Consultant - IRC Program Review at the International Rescue Committee (IRC)

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to 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 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.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant - IRC Program Review in North East Nigeria

Requisition ID: req14167
Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Job Type: Full Time
Employment Type: Full-Time
Sector: Program Administration
Employment Category: Consultant
Open to Expatriates: Yes

Background
Founded in 1933, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive, recover, and rebuild their lives. At work today in more than 40 countries, the IRC restores safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

IRC began working in Nigeria in October 2012 in response to a widespread flood disaster in Kogi state and then moved to North East Nigeria, Adamawa state (2014), Borno state (2015) and Yobe state (2016) to respond to the displacements caused by the conflict between the Armed Opposition Groups (AOGs) and the Nigerian Government and its Armed Forces. The conflict is the north east is in its 10th year and has seen over 1.92 million people displaced internally and 257,000 have sought refuge in neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, since the start of the crisis (HRP 2021). Since then, IRC has expanded its program scope and size with the aim of making the greatest possible contribution to meeting humanitarian needs in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, which is now a protracted conflict with widespread displacements, violations of human rights, protection risks and ongoing humanitarian crisis.

IRC’s response includes Health (integrated health, reproductive health and nutrition services); Protection including Women’s Protection and Empowerment services, Child Protection, Protection and Rule of Law; Economic Recovery and Development; Environmental Health/WASH; Education and Governance. In 2015, IRC Nigeria developed a five-year Strategy Action Plan which ended in December 2020, which had health and education as high priority program areas.

The current COVID-19 pandemic which started in April 2020 in Borno state and in May 2020 in Adamawa and Yobe states has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis. In an already fragile context and health system, the pandemic is likely to have a devastating effect especially for the women. Movement restrictions and limited access to communities due to COVID-19 and government regulation makes it difficult to conduct assessments among target communities in operational areas.

IRC Strategy:

• At global level IRC has developed strategy100, which will guide IRC programs through IRC 100th anniversary in 2033. The period from July 2020 to September 2021 was designated for country program to plan for the implementation of the new strategy.
• IRC Nigeria Country Program, Strategic Action Plan (SAP) 2015 – December 2020 has ended, and the country program is planning to develop a new SAP in line with Strategy 100 from June – August 2021.
• Before the development of the new SAP, the country program would like to undertake program review as part of the process and to inform the new SAP development.

Objective

• The overall objective of this consultancy is to facilitate IRC Nigeria country program review process, to document the learnings from the existing program with the focus of reviewing what has worked. What did not work well.
• What needs to change. The outcome of this will feed into the planned Country Strategy Action Plan process to follow this.

Who should be consulted or involved?

• IRC: Country senior management (SMT); operations, program and Technical Advisers from Region and H/Q
• IRC clients (beneficiaries) and communities in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states
• Stakeholders: various line state ministries (Health, WASH, education, gender etc.; local partners, international organisations with similar mandates, cluster coordination leads,
• Key in country donors: USAID, BHA, FCDO, EU, ECHO etc.

Scope of Work

• The consultant will facilitate the program review process through coordination, preparation, design and facilitation of the program/sector review process in close collaboration and engagement with IRC management, program and operation, with specific deliverables as below:

