Organizational Context
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the worldโs largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member National Societies. The overall aim of the IFRC is โto 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.โ The IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises.
The IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of the IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.
The IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The IFRC also has country cluster delegations and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country delegations) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.
At Geneva level the Health and Care Department focuses on two strategic directions.
- Health System Strengthening
- Water System Strengthening
These two strategic directions are supported by four pillars:
- Global Health Security
- Global Health Protection and Universal Health Coverage
- Global Water Security
- Transformative Partnership
This terms of reference covers multiple consultancies that will be required over a two-year period (2025 โ 2027). These consultancies will support the Clinical Care and Public Health in Emergencies team to implement the Emergency Health annual workplan.
At the time of contacting a specific terms of reference will be provided to the selected consultant with details on the specific objective and key deliverable of the consultancy.
Job Purpose
Consultancy support will be requested in three areas:
- Overarching files
- Clinical Care in emergencies
- Public Health in emergencies
In the area of Clinical Care in emergencies consultancy support can cover the following areas: Clinical Emergency Response Units, Red Channel Mentorship and Classification, Blood services in emergencies, clinical palliative care in emergencies, prehospital care, NCDs in emergencies (clinical care), RMNCAH in emergencies (clinical care), triage and mass casualty management, Patient safety and quality assurance, Non-infectious dead body management.
In the area of Public Health in emergencies consultancy support can cover the following areas: Public Health Emergency Response Units, Public Health in Emergencies trainings, Management of the dead in infectious disease outbreaks, Community-based emergency public health response tools, Community Based Surveillance in Emergencies, Infectious disease outbreak surveillance and risk analysis, Contact tracing, Anticipatory Action and simplified Early Action Protocols (sEAP) for epidemic-prone diseases.
Specific priorities in 2025 include:
- Support to priority emergency health training initiatives:
- Support to the Emergency Health Assessment and Coordination training is needed to increase the pool of qualified surge delegates who can deploy as health coordinators. Deployment of well-trained competent health coordinators is essential to ensure timely requests for health ERUs and other response tools, as well as for overall quality assurance and coordination of health operations. Support to the PHiE-A and PHiE-B trainings will allow IFRC to increase public health emergency response capacity at regional and country levels.
- Information Management and Epidemiology:
- There is currently a gap for health information management and epidemiology, in particular for risk assessment and epidemiological analyses for emerging or ongoing infectious disease outbreaks. Expertise in these areas is required to support operations and to ensure evidence-based decision-making during emergencies. Support and oversight for the implementation of community-based surveillance during outbreak response is also a current priority gap as is external representation in this domain. In addition to the above, the Health Surge & Emergency Health Competency Matrix revision has been on hold due to a lack of capacity. Although not identified as a key/urgent priority, this does have several touchpoints with other emergency health activities and will require support in the longer term.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
Consultancy outputs:
Outputs and key deliverables will be included in each specific consultancy contract and supporting terms of reference.
Alignment to the IFRCโs Strategy 2030
The consultancy aligns to the Federationโs Strategy 2030 as it supports the achievement of two Global Aims:
Global Aim 1: People anticipate, respond to and quickly recover from crisis.
Global Aim 2: People lead safe, health and dignified lives and have opportunities to thrive.
Management of consultancy
The consultant will be managed by the Lead, Clinical Care and Public Health in Emergencies.
The consultant will work closely with members Clinical Care and Public Health in Emergencies team, other members of the Health and Care Department, and other collaborative departments as needed.
Time allocation and location
- Most deliverables under this consultancy can be done from the consultantโs home location.
- If travel is required, the location and duration of travel will be decided in consultation with the manager of the consultancy.
Competencies, Values and Comments
Application Instruction
Please submit your application in English only.