Senior Forecast Based Action (FbA) Officer

Job Title

Senior Forecast Based Action (FbA) Officer

Classification Level

Grade 7

Organizational Unit/ Duty Station

(Department / Regional Office / Delegation.....etc.)

Finnish Red Cross - Country Coordination Office (CCO), Kathmandu, Nepal with up to 50%

time spent in the field.

Immediate Supervisor’s Title

Regional Representative for Asia, Finnish Red Cross 

Technical Manager’s Title 

(if applicable)

Technical Manager 1: Sushma Shrestha, Country Coordinator, Nepal 

Technical Manager 2: Tamas Marki, ECHO programme Manager, Nepal 

Number of Technical Reports 

(if applicable)

Number of Direct Reports

(if applicable)

Number of Indirect Reports 

(if applicable)

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 192-member National Societies. The overall aim of the IFRC is “to 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.”  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 is led by its Secretary General, and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy and Corporate Services.

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 delegation and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.

Finnish Red Cross is a member of the IFRC. Finnish Red Cross cooperation in Nepal goes back 30 years. FinnRC jointly with NRCS has been implementing a variety of development programmes covering areas of disaster preparedness, climate change adaptation, safe schools, WASH, health, resilience, and livelihood with both FRC and donor funding, including Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MfA) funding and recently DG ECHO funded disaster preparedness and disaster governance programme. FinnRC has also supported to Nepal’s humanitarian disasters, the most significant being response to 2015 earthquakes, 2017 flooding, and most recently COVID-19 response through IFRC Emergency Appeal.

At present, and in the past, FinnRC cooperation with Danish Red Cross (DRC) in Nepal has been in areas of common interest such as Disaster Preparedness Disaster Risk Reduction, and Inclusion. Current and future focuses of both these European national societies are connected to Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) or Forecast Based Action (FbA). In one hand, DRC has been intensively investing in this area in the past years, mostly via ECHO supported funds, and thus has created a solid foundation on EWEA in Nepal. On the other hand, Finnish Red Cross with its longer-term vision and plan is planning to advance NRCS’s EWEA work from the lens of sustainability and inclusion. FinnRC is developing a long-term bilateral programme with NRCS that utilizes EWEA as a tool for inclusive Climate Smart Disaster Preparedness Disaster Risk Reduction. FinnRC also aims to utilize the active cooperation between its global partner Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and Nepal Department of Hydrology Meteorology (DHM) to make scientific risk information (forecast) accessible to the most vulnerable communities via the Red Cross network anddisaster management mechanisms. Thus, moving forward, DRC and FRC are joining hands to synergize the Red Cross’s EWEA efforts and assist NRCS in helping the most vulnerable at-risk communities with an inclusive and smart EWEA that reduces the adverse impact of climate and weather induced threats and other disasters.

Currently, there are two project that has close synergies and focus on EWEA. The first one is the ECHO funded Strengthening Ownership and Governance in Disaster Risk Management together with the Government of Nepal, humanitarian stakeholders and the civil society (STRONG in DRM together), and the other one is the MFAfundedCLIP D-EX (Purba Prepares against Climate Crisis, Disasters and Exclusions.

The overall purpose of this position is to provide technical guidance on the development and implementation of EWEA capacities and practices and linking the Red Cross humanitarian and preparedness work with national early warning system. 

S/he will be particularly supporting the two active Red Cross’s projects in Nepal: STRONG and MFA funded CLIP D-EX. Both projects are being implemented by Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS). In close coordination with relevant Red Cross partners, including the Red Cross Climate Centre, s/he will be responsible to synergize Red Cross’s EWEA/FbA efforts in the country.

S/he will support partner coordination, governmental relations, and activity implementation in EWEA. S/he will be responsible to: collect lessons learned during the project implementation, closely collaborate with MEAL, Programme Manager and partners, advance the FbA agenda in-country, actively contribute to technical working groups on forecasting and EWS and represent EWEA related forums in Nepal.

Together with the FRC Country Coordinator and Regional Representative, in coordination with the country, regional team and FRC Headquarters, the position will support the Finnish Red Cross EWEA agenda and partnerships in the country and region.

