / development context in a multi-cluster INGO, preferably with federation structure
• At least 3 years of international humanitarian field experience in the global south
• Proven experience in designing humanitarian strategies or organisational development or facilitation of similar assignment with other agencies.
• Good understanding or direct experience in the area of Child Protection in Humanitarian Action and Child Rights
• Excellent knowledge of international humanitarian standards (especially in relation to child protection, education and gender) and in humanitarian systems and context
• Preferably good experience in designing and implementing emergency preparedness and response activities including elements of Linking Relief Rehabilitation and Development (Nexus approach)
• Strong presentation and training skills
• Ability to effectively communicate and facilitate among various groups and stakeholders
• Fluent English language skills

Reporting

The consultant is reporting to the Head of Global Emergency Response who acts as Project Lead in consultation and pending on direction approvals from the COO.