Request for Proposal for consultancy to develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the SADC Humanitarian and Emergency Operations Centre (EOC)

Purpose of Project and Background

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) faces recurring challenges from natural and human-induced hazards, with droughts, floods, and storms claiming lives as well as severely impacting economies and infrastructure. The region has experienced unprecedented events, including a historic El Niño-induced drought in 2016, 2023, and 2024 as well as Tropical Cyclones; Idai and Kenneth in 2019. These disasters have caused widespread destruction, impoverishing multiple SADC Member States. Following the devastation caused by these disasters, the SADC Council of Ministers in August 2019, directed the SADC Secretariat to expeditiously operationalize the disaster preparedness and response mechanism that included the establishment of the SHOC. Most recently, in February and March 2023, Tropical Cyclone Freddy, the third-deadliest tropical cyclone recorded in the Southern Hemisphere— following 2019’s Cyclone Idai and the 1973 Flores cyclone—affected an estimated 2.7 million people, resulting in 876 deaths and displacing 916,000 people. In this regard, the region urgently, needs to build resilience to protect lives and sustain development. This assignment is part of the SADC Secretariat’s efforts to implement the directive of the SADC Council of Ministers of August 2019.

The Disaster Risk Management Strengthening in the Southern Africa Development Community (DRMSS) project, funded by the European Union under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) Intra-African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP) Natural Disaster Risk Reduction Programme (NDRRP), aims to enhance disaster (risk) management and preparedness capacity in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). A crucial part of this project is to equip or capacitate SADC Humanitarian and Emergency Operations Centre (SHOC) for effective regional disaster response coordination and enable it to deliver on its mandate as stipulated in the Memorandum of Agreement and in line with the aspirations of SADC Member States.

SADC Humanitarian and Emergency Operations Centre (SHOC) will play a crucial role in effective disaster management and response for the region. These include but not limited to serving as a coordination hub, managing disaster information, receiving and disseminating advisories about potential disasters, coordinating the allocation of resources, fostering collaboration among various agencies involved in disaster response, monitoring situations during emergencies, managing logistics and supply chain activities, facilitating emergency telecommunication with relevant stakeholders, providing decision-makers with comprehensive information and analysis, contribute to capacity building and training initiatives, facilitate collaboration with international partners among many others.

In light of the above, developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the SADC Humanitarian Operations Center ensures consistent, efficient, and effective management of disaster response activities. This four-year DRMSS project (Till 2027) is being implemented through a Multi-Partner Contribution Agreement with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN- Habitat).

Alignment to IFRC’s and Partners objectives as well as strategies

The project and specifically this consultancy is aligned to IFRC’s Strategy 2030, the SADC Disaster Preparedness and Response Strategy as well as Fund for 2016-2030, the SADC Disaster Risk Management Strategy and Action Plan for 2023-2030 and the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development plan (RISDP) (2020-2030). These strategies provide guidance for safeguarding development gains through enhancing disaster preparedness and response capabilities considering 21st-century challenges. These include but are not limited to climate and environmental crisis, evolving crisis and disasters. These strategies embrace “multi-stakeholdership” amongst governments, private and public institutions to ensure no one is left behind in achieving sustainable development. Essentially, the strategies strive to significantly reduce disaster loss and damage by strengthening capacities to better anticipate, respond to, and quickly recover from crisis.

The SOPs will enhance coordination with the AUC-AMHEWAS, Climate Services Centre (CSC) and other regional centers, as well as SADC Member States. The SOPs is also expected to reduce errors, and improve response times, thereby increasing overall effectiveness in critical situations and ensuring compliance with regulatory and operational standards.

The SOPs will contribute to enhancing the efficiency, consistency, and effectiveness of SADC SHOC operations by developing standardized procedures and protocols for key functions. Through a systematic and collaborative approach, the consultant will support the implementation of SOPs and ensure their alignment with international best practices and standards.

Primary Objectives

The objectives of this consultancy:

1. To develop detailed and practical Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the SADC SHOC by function.

These functions are:

• Accounting and Finance
• Early Warning and Monitoring.
• Emergency Telecommunications.
• Emergency Response Team (ERT)
• Human Resources and Administration
• Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Reporting
• Security and Access
• Supply Chain Management

2. Identify and recommend any other function that may require additional SOPs.
3. Conduct a test run of one of the SOPs to assess its effectiveness, identify any potential gaps, and ensure that all procedures are clear and actionable for all involved stakeholders.

Scope of Work:

The scope of this consultancy is expected to include but not be limited to:

**Assessment**

• Conduct an initial assessment to understand current processes and identify gaps in the existing procedures across all functions of the SHOC including but not limited to Supply Chain, Logistics, ICT (assessing regional/national capacities in ICT preparedness using existing Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) – International Telecommunication Union (ITU) tools/resources), Finance and Administration, Security and Access, Reporting, Emergency Telecommunications, Early Warning and Monitoring.
• Research, identify and recommend other functions carried out by other Disaster/Humanitarian Operation Centers within and outside the region, that the SADC SHOC would benefit from adopting to enhance its interoperability with other humanitarian Operations Centers.

**Development**

• Develop SOPs tailored to the specific agreed needs of each identified functional area within SHOC.
• Develop detailed SOPs for identified functions, including incident reporting, Supply Chain, Logistics, ICT, Finance and Administration, Security and Access, Reporting, Emergency Telecommunications, Early Warning and Monitoring, Resource Mobilization, Coordination Mechanisms, and Decision-Making Processes.
• Ensure that SOPs facilitate compliance with international best practices and local regulatory requirements.
• Integrate risk management practices into all SOPs to anticipate and mitigate potential issues during disaster preparation and response.

**Validation**

• Collaborate with SHOC function heads and stakeholders to review and validate each SOP.
• Submit a final report summarizing the SOP development process, challenges encountered, and recommendations for future improvements

The selected consultant will be expected to deliver the following:

• Inception Report.
• A complete set of SOPs for specified functions.
• Implementation support materials to facilitate the adoption and utilization of SOPs.
• A final consultancy report detailing the methodology, findings, SOPs, and recommendations.
• Develop a quick reference guide.
• The final documents must be translated in English, French and Portuguese.

Submission Requirements:

• Point of Contact: For further information/clarification and to request the complete terms of reference and other tender documents, please contact the following staff from our Global Humanitarian Services and Supply Chain Management department: jessica.cossa@ifrc.org Cc edna.kirigia@ifrc.org  (please do not send proposals to this emails).
• Submission Deadline: Proposals must be submitted by 5th November 2024, 17h00 SAST. Submissions received after this deadline will not be considered. The consultancy is expected to commence on 20th November 2024 and conclude by 15th May 2025.
• Proposal Format: Proposals should be concise, well-organized, and clearly demonstrate an understanding of the campaign objectives and target audience. They must include a detailed strategy, proposed activities, a projected timeline, and a budget outline. Credentials of your agency, a portfolio of similar projects undertaken, and other supporting documents that substantiate your expertise and experience are required.

Conclusion:

The selected Consultancy Firm is expected to provide high-quality deliverables that will significantly contribute to the successful operationalization of SHOC in line with the aspirations of SADC Member States within the framework of the Memorandum of Agreement establishing the SHOC and the DRMSS Project.