1) Purpose:
This Terms of Reference
has been prepared with the aim of engaging third party consultant firms for
periodic monitoring of the field activities of the partners of Water.org in the
area of water and sanitation microfinance.
2) Scope:
Water.org plans to engage consultant firms with previous experience
of working with microfinance institutions and NGOs. Previous experience of
assessing development work in the area of water and sanitation is required. The
selected consultant will be engaged whenever there is a need to conduct an
on-sight assessment of the quality of the work executed by our partner
organisations in their operational areas (Banten Province: Tanggerang,
Pandeglang, Serang, and Lebak)
3) Rationale for the
Engaging External Consultant Firms:
As part of internal monitoring
processes and requirements, and for transparent reporting to our stakeholders,
Water.org engages third party consultants to review programs executed by our
partner organizations.
4) Water.org’s Background:
About
Water.org
Water.org has been at the forefront of developing and
delivering solutions to the water crisis for more than two decades. Founded by
Gary White and Matt Damon, Water.org challenges the traditional approach by
pioneering innovative, community-driven, and market-based solutions to ensure
all people have access to safe water and sanitation; giving women hope,
children health, and communities a future. Water.org has positively transformed
the lives of more than three million individuals in Asia, Africa, Latin
America, and the Caribbean by providing access to safe water and improved sanitation.
Water.org’s headquarters is in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.
Approach
Water.org empowers people to take action and deliver
solutions that accelerate progress and impact. The approach ranges from
building and rehabilitating wells and toilets to pioneering market‐based
approaches such as WaterCredit. Its work is comprehensive and demand‐driven –
communities know what solutions will work best for them in the long‐term – and
rooted in local technologies and innovations. Water.org works in partnership
with local non-governmental organizations and microfinance institutions to
achieve its objectives. The monitoring visits will focus on reviews of these
partners.
WaterCredit
Initiative
WaterCredit empowers those living in poverty to gain
access to affordable credit to meet their own water and sanitation needs. This
comprehensive initiative puts microfinance tools to work in the water and
sanitation sector.
5) Approach and
Methodology:
The third party monitoring firm will visit program
sites and verify household WASH improvements via a mobile platform to assess program
progress and user satisfaction by meeting with clients face-to-face and
verifying information reported by the partner. This includes assessing partner
services, status of WASH improvement and usage, and immediate impacts on
quality of life. Client surveys also identify risks, gender dynamics, concerns
and best practices within the program implementation period.
i)
Code of Conduct: Consultants will maintain independence and the highest
professional ethical standards in collecting and reviewing information and
presenting the assessment results. Consultants will not share collected
information and visit findings with the Water.org partners without the
permission of Water.org.
ii)
Methodology Framewrok: An ideal team of the consultant would include someone with water
and sanitation technical background and a person with good understanding of MFI
operations. The consultant is responsible for conducting a randomised selection
of a
total of 33 WaterCredit clients to 1) verify that they have taken
out a water and/or sanitation loan, 2) verify that the loan has enabled the
client to construct a functional water and/or sanitation improvement, 3) assess
the construction quality and functionality of the improvement, 4) conduct a
brief survey of the client to understand their use of and satisfaction with the
improvement.
Mobile Survey Platform: Water.org is
utilizing mWater mobile survey tools for data collection purposes. Utilizing
mWater survey tools would help ensure quality control and would require
training among the research team and enumerators. Water.org will provide remote
training on the mobile survey tool, if needed. The Consultant must use this
platform to conduct its independent verifications of client data and is
responsible for training enumerators on the survey tool. Water.org will provide
tablets to be used for conducting mWater surveys in the field.
6) Data Collection and
Analysis Methods:
The data collected will be processed as per Water.org guidelines,
details of which will be provided to the consultant upon award of contract. General
points to be covered will include, but are not limited to the following
verification activities:
i)
Visit site of water and
sanitation improvement;
ii)
Conduct client verification
survey, which include observations of the water and sanitation improvement
status and quality and client document (e.g., passbook in WaterCredit
programs);
iii)
Provide photo documentation of
household/community WASH improvement through the mobile survey; and,
iv)
Verify the accuracy of the partner
reporting (WaterCredit Loan Report) against the client data collected in the
field.
7) Deliverables:
The consultant will be responsible for the following:
·
Gather relevant program
information from Water.org and the partner to plan the client survey activities
and schedule.
·
Select the clients to be
visited and work with the partner to coordinate and facilitate the field work
with local communities.
·
Learn mWater platform,
including creating user accounts, deploying a survey, conduct a survey, and
reviewing the survey data that comes in.
·
Hire, train and deploy the
enumerators to conduct 33 surveys. In areas where the enumerators are not
able to speak the local language, hire a local translator.
·
As needed, translate the survey
via an excel or CSV spreadsheet that Water.org will upload into the mWater
platform so enumerators will have survey in local language.
·
Administer the client surveys
using a method approved by Water.org. Each survey takes approximately 30-40
minutes to conduct.
·
Ensure quality control in the
data collection, and review and ultimately approve or reject the surveys
submitted by the enumerators in the mWater platform.
·
Analyse the data and write a
draft report. The mWater platform provides basic analysis of the results. Draft
and final reports are to be submitted in English. Findings in the report
should be concise, clear, and use clear visualizations and tables that show
findings effectively and efficiently. The report will include the following:
i)
Key findings and trends from
the analysis of the client verification survey data;
ii)
Suggestions and recommendations
to enhance client satisfaction, quality of water and sanitation improvements
and water quality issues; and,
iii)
Supporting documentation
uploaded into the mWater portal, including completed Water.org mobile client
surveys and photos.
Water.org will provide a template
to utilize for the concise report.
·
The first draft of the report
must be submitted to Water.org within 10 days of the completion of the program
monitoring activities. Water.org and the consultant may spend additional time
in refining and finalizing the draft report. It is expected that the period
from completion of the monitoring assessment until completion of the final
report shall take no more than three weeks. Additionally, all documents,
reports, surveys, and findings pertaining to monitoring visits will be kept
confidential by the Consultant and submitted to Water.org after the assigned
assessment is completed.
8) Request for Proposals
Water.org wishes to hire a Consultant to work with
Water.org to conduct partner visits as described in the scope of work above. The
proposal should include a technical and financial proposal (see sample budget
template below) as well as a project timeline. Applicants may be firms or groups of
individuals with a designated team lead. Applicants must have at a minimum the
following qualifications:
1.
Proposed staffing plan includes at
least one native or fluent English speaker.
2.
Proposed staffing plan includes a
sufficient number of qualified enumerators to collect the household surveys in
the partner geographies.
3.
Demonstrated experience and familiarity
with the WASH and/or microfinance sector.
4.
Demonstrated experience with conducting
household interviews.
9) Budget
A
proposed budget shall be included with the Consultant’s submission, and
the
final budget approval shall be fixed and not subject to negotiation. A
sample budget template is provided below. The Consultant shall provide
budget
information either in this format, or in a manner that includes similar
details. All taxes should be included in
the budget. The Consultant shall be
responsible for payment of all taxes. All amounts shall be presented in
INR. Budget notes are encouraged.
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ACTIVITY
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Planned Activity Dates
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Estimated Person-days
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Personnel Expenses
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Unit Cost
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Activities - Total
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Other Engagement Expenses
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No. of Trips (travel)
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No. of Persons (travel)
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Unit Cost
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Travel
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Flights
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Train
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Auto/Other
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Per diem
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Communication
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Supplies
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Taxes
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Total
– Other Expenses
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Grand
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