Consultancy to develop an initial assessment on Inclusive Businesses Emergency Preparedness

Context

HI and its partners (including other NGOs and local organizations, private companies and disaster risk management stakeholders, organization of persons with disabilities, etc.) have observed for years that small businesses are the backbone of HI intervention areas, since they employ members of the community, provide resources for the surrounding populations to meet their daily needs, and contribute to local business districts, as well as regional and global supply chains. Considering their key role in terms of local resilience and recovery, it has long been recognized that small businesses need to be prepared to emergency situations, so local economies can recover more quickly in the event of a disaster.

The same observation is made on a larger scale, when companies provide hundreds of jobs in urban areas, which are sources of incomes, autonomy and socio-economic status. Whether they are located in so-called ‘rich’ countries or in developing countries, small businesses and major employers have to cope with a series of hazards. When HI offers technical support on inclusive employment to companies employing persons with disabilities, it is essential to integrate them in the protective measures and protocols developed by these institutions. It is about ensuring the safety of employees with disabilities (particularly in the case of high-risk positions, in industrial and risk prone environments etc.), possibly also the public. It also appears necessary to reduce the employment barriers that concern persons with disabilities: many companies supposing that they cannot ensure the safety of persons with disabilities at their workplace, and therefore prefer not to employ them.

Finally, many private companies intend to be prepared to emergency situations, not only by ensuring the effectiveness of their alert and evacuation protocols in the first hours after a disaster strike, but in a longer term perspective, to preserve their entire production system in case of flood, cyclone, fire, earthquake... to avoid economic losses and technical unemployment. These ‘Business Continuity Plans’ and other emergency preparedness mechanisms are rarely inclusive of employees with disabilities.

Background

In order to build populations’ economic resilience, several HI projects promote the employment of persons with disabilities by private companies (or coach them to create their own business), as part of a tailored technical assistance, notably in Asia. HI has been progressively, but still punctually, advising businesses on inclusive disaster risk reduction management (iDRRM) with a focus on Inclusive Emergency Preparedness. HI raises awareness about iDRRM challenges, accessibility issues, Emergency Evacuation Plan requirements, etc. HI has also developed training programs to provide technical support on emergency preparedness for employees. However, the organization needs to know if it has a more significant and systematic role to play in this area (Inclusive Business Emergency Preparedness) and to reinforce its skills/service offers.

Consultant’s responsibilities / Scope of work

The consultant will:

• Assess the needs and interests of partner companies and/or similar companies involved in developing countries (or with subsidiaries in these countries) toward ‘Inclusive Business Emergency Preparedness and Resilience’;
• Analyze and report the most frequent intervention methodologies that fill the gaps in this very specific area of expertise;
• Finally propose 2 to 3 standardized intervention methodologies to support the organization in delivering a standardized technical assistance. HI also expect a set of realistic recommendations to enable it to deliver such services to employers even more effectively.

More specifically, the consultant will:

• Assess the needs and interests of private employers for improving their risk management practices (facing natural, technological and workplace accidents), at least where HI develops inclusive employment projects (especially their operational resilience practices: business continuity planning and emergency evacuation protocols) to make them more inclusive of persons with disabilities and/or reduced mobility;
• Determine the type of businesses that would be interested in reinforcing, more inclusively, their emergency risk management capacities (in which sector, for what type of use and what type of risks/hazards), based on their location, type of activities, risks areas…
• Explore the interest of other employers/organizations (including NGOs, UN agencies, donors’ offices…) not only in facilitating the employment of people with disabilities, but also in ensuring their participation and inclusion in risk prevention measures in agencies/offices (in case of fire, earthquake, floods/landslides);
• Determine the businesses knowledge toward inclusive disaster risk management, with an emphasis on natural and technological risk management)
• Based on HI’s practices and skills propose 2 to 3 HI intervention methodologies to support these companies in improving their risk management capacities (especially by reinforcing the inclusiveness of their business continuity plans and evacuation/safety protocols) adapted to HI's skills
• Analyze how HI could better position itself on this market and respond to the demand; Suggest necessary investments for the organization to be better prepared to meet this demand.
• Examine the role digital innovations can play in Businesses’ Inclusive Emergency Preparedness.

The consultant will be regularly in contact with HI technical teams in Lyon, and intermittently with colleagues based in the HI programmes that develop employment projects.

Deliverable

The consultant will deliver an assessment report that contains the market analysis and all the expected information mentioned above. A mid-term progress meeting will be organized, based on a synthetic mid-term project presentation. The analysis will be collectively presented by the consultant at the end of his work to the HI staff involved in this initiative.

At least one meeting at HQ in Lyon, France, would be highly appreciated.

Required skills

• Excellent knowledge of entreprise risk management practices (especially toward business continuity planning and safety protocols in case of natural, technological events, workplace accidents…).

• Excellent knowledge of disability inclusion approaches and employment
• Excellent qualitative and quantitative data collection and monitoring skills
• Good written communication skills with a demonstrated ability to translate technical ideas into simple language for a non-technical audience.
• The working languages will be English and/or French, depending on the consultant’s background