Deliverables

• An inception report detailing the consultancy understanding of assignment, methodologies to be used, detailed implementation workplan/timeline and ways of engaging the various stakeholders.
• Review all programs (sectors) against their expected outcomes.
  • Validate our program objectives to ensure they remain relevant.
  • What was good about the program/sector?
  • What was less good about the program/sector?
  • What were the Successes working with other sectors/integration?
  • What have we achieved and why do we say that?
  • What have we failed to achieve and why do we say that?
  • What do we need to maintain? i.e., our strength?
  • How did the program/sector collaborate with other program/sectors?
  • What collaborations were successful/unsuccessful?
  • What collaborations should be strengthened moving forward?
  • How did the program/sector coordinate or collaborate with relevant government stakeholders?
  • What collaborations should be strengthened moving forward?
  • How did the program/sector engage with beneficiaries and communities during all phases of the program cycle?
  • What approaches worked and what should be changed?
  • How should we do it and why? (mode of implementation, capacity and interest to work with local partners)
  • What do we need to change? i.e. our weakness?
  • What has greatly changed about the context of operation, internal and external since the last 5 years? Government policy, Security etc
  • Are we covering the locations we should be at or is IRC intervention critical in new geographies?
  • Which groups of people does our programming best reach? Which groups of people have the most difficulty accessing our programming? Is our current approach reaching the appropriate groups of beneficiaries?
  • What will be our challenge and mitigation measures?
• Review workshop with managers and relevant stakeholders, local partners, CSOs, women led organizations, various ministries, allies etc. The workshops should seek to answer the following questions.
  • Focus on key learnings.
  • What worked well?
  • What did not work well?
  • What need to change?
  • What has greatly changed about the context of operation, internal and external since the last 5 yes?
  • How significant are the changes?
  • What do we need to do more in terms of the various sectors (deliverables and objectives) and why?
  • What are the significant learnings that we need to share with others?
  • How much of a learning organization are we? How can we be more intentional to imbibe program learning in our approach?
  • How well did our monitoring, evaluation and learning processes and products help us learn, make changes and improve our programming?
• Program review report of the process, findings, and recommendations to the country program.

Timeframe:

• The program review to be conducted within 21 working days with start date in April 2021.

Key Working Relationships:

• Consultancy Manager: will be the Deputy Director of Programs.
• Country Senior Management Team (SMT) will provide overall strategic leadership and directions.
• IRC has established a small team of 20 people from country program across departments/sectors who will work with the consultant during the entire program review process. The consultant will play a lead facilitator role to the team.
• The small team will be able to be engaged or involved in conducting some of the key informants’ meetings with identified stakeholders whose opinions IRC value and discuss what IRC did well and what it should do in future.

Required Qualifications / Competency / Professional Skills or Experience

• Looking for a professional or consultancy firm with concrete experience in program reviews or evaluations
• At least an Advanced Degree in Social Sciences, Development Studies, Planning, etc.
• Relevant 7 years of experience
• Proven experience in the humanitarian programs preferably in North East Nigeria or in West Africa
• Demonstrate excellent interpersonal and professional skills in interacting with government, development, and humanitarian partners.
• Excellent and proven analytical and contextualization skills
• Excellent organizational and communication skills and ability to prioritize and work with minimum supervisions.
• Excellent and proven skills in facilitation of stakeholder’s engagements/workshops
• Excellent writing skills and ability to articulate the linkage between findings, analysis, and program recommendations.
• Strong communication and presentation skills
• Proven experience and track record of timely and high-quality completion of assignments.

Note: List of responsibilities, professional and personal skills are considered indicative and not exhaustive; actual duties may differ or change depending on office and agency priorities at the time.

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Applicants should attach:

• CV of the consultant TTA.
• Past performance references for similar assignments.
• Sample of consultant final evaluation report you have worked on.
• Cost proposal, including all costs necessary to complete the assignment, and distinguishing (at a minimum) between:
  • Consultancy number of days and daily professional fee rates
  • Travel costs – if applicable
  • Field work costs – if applicable
  • IRC will offer security and logistics advise as appropriate

Treatment of the Information

• All data and information received for the purpose of this assignment is to be treated confidentially and is only to be used in connection with the execution of these terms of reference.
• All intellectual property rights arising from the execution of these terms of reference are assigned to the IRC.
• The contents of written material obtained and used in this assignment may not be disclosed to any third parties without the expressed advance written authorization of the IRC.

Note

• For more information please contact: Contact Deputy Director of Program, Nigeria at [email protected]
• IRC is an Equal Opportunities Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability.