Country: Philippines
Closing date: 17 Feb 2017
1. Summary
1.1.Purpose: The Philippines Red Cross (PRC) in partnership with the American Red Cross (ARC) and Finnish Red Cross (FRC) seeks a qualified consultant/firm to provide technical support in the development of an organization-wide PMER Policy and PMER Framework. The consultant will additionally develop a Learning Framework and PMER Procedures Manual under the umbrella of the PMER Framework. The consultant will be tasked with redesigning existing documentation and will lead efforts to create new documentation where required. The consultant will lead two large-scale collaborative workshops designed to ensure buy-in from relevant stakeholders during the PMER Policy and PMER Framework development processes. The resulting documents from this activity will contribute to improved quality, accountability and effectiveness of PRC services and programs.
1.2.Commissioner: This Terms of Reference (TOR) has been commissioned by the Philippine Red Cross with additional funding support by the American Red Cross and Finnish Red Cross. The consultant/firm will report directly to the PRC PMER Manager but may hold progress sessions with the American Red Cross M&E Delegate and Finnish Red Cross Country Representative.
1.3.Audience: Outputs of the consultancy will be used by the PRC to contribute to improved quality, accountability and effectiveness of PRC services and programs.
1.4.Duration of consultancy: Up to 70 working days spread out over six months.
1.5.Estimated dates of consultancy: March 2017 through August 2016
1.6.Location of consultancy: Manila, Philippines with some domestic travel within the Philippines
2. Background
The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) strives to carry out its mission of “providing timely, efficient, and responsive humanitarian services to the most vulnerable in accordance with the principles and values of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.” Especially given its context in the Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, the organization has established significant experience in providing humanitarian services and has always been the Government of the Philippines’s (GoP) main partner for first response in the case of a disaster. PRC endeavors to be relevant to the changing face of disasters and humanitarian challenges, to ensure that the organization will always be first, always ready and always there. Over the years, it took all opportunities to make a lasting difference in the lives of the Filipino people by increasing its cushion in the impact of disasters, economic crises, and unhealthy lifestyles and provide additional social protection and psychosocial support.
During the development of PRC’s Strategic Plan 2012-2016, the organization already identified gaps in a timely and accurate information system required to monitor the effectiveness of the activities of the organization. An in-depth review of management systems and procedures ensued between years 2014 and 2015. This study, conducted by an external consultant, further identified gaps at different levels and in particular in the absence of common management processes, and the non-compliance with procedures due to overwhelming requirements and documentation. This situation affected the performance of PRC as a whole, and its ability to achieve the objectives of its Strategic Plan.
In particular, challenges and gaps in the capacity of the PMER Office to carry out its functions were revealed. These were assessed as impeding effective organizational learning from PRC programmes and operations.
In PRC, the PMER Office is responsible for ensuring timely implementation of project and services, including collecting, analyzing and presenting target specific achievement delivered through chapters. PMER closely works with all offices of PRC and 102 chapters in providing technical and capacity building support on PMER issues. One of the key areas of PMER’s work is to support National Headquarters (NHQ) and chapters in maintaining standards, timeliness and quality of services provided to the targeted people.
However, the monitoring and evaluations of projects are conducted mostly to comply with donor requirements, and learning from project experiences is not systematically documented and used for organizational growth and learning. The current data collection, data management/analysis and use of data are not guided by a standard organizational document, plan or framework, and consequently learning (both positive and negative) from the regular, relief and recovery work is not institutionalized systematically.
PRC has an existing policy and procedure in PMER. However, it needs further review and improvement to explicitly reflect and guide its current practice. The overall policy and procedures on PMER needs to be enhanced and further localized.
In addition, the analysis identified clear gaps in the formalization of the structure of the PMER Office, as well as with policies/practices for the implementation of assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting processes in the organization. The gaps range from the absence of guidelines and manuals, to the lack of definition of procedures and standards.
On the basis of these findings, and in order to support the capacity of the PMER Office to accomplish its responsibilities as set forth in the new PRC Strategic Plan 2017-2021, a proposal was written for a project aimed at the development of a PRC PMER Policy and PMER Framework. The project more broadly aims to develop the necessary standardized systems and tools required by the organization, and the PMER Office, to perform its duties in a consistent and systematic manner; and to contribute towards better programme quality and effectiveness. In addition, these efforts will seek to support the methodical exchange of information within the organization, and promote institutional learning.
This falls in line with Strategic Goal No. 2 of the 2017-2021 Strategic Plan which states that PRC must ‘ensure a well-functioning national society, able to optimize resources through high quality and efficient service delivery that is transparent and accountable at all levels’. The PMER Office will thus contribute to achieving this through Strategic Objective No. 3 in which the organization aims to ‘have a well-functioning and institutionalized PMER and knowledge management system for better learning towards organizational development’.
3. Consultancy Purpose and Scope
The scope of consultancy will include the completion of the following four objectives.
