DEC Pakistan Floods – Post Appeal review At Disasters Emergency Committee

Terms of Reference

Background

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is a unique and dynamic membership organisation, which comprises 15 of the UK’s leading humanitarian charities: Action Against Hunger UK, ActionAid UK, Age International, British Red Cross, CAFOD, CARE International UK, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide UK, International Rescue Committee, Islamic Relief Worldwide, Oxfam GB, Plan UK, Save the Children UK, Tearfund, and World Vision UK. Since its founding in 1963, the DEC has run over 77 fundraising appeals and raised more than 2 billion to help save lives and protect livelihoods in disaster-affected communities around the world.

Following the start of the rainy season in June 2022, Pakistan was hit with extreme monsoon rainfall, leading to devastating flash flooding and landslides. 33 million people – more than 15% of Pakistan’s 220 million population have been affected2, as the heavy rains, flooding and landslides destroyed homes, critical infrastructure, and livelihoods.

According to UN OCHA, around 33 million people were affected, and 20.6 million people in need of lifesaving assistance, half of whom were children. In total, 7.9 million people were displaced, with at least 664,000 individuals moving into relief camps and informal sites. On 28 August 2022, Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari appealed to the international community for financial and humanitarian aid as the situation rapidly deteriorated. The floods came at a time when Pakistan was facing one of its worst economic crises and extreme inflation.

In response to the escalating humanitarian needs, the DEC launched the Pakistan Floods Appeal on 1st September 2022. Eleven Member Charities are responding as part of the DEC appeal, working with national and local partners across five provinces in Pakistan.

The DEC fundraising campaign has raised over £49.7 million including £5 million UK Aid Match funding. The eleven member charities taking part in the appeal are spending DEC funds over two years, split into Phase 1 (the first 6 months) and Phase 2 (the following 18 months) of the response.

Purpose

The purpose of this consultancy, a post-appeal review of DEC members’ and others’ work, is to learn lessons from the DEC 2022 Pakistan Floods Appeal. This study is not an evaluation of members’ activities; rather, it seeks to look at the overall work of DEC members within the larger Pakistan and humanitarian context, and from that, aims to identify lessons that can help improve future humanitarian action and establish what contribution members’ work made / what changes it contributed to in the wider response.

The post-appeal review consists in two major components:

• A meta-analysis providing an accessible narrative synthesis of the main findings highlighted in DEC members’ MEAL-related reports2 with particular emphasis on areas of convergent findings and indicative learning points. The study should provide lessons for the DEC Secretariat, DEC members, and the humanitarian sector more widely.
• An outcome harvesting exercise which will seek to understand what changes the appeal and members’ programmes contributed to and how, by reviewing the role of DEC members in the wider response to the humanitarian crisis.

Scope

The scope of the post appeal review will be as follows:

• Key Informant Interviews with DEC members, their partners and relevant stakeholders of the wider response
• DEC members’ plans and reports submitted to the DEC
• DEC real-time Response Review report
• DEC Affected Population Perception Survey (two rounds will have been completed)
• DEC-funded evaluations (4 members will conduct evaluations)
• Non-DEC funded member evaluations (number to be confirmed)
• Additional relevant non-DEC background materials (e.g. HNO and HRP, UN reports, need assessments).

Guiding questions

DEC wishes to maintain flexibility for the post-appeal review process to be iterative. Initial guiding questions are:

• What are the key recurrent themes arising from the desk review?
• For each of these themes:
• what are the main findings and learning points?
• is there any significant divergence in the findings, and if so, what factors might affect or explain this?
• where common or consistent findings do occur, what indicative conclusions do these suggest?
• How have the findings from the DEC Response Review and Affected Population Perceptions Survey been taken onboard throughout phase two?
• what were the enabling factors in this regard?
• How did DEC members contribution impact DRR and environmental considerations in humanitarian programmes?
• how did members take into consideration the environment and reinforce preparedness and what informed their decision making?

In terms of cross-cutting themes, DEC is particularly keen for learning around a) the health of local partnerships b) the value of DRR and climate-resilience related activities c) impact on the environment of humanitarian programmes d) access to and reaching marginalised groups and e) sustainability and exit strategies

Approach

The consultant is invited to outline an appropriate approach for the assignment in a short conceptual framework; however, the following points should be taken into consideration:

• desk-based review of members’ reports and additional relevant materials is essential;
• an outcome harvesting analysis to identify changes and effects brought by the appeal
• a clear and transparent element of quality review of the evidence is required;
• explicit reference to the Core Humanitarian Standard (as the DEC’s quality and accountability standard) is expected throughout the report;
• remote interviews with key informants (from DEC members and other relevant organisations, such as local partners)

The consultant.s

It is expected that the bulk of the work will be carried out by one or two consultant.s.

The consultant/s will provide the following:

1. extensive experience in conducting learning focussed studies/ reviews/ evaluations of humanitarian programmes;
2. proven ability to coordinate a multi-stakeholder review;
3. sound understanding of the methodological considerations related to meta-syntheses and outcome harvesting;
4. demonstrable analytical, communication and report-writing skills;
5. sound understanding of the context in Pakistan;
6. strong facilitation skills and experience in designing participatory workshops;
7. demonstrable commitment to learning and improvement in humanitarian action;
8. experience with DEC or a DEC member agency is a plus.

Deliverables and schedule

It is expected that the bulk of the work will take place across July – October 2024.

The outputs of this assignment will be:

• A draft report to be submitted by end of August 2024.
• including actionable recommendations for programming
• max 30 pages, plus appendices
• A one or two-page summary of findings that can be translated into Urdu
• A dissemination event for member agencies, following finalisation of the report.
• An audio/visual output for dissemination to aid workers based in Pakistan.

Budget

The maximum overall budget for this work is £35,000.