Експерт/ка з оцінювання гуманітарного проєкту страхування волонтерів

Review of Humanitarian Volunteer Insurance Initiatives supported by Switzerland

Background

The international humanitarian community in Ukraine as well as regional and local authorities rely heavily on humanitarian volunteers, NGOs and CSOs to provide assistance to hard-to-reach areas in eastern and southern frontline regions. While these areas have the highest concentration of the most at-risk and vulnerable population directly affected by the conflict, they are covered by international actors only in part because of the high security & safety risk to personnel.

In summer 2023 through conversations on risk management with a local humanitarian partner of the Swiss Cooperation Office, the idea to set up an insurance scheme for local volunteers/last-mile responders was launched. Through the active negotiation of the partner with private insurance companies in Ukraine, by August 2023 a policy was negotiated and was ready for subscritions. The insurance currently covers about 2100 local volunteers and last-mile responders in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia for risks related to life and accidents, including specific war-related risks. This approach was replicated by another Swiss partner who is currently planning to provide insurance to volunteers in Odessa, Mikolaiv and Kherson oblasts. The idea is generating wide interest and more and more humanitarian actors are willing to learn more about this insurance and to expand coverage to their national partners/local volunteers responders. Switzerland’s pilot project on accident and life insurance for local humanitarian responders have the ambition to provide fairer, more equitable and dignified humanitarian action through improved and more responsible «duty of care» mechanisms. A review should assess whether this is reasonable and useful.

Purpose

Switzerland is commissioning an external review in order to understand the efficiency, relevance, sustainability, and impact of its Volunteer Insurance Initiatives in Ukraine. The review should consider also other existing «duty of care initiatives» such as PPE lending and first-aid/safety & security trainings. Findings will not only inform internal processes and lessons’ learnt, but will also be used to assess the needs and opportunities to scale up «duty of care» principles and practices throughout the humanitarian response in Ukraine and, where applicable, to replicate the approach in other humanitarian contexts.

Objectives

1. To review the efficiency, relevance, sustainability, perception and impact among key stakeholders, partners and beneficiaries of the Volunteer Insurance, identify coverage, and potential gaps in an independent assessment.
2. To assess needs, gaps and opportunities to scale up the volunteers’ insurance and ways to continue/widen/mainstream the approach, according to a set of recommendations.
3. To explore how/whether the volunteer insurance contributed to potential negative consequences and/or highlighted new challenges, and how they could be omitted/mitigated.

Methodology

This review will be based on a desk review, key informant interviews (KIIs), and focus group discussions (FGDs) with key-partners, insured volunteers, hromada level authorities, and thematic experts. Perception surveys may be used to supplement focus group discussions. In addition, the review can be complemented by interviews with key informants from other donors and humanitarian organizations to understand their perception. The consultant is expected to conduct the interviews in person in Kyiv, Odessa/Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv.

Deliverable

The review should be presented in following parts:

• A report of max 10 pages, including: (i) Executive summary with key findings, conclusions and recommendations; (ii) Methodology; (iii) Findings, including successes, gaps, and linkages.
• A 2 pager for external dissemination with key figures about the initiatives,
• A PPT presentation / slides providing summary of main findings

Time frame

Twenty days, with results delivered by the end of March 2024.

Requirements

1. Local consultant with minimum 6 years of experience in the area of humanitarian response, including in different contexts, preferably in Eastern Europe/Ukraine;
2. Solid experience in conducting review assessments, monitoring and evaluation missions;
3. Knowledge of the Ukrainian context (including humanitarian actors and architectures, Government structure, Ukrainian civil society, etc.);
4. Experience in working with international projects, organizations, and/or local governments;
5. Understanding and competence in protection mainstreaming and/or duty of care, safeguarding principles and risk management in an asset;
6. Ability to work independently and in a collaborative manner within a multicultural team;
7. Fluency in English and Ukrainian/Russian language skills.

Application & documents to be submitted

Interested candidates should send their application as per following instructions:

• Technical proposal (max. 3 pages, no predefined format), including the following parts:
  – Understanding of the mandate, context and challenges;
  – Proposed methodology for the implementation of the whole exercise;
  – Process description and estimated timeframe for the assessment.
• Curriculum Vitae of the consultant, clearly stating the relevant experience.
• Financial proposal including all costs related to the mission.

Selection criteria

• Quality of the technical proposal (weight: 40%);
• Experience of the national consultant (weight: 30%);
• Costs according to the financial proposal (weight: 30%).

The proposals should be submitted by 29 February 2024 to [email protected].