Consultant

About the Role

This consultancy establishes a general, publishable framework through which CRS may identify and engage qualified Shelter and Settlements consultants for emergency response and surge support. Consultants may be requested to provide short-term technical assistance, program management support, design review, field-level advisory support, coordination, documentation, or capacity strengthening when internal capacity is limited, rapid response is required, or specialized expertise is needed to address operational gaps.

Each assignment under this framework will be confirmed through a specific task order or assignment-specific Statement of Work (SOW) defining the scope, deliverables, timeline, level of effort, location, and reporting arrangements.

Specific Tasks

The consultant may be engaged for time-bound assignments depending on emergency response needs, country program requests, and identified technical or operational gaps. Assignments may include, but are not limited to, the following areas of support:

• Emergency response and surge support
  • Provide rapid technical support for emergency shelter and settlements responses, including remote or in-person surge support, initial technical guidance, response options analysis, prioritization of urgent shelter needs, and practical recommendations for immediate and early recovery programming.
• Technical assessments, design, and response strategy
  • Support shelter and settlement needs assessments, technical feasibility reviews, market and modality analysis, risk analysis, response strategy development, and the design or refinement of shelter, household item, repair, infrastructure, or construction-related interventions.
  • Provide technical support for bills of quantities, specifications, drawings, shelter kits, repair packages, infrastructure designs, contractor scopes, implementation plans, and quality assurance arrangements, ensuring recommendations are practical, context-sensitive, and aligned with humanitarian shelter and settlement good practice.
• Program implementation and construction management support
  • Provide short-term implementation support to country programs and partners, including coordination with technical, program, procurement, MEAL, safeguarding, protection, HLP, finance, logistics, and operations teams; follow-up on implementation bottlenecks; contractor or partner coordination; site supervision support; and handover planning.
• Coordination, standards, accountability, and risk management
  • Support coordination with relevant clusters, authorities, local partners, community structures, and technical working groups as required. Ensure advice considers protection, safety, accessibility, inclusion, accountability to affected people, environmental considerations, HLP risks, and relevant humanitarian standards.
• Learning, documentation, and capacity strengthening
  • Develop practical tools, guidance notes, checklists, training materials, lessons learned, case studies, or after-action documentation, and provide mentoring or targeted capacity strengthening to CRS staff, partners, or response teams when requested.

Deliverables

• Assignment-specific inception note, workplan, or brief terms of reference confirming the requested support, objectives, deliverables, timeline, level of effort, coordination arrangements, and reporting lines.
• Technical assessment reports, response option papers, design review notes, quality assurance recommendations, or technical advisory memos related to shelter, settlements, household items, repair, infrastructure, or construction management.
• Emergency response or implementation support outputs, which may include coordination updates, action trackers, site visit notes, partner support records, implementation follow-up notes, supervision findings, handover notes, or operational recommendations.
• Reviewed or developed technical documents, including BoQs, drawings, specifications, shelter package descriptions, contractor scopes, repair standards, monitoring tools, checklists, or quality assurance plans, as requested in the assignment-specific SOW.
• Capacity strengthening, learning, or documentation products, such as training materials, mentoring notes, guidance tools, lessons learned, case notes, technical briefs, or after-action reviews.
• Brief final assignment completion note summarizing the support provided, outputs delivered, key recommendations, unresolved issues, risks, and suggested follow-up actions.

This general SOW establishes a framework agreement for engaging consultants on specific Shelter and Settlements emergency response assignments. Each assignment will be defined through a separate Specific Assignment-SOW based on identified needs, available funding, location, modality, deliverables, timeline, and level of effort. Additional deliverables may be added as mutually agreed between CRS and the consultant.