• Technical coordination of FbA development and implementation, internal within Red Cross Movement partners including NRCS, and external with NDRRMA, DHM and, UN agencies, INGOs and other relevant technical partners such as Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI)
• Translating technical forecast information to simple risk information messages,preparedness and early actions that can be used and understood humanitarian actors and concerned state authorities
• Capacity building of NRCS, municipalities, and other partners on FbA
• Ensure excellent representation with stakeholders, sharing FbA related evidence from the field for advocacy purposes
• Collaborate closely with ECHO project team and project partners
• Provide technical assistance to Finnish Red Cross’s ongoing projects in Nepal as well as in the Region if needed participation in the development of new initiatives, and mainstreaming best EWEA practices in the Red Cross's long-term programme work
• Provide capacity building to NRCS staff, consortium partners, and relevant stakeholders on FbA
• Support the FRC, including in other regions and headquarters, in training of staff and partners on EWEA, development of new initiatives etc.
• Support the development of Early Action Protocols (EAPs) for NRCS 
• Provide technical input to NRCS for the development of multi-hazard EWEA mechanism
• Support the design and implementation of both desktop and field-based simulation exercises
• Support and facilitate any research and studies in the project in coordination with the project team
• Engage with stakeholders in conducting FbA dialogues 
• Support and collaborate with technical experts in ensuring the actions are inclusive and end user friendly and reach the most vulnerable population of the community 
• Support in development of Anticipatory Actions SoPs for municipalities
• As required, support Danish Red Cross and Finnish Red Cross country teams in developing funding proposal within the EWEA thematic
• Represent in Red Cross Red Crescent (RCRC) Movement FbA sphere including in the CoP technical working group meetings and other relevant fora in Nepal

Actively work towards the achievement of the Federation Secretariat’s goals

Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles

Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager

Education

Required

Preferred

Bachelor’s degree in social science, rural development, development studies, disaster management or other relevant field from recognised university/institution.

X

Master’s degree in social science, rural development, development studies, disaster management or other relevant field from recognised university/institution.

X

Experience

Required

Preferred

Demonstrated experience of 5-7 years working on disaster management, project management and partner coordination including technical coordination.

X

Proven substantial experience in designing and facilitating trainings and in delivering capacity building interventions for a variety of stakeholders

X

Demonstrated experience in programme implementation, as well as project formulation, design, planning, monitoring and narrative reporting

X

Demonstrated experience inEarly Warning Early Action/ Forecast based Action including development of Early Action Protocols for multi-hazards

X

Strong proven experience in Early Warning Systems (EWS), and strong understanding of the principles of people centred EWS’

X

Experience of working in partnership with National NGOs and in establishing contacts and liaising with partner organisations/companies

X

Experience of conducting assessments, lessons learnt exercises, research and synthesising findings

X

Experience in humanitarian relief and emergency response setting

Demonstrated experience in using community-based and participatory approaches

Experience working with vulnerable and marginalised groups

Experience of working for the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement

X

At least 2 years of demonstrated work experience with an I/NGO

X

Knowledge and Skills

Required

Preferred

Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Nepali

X

Research skills together with use of technology for information management

X

Competency in the use of MS-Word, Excel, PowerPoint, e-mail and the internet

X

Flexibility, motivation, honesty, reliability and cultural awareness

X

Ability to work in demanding situations and sometimes under pressure

X

Ability to work in an organized and systematic manner

X

Excellent interpersonal skills, ability to engage effectively with staff, communities and authorities

X

Strong understanding of the Nepal’s disaster risk management context― existing policies, practices, the key stakeholders and working dynamics and major issues in the country

X

Strong understanding of the humanitarian principles and of the humanitarian imperative

X

Languages

Required

Preferred

Fluently spoken and written English

X

Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic)

X

Competencies (to be filled in by HR)

High level of integrity in personal and institutional affairs

Self-organized, scheduled, maintain follow ups, to be visible with tangible outcomes

Ability in process planning and thinking in consideration with sustainability

Programmatic result based, analytic, quality, and timely reporting

High quality, professional and business communication skills in English and Nepali

Problem solving, conflict management and negotiation

Value linked coordination with partners and stakeholders

Effective listening and sharing; motivation and feedback; monitoring and supervision 

Information management and effective use of technology