Consultant for PDAM Program Monitoring

Terms of Reference

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 PDAMs. 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; PDAM Batang and PDAM Jepara

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 PDAM partners.

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 began operations in Indonesia since 2014 and works to build relationships with various Financial Institutions. In 2016, Water.org Indonesia cooperates with 8 (eight) PDAMs in Central Java as a pilot project provided technical assistance and internal capacity building by Water.org. Currently, Water.org has established cooperation with 2 PDAMs to offer water financing products to improve access to clean water to low-income communities.

5)     Approach and Methodology:

The third-party monitoring firm will visit program sites and verify household WASH improvements via a mobile platform, namely mWater, 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 Framework: An ideal team of the consultant would include someone with water technical background and a person with good understanding of PDAMs operations. The consultant is responsible for conducting a randomised selection of a total of 500 WaterConnect clients consisted of PDAM Batang (250 clients) and PDAM Jepara (250 clients) to verify that they have taken out a water loan, 2) verify that the loan has enabled the client to construct a functional water 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.

 

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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 improvement;

ii)      Conduct client verification survey, which include observations of the improvement status and quality and client document.

iii)    Provide photo documentation of household/community WASH improvement through the mobile survey; and,

iv)    Verify the accuracy of the partner reporting (WaterConnect Loan Report) against the client data collected in the field.

7)     Implementation time:

The census will be conducted for 20 (twenty) days, consisting of:

1.      3 (three) days for surveyor orientation (half-day) and pre-test questionnaires for the community in target (half-day) tactics.

2.      9 (nine) days to carry out the census in PDAM Batang.

3.      9 (nine) days to carry out the census in PDAM Jepara.

4.      Data analysis, processing and reporting for PDAM Batang and PDAM Jepara shall be submitted 7 (seven) days after the last day of the census at the site (day 17).

Census form and activity documentation will be presented as an attachment to each census report.

No.	Activities	Day
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
1	Surveyors briefing (half-day) & pre-test to target communities (half-day)
2	Census PDAM
	2.1. PDAM Batang
	2.2. PDAM Jepara
3	Data analysis, processing & preparation of reports
4	Submission of census reports
	4.1. Census report PDAM Batang
	4.5. Census report PDAM Jepara

 

8)     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 500 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.

9)     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 PDAMs.

4.      Demonstrated experience with conducting household interviews.

10)  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.  

ACTIVITY	Planned Activity Dates	Estimated Person-days	Personnel Expenses
			Unit Cost	Total
Activities - Total
Other Engagement Expenses	No. of Trips (travel)	No. of Persons (travel)	Unit Cost	Total
Travel
Flights
Train
Auto/Other
Per diem
Communication
Supplies
Taxes	Type of Tax	Tax %
Total – Other Expenses
Grand Total

11)  Submission of Proposals

Proposals should be submitted to dwulandini@water.org and ryuniawati@water.org no later than March 4^th, 2018 with “PDAM MWater survey Services” in the subject line. Proposals submitted after this date will not be considered.