Consultant, Final Evaluation of “Expanding Cross-Pillar Early Warning Early Action for Climate-related Hazards” Project

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Organizational Context

The "Expanding Cross-Pillar Early Warning Early Action for Climate-related Hazards" project was launched at the beginning of November 2023 and comes to an end in December 2024 (13 months). As short-term climate funding from the Government of Ireland, this project was designed to advance 'starter'/'foundational' activities to 1) scale up people-centered early warning and early action for weather- and climate-related hazards, and 2) advance locally-led adaptation to help build climate resilience in vulnerable countries.

A key aim of the project was to enhance the holistic approach of IFRC's early warning early action work, including ensuring better integration and alignment across its core EWEA approaches across the EWS pillars and ensuring better alignment and synergy with other relevant areas of work and activities which are not systematically integrated in IFRC EWEA-related projects but are crucial for comprehensive disaster risk management (i.e. Preparedness for effective response, disaster risk governance, climate risk assessment/screening).

The project sought to address the common issue where funding from donors is often allocated specifically to activities within a particular pillar of EWS. This compartmentalization results in fragmented efforts. Moreover, some relevant areas of work are spread across different teams and departments within IFRC which in the past has also caused some fragmentation. Furthermore, new initiatives by IFRC, such as the Climate Action Journey, have not yet been fully integrated into other existing approaches. IFRC has recently made progress in developing a holistic programmatic framework that outlines relevant activities across the different EWS pillars. This project is testing that newly developed cohesive approach. By focusing on a more integrated strategy, the project aimed to ensure that all related activities work in concert to enhance the overall effectiveness and resilience of EWS and associated disaster risk management practices.

In summary, the project supported the implementation of the following IFRC activities across the EWS pillars:

• Pillar 1 / disaster risk knowledge: Initiation of Climate Action Journey (national climate risk assessment and climate screening of NS projects, multi-year climate strategy, training on locally-led adaptation), with support from the Climate Centre; Training on Enhanced Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (EVCA) (and roll-out where possible)
• Pillar 3 / warning dissemination and communication: Contextualization of IFRC's PAPE messages
• Pillar 4 / preparedness to respond to warnings: Assessment of NS Preparedness for Effective Response (PER); Training on anticipatory action; Feasibility study for Early Action Protocol (EAP) development
• Cross-cutting: Study on disaster risk governance with a focus on integration of EWEA in laws, policies and plans; Training on Community Early Warning Systems (and roll-out where possible)

Given the short-term nature of this climate funding, and indications of potential additional funding being available for 2025, the project was designed to establish foundations for the National Society to be very well positioned at the end of 2024 to scale up EWEA in a holistic manner, in the context of a clear multi-year Climate Strategy. Follow-on funding would therefore be able to support activities to strengthen locally-led adaptation (LLA) and end-to-end early warning and early action (EWEA), from the national level (e.g. supporting the government to strengthen the integration of EWEA in DRM laws and policies and enhance dissemination of actionable alerts for the public, and developing a national- level Early Action Protocol for a weather- or climate-related hazard) to the community level (e.g. implementation of key LLA and EWEA activities at the community level identified in risk-informed community action plans).

The project has been implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Armenia, Paraguay and Uruguay in the Europe and Americas regions, based on the following criteria:

• Vulnerability to climate change
• Part of the 100 countries included in the IFRC Global Climate Resilience Programme
• Expressed interest to scale up climate action
• Strategic in terms of EWEA
• National Society implementation/absorption capacity
• Underfunded countries and regions - no other climate investment

Again, acknowledging the short timeframe for the project and National Society absorption considerations, only the two National Societies in the Americas region (Paraguay and Uruguay) implemented the full suite of project activities, including community-level activities, while the three National Societies in the Europe region focused on strengthening their capacity and positioning, and advancing foundational activities, at national level.

Job purpose

This final project evaluation will assess the extent to which the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) "Expanding Cross-Pillar Early Warning Early Action for Climate- related Hazards" project was able to deliver on its ambition to support a more integrated approach to early warning early action programming across the Early Warning System (EWS) pillars and aligned with other key relevant areas of work, notably related to disaster risk governance and National Society Preparedness for Effective Response. This evaluation will focus on looking at Relevance/Appropriateness, Coherence, Effectiveness and Sustainability of this project. The purpose of the evaluation is to determine what lessons can be learned, both successes and challenges, that can be used to improve the programmatic approach for future similar interventions.

Job Duties and Responsibilities, and Job Requirements can be found on the IFRC website linked below.

Duty station

Remote home-based

Consultancy duration

35 days from October 2024 to January 2025

Application instructions

• Please submit your application via the IFRC website and in English only.
• Please include
  • your availability in your cover letter.
  • names of 3 references in your CV.
  • 2 examples of evaluations recently completed in which you were the primary or sole author/researcher, ideally similar to that described in this TOR.
  • a short proposal, no more than 5 pages, detailing:
    • Understanding of the consultancy;
    • Your proposed approach to meet the objectives and specifications described above;
    • How the applicant meets the qualifications and experience requirements; and
    • Estimated budget, including professional fees and all expenses.
      • Your financial proposal should be based on a Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the Individual Consultant´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the Individual Consultant in completing the assignment.