Minimum Preparedness Action Consultant

Contract type: Consultancy

Closing date: 10 August 2022

Duration :5 months

Duty Station: Remote-based assignment, supporting the Humanitarian Office in Geneva

Purpose of consultancy:

In 2011, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) endorsed the second-generation humanitarian response strategy focusing on mainstreaming humanitarian preparedness and response within its organizational corporate processes from country level programmes, regional offices to headquarters global support systems.

In line with the strategy, UNFPA rolled out the Guidance Note on Minimum Preparedness (May 2014 version) in July 2014. Developed to enable a coordinated and focused Fund-wide strengthening of UNFPA’s preparedness capacity, the guidance note was produced by the Programme Division of the Humanitarian and Fragile Contexts Branch (HFCB) and the Asia Pacific Regional Office (APRO).

Between September 2015 and February 2016, the HFCB led a participatory process to review the guidance note with aims of: a) building on the experiences and lessons learned from countries and regions that have implemented the Guidance Note on Minimum Preparedness and the Minimum Preparedness Actions (MPAs); b) elaborating on and clarifying existing MPAs; and (c) harmonizing UNFPA approach with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Emergency Response Preparedness (ERP) Guidance Module. A revised Guidance Note on Minimum Preparedness was launched in August 2016.

In view of the new IASC Interim guidance on COVID 19 Emergency Response Preparedness Approach, system-wide work on risk analysis and early action, and in order to strengthen the capacities of UNFPA country offices on preparedness actions and contingency planning, UNFPA is seeking consultancy services to support the revision of UNFPA’s guidance on Early Warning, Emergency Preparedness and Early Action and train staff on this new emergency preparedness tools and guidelines.

Scope of work :

• Document MPA framing and implementation

1. Undertake a desk review looking at Regional Offices progress reports on the status of the MPAs; MPAs reports prepared by COs; and other relevant reports (including MISP Readiness Assessments) related to preparedness activities undertaken at the regional or country level.
2. Document the framing of the MPAs within the overall existing preparedness and response institutional systems and mechanisms, including ERP, SOPs, contingency planning and business continuity.
3. Conduct a global survey on the status of UNFPA preparedness among key stakeholders (Representatives, Humanitarian Advisors, Humanitarian focal points, Operation Managers at RO and COs level on progress made emergency preparedness, areas of improvement, challenges and enablers
4. Result 1: Produce a report highlighting the baseline MPAs status by date of last revision per country, the reported bottlenecks and recommendations, the countries lessons learnt and best practices on emergency preparedness as well as the framing of the MPAs within UNFPA systems and mechanisms

• Update MPA guidance

1. Complete the previous desk review with consultations with Humanitarian UN partners (e.g.: UNICEF, IOM, OCHA, WFP…) to review existing guidance on ERP and MPAs, including review on electronic version (e.g.: IOM).
2. Establish a reference group with COs, HQ and selected ROs, to finalise the guidance and select a few pilot countries (some conflict affected and others disaster prone).
3. Result 2: Revise the MPAs Guidance (taking into consideration new IASG guidance on ERP (Interim Guidance on COVID-19), new SRH and GBV guidance on Emergency Preparedness, post-2015 Disaster Risk Reduction Framework…) , including a strong monitoring framework to measure quarterly progress made at CO, RO, HO level.

• Support Capacity Building

1. Result 3: Facilitation of four webinars to present the review results and the guidance, in collaboration with regional offices to accommodate for language and time differences (2 English, 1 French, 1 Spanish)
2. Result 4: Development of a training curriculum and contents including interactive activities, case studies and simulation exercises based on UNFPA’s Guidance Note on Minimum Preparedness Actions (MPAs) and revised Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) which also will be used for the organisation and facilitation of global ToT (remote) in collaboration and coordination with the ROs and the HO knowledge management team

Within the broad scope of work as outlined above, the consultant is expected to deliver relevant activities on a timely basis, reliably and accurately throughout the consultancy period.

The consultant will be under the overall supervision of the Head of Unit RTSU and will work with close collaboration Advisor on Data in Emergency.

Required Expertise and Qualifications:

Education :

• Advanced university in a field directly related to humanitarian operations, policy and strategy development

Knowledge and Experience:

• At least 7 years of humanitarian field experience
• Experienced in designing policies, guidelines, training tools…. in relation to humanitarian preparedness and response.
• Training and facilitation experience
• Desirable experience in policy and technical writing at UN level
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills

Languages:

• Fluent in English. French or Spanish an advantage