National Consultants

Consultants are people who are hired for short periods to perform a distinct assignment over which they have complete control. They are not employees and they are not eligible for the benefits employees receive (such as insurance).

Consultants may not supervise CRS employees. If the responsibilities of a position require that the person supervise CRS staff, then you should look for a TDY or short term hire.

A National Consultant is a consultant who is a national of the country in which you are responding to the emergency. (If you need help with International Consultants instead, click here.)

Steps to Hire a National Consultant:

  1. Write the Scope of Work.
  2. Contact the HR department of the country in which you are working. They should have documented procedures and forms for hiring national consultants and they may be able to handle the whole thing for you. Their procedure should look similar to the one we have outlined below but also take local law into account. If there is no HR department in your country, go to step 3.
  3. Contact the regional office to get any procedures or forms (and advice) they may have on hiring consultants where you are.  If the regional office doesn’t have any information, go to step 4.
  4. If the CP or regional office does not have procedures and forms, use the steps and attachments listed from number 5 below. But be sure to have the contract template checked by a local labor lawyer before too much time goes by.
  5. Submit the SOW with a Consultant Requisition and a budget for the consultancy to the person who can approve the expense in the budget to which it will be charged.
  6. Search for possible candiates.
    1. Talk to the CP and region about people they have used before. (if you find someone who is not from this country, don’t forget to switch to the International Consultants process)
    2. Post the opportunity in places potential consultants are likely to look.
    3. Talk to other NGOs about who they have used for such purposes in the past.
    4. Consult any NGO coordinating bodies about people who might be available.
  7. Receive candidate applications and look through them. Have someone else look through them too. We want to make sure more than one person is involved in the decision making.
  8. Interview candidates whose applications you liked. Include more than one person in the interviews.
  9. Check references for your top one or two candidates after the interviews. Document your thoughts.
  10. Do a security check on the final candidate
  11. Make the candidate an offer and negotiate terms.
  12. Sign the Contract or Temporary Service Agreement.