- Objective 1. Review and improvement of PRC PMER Policy that provides strategic guidance on organization-wide PMER policies and establishes guiding principles for PMER
- Objective 2. Development of PRC PMER Framework that provides operational guidance on organization-wide PMER by outlining the linkage between the PRC Learning Framework and PRC PMER Procedure Manual
- Objective 3. Development of PRC Learning Framework that provides operational guidance on organization-wide learning
- Objective 4. Development of PRC PMER Procedure Manual that provides operational guidance on organization-wide PMER systems and procedures in addition to standardizing PMER tools and templates
The consultant will achieve these objectives through the completion of the following eight major outputs.
- Output 1. Define PMER Policy, PMER Framework, Learning Framework, and PMER Policy and Procedure Manual purpose and expectations in consultation with NHQ, chapter, and project staff/volunteers.
- Output 2. Develop PMER Policy at NHQ, chapter, and project levels in consultation with NHQ, chapter, and project staff/volunteers. This framework will define why and what learning needs to occur to ensure performance, quality, and accountability. PMER Policy will be validated with NHQ, chapter, and project staff/volunteers. This validation will occur through a PMER Policy Development workshop occurring over 2 days with 50 staff/volunteers from NHQ, chapter, and projects.
- Output 3. Develop PMER Framework at NHQ, chapter, and project levels in consultation with NHQ, chapter, and project staff/volunteers. This framework will define how learning needs to occur to ensure performance, quality, and accountability. PMER Framework will be validated with NHQ, chapter, and project staff/volunteers. This validation will occur through a PMER Framework Development workshop occurring over 3 days with 50 staff/volunteers from NHQ, chapter, and projects.
- Output 4. Develop Learning Framework at NHQ, chapter, project levels.
- Output 5. Review and improve PMER systems and procedures at NHQ, chapter, project levels. These systems should include SOP for evaluation and use of the PQA tool.
- Output 6. Review and improve PMER roles, responsibilities, and required competencies of staff / volunteers at NHQ, chapter, and project levels.
- Output 7. Review and improve PMER tools and templates at NHQ, chapter, and project levels.
- Output 8. Compile PMER systems and procedures; PMER roles, responsibilities, and required competencies; PMER tools and templates into comprehensive PMER Policy and Procedure Manual. PMER Policy and Procedure Manual will be validated with NHQ, chapter, and project staff/volunteers.
4. Consultancy Timeframe
The consultancy is expected to take place over 70 working days spread out over six months from March 2017 through August 2017. Detailed work breakdown should be provided in the Proposal Brief however the consultancy is expected to have a work flow similar to the following:
- Consultant meeting with PRC project manager and review board
- Consultant review of key documents
- Consultant submission of inception report to PRC project manager and review board
- Consultant design of PMER Policy development workshop(s)
- Consultant conducts PMER Policy development workshop(s)
- Consultant development of PMER Policy
- Consultant submission of PMER Policy to PRC project manager and review board
- Consultant design of PMER framework development workshop(s)
- Consultant conducts PMER framework development workshop(s)
- Consultant development of PMER framework
- Consultant submission of PMER framework to PRC project manager and review board
- Consultant development of Learning framework
- Consultant submission of Learning framework to PRC project manager and review board
- Consultant reviews and improves PMER systems and procedures
- Consultant submission of PMER systems and procedures to PRC project manager and review board
- Consutlant reviews and improves PMER tools and templates
- Consultant submission of PMER tools and templates to PRC project manager and review board
- Consultant compilation of PMER Policy and Procedure Manual
- Consultant submission of PMER Policy and Procedure Manual to PRC project manager and review board
- Consultant validation of PMER Policy and Procedure Manual
- Consultant submission of Final Report
5. Consultancy Deliverables
- Inception Report - March 15, 2017
- PMER Policy - April 15, 2017
- PMER Framework - May 15, 2017
- Learning Framework - June 15, 2017
- Procedural Manual - July 15, 2017
- Final Report - August 15, 2017
6. Consultancy Qualifications
- Graduate degree in area of study related to planning, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting preferred
- Minimum 10 years relevant experience in planning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting in the development/NGO sector
- Demonstrated experience in development of PMER policy and procedural documents
- Demonstrated experience facilitating collaborative and/or participatory workshops
- Demonstrated project management experience
- Commitment to working in collaborative and open fashion
- Professional work experience in country preferred
- Familiarity with the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement preferred
- Fluency in English required, knowledge of Tagalog is advantage
- National consultants preferred
How to apply:
Interested candidates should submit their application material by February 17, 2017 to the following email: hrd.recruitment@redcross.org.ph with an additional cc to pmer@redcross.org.ph . The application should include:
- Proposal Brief (max 2 pages)
- Curriculum Vitae
- Cover Letter
- Reference Sheet
- Rate Sheet
- Employer Contact Sheet
The proposal brief should include a short explanation of high-level activities proposed by the candidate and should be limited to a maximum of 2 pages in length. The cover letter and curriculum vitae should concisely summarize prior experiences relevant to the aforementioned TOR. The reference sheet should include at least three professional references. The rate sheet should include daily rates for the previous 12 months of work. The employer contact sheet should include employer contact information for verification of daily rates shown in the rate sheet. We thank you in advance for understanding that only short-listed candidates will be contacted for the next step in the application process.