State WASH Consultant – Climate Resilient Water and Sanitation (Narmada and Surat) via DevNetJobsIndia

STATE WASH CONSULTANT – CLIMATE RESILIENT WATER AND SANITATION (NARMADA AND SURAT)

The purpose of this assignment is to engage services of technical consultant to develop guideline, SoPs and capacity building package on climate resilient safely manage water supply for Gujarat State.  The consultant expected to support developing district action plan, technical documents and monitoring of WASH interventions in 2 focused districts- Narmada and Surat

BACKGROUND / RATIONALE

Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India have launched Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G) phase-2 in April 2020 to sustain the gains of ODF movement. Further the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India also developed national rural sanitation strategy (2019-2029) that emphasises achieving environmentally sustainable sanitation through ODF-S and ODF+ activities implementation in all villages. In this context Project Implementation Plans (2020-2025) for SBM-Phase-2 and AIP (2020-21) have been developed for Gujarat and resources have also been mobilized to enable implementation.

UNICEF is partner of choice to Government of Gujarat and supporting government and partners in planning and implementation on key flagship Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin in order to sustain ODF status and expanding to ODF+. During 2021-22 UNICEF extended technical support at state level towards developing SDG Roadmaps, state ODF policy, protocols, ODF verification approaches, SBCC strategies, capacity building on Sujal and Swachh Gaon, rolling out ODF sustainability interventions, monitoring and documentation of case studies and knowledge management.

Government of Gujarat is focusing on ODF sustainability, addressing the gaps to ensure toilet facility to unreached (LOB and NLOB) categories, providing community sanitary complexes (CSC) to reduce the risk of open defecation. As part of the ongoing ODF+ agenda under SBM-G Phase II, UNICEF supported Rural Development Department, Government of Gujarat to develop and demonstrate Environmentally Sustainable Sanitation (ESS) models – one each in each priority district to facilitate stakeholder learning. Comprehensive support was extended to handhold the stakeholders at district, block and GP level to orient, plan, implement and monitor the ESS model project through an implementation support agency.  

UNICEF is committed to extend the required technical support to six priority and aspirational districts as Development Support Partner to facilitate achieving ODF sustainability and ODF+ status through capacity building, coordination and field monitoring and knowledge management. UNICEF supported districts includes Narmada, Sabarkantha, Surat, Kutch, Banaskantha and Dahod.

Government of Gujarat aims to promote ODF+ activities that includes Solid and Liquid Waste Management interventions and expects UNICEF to extend the support technical WASH consultants at state and in the identified priority and aspirational districts for effective coordination among stakeholders and close monitoring of SBM-G programme implementation.

UNICEF in the new country programme 2023-2027 and Multiyear WASH-CCES workplan 2023-24 focuses on the following four outputs:

• Output 501: By 2027, Government and partners have increased capacity to plan, implement and monitor equitable, safely managed sanitation and hygiene services including through participative development and humanitarian approaches
• Output 502: By 2027, Government and partners have increased capacity to ensure access to climate-resilient, gender-responsive and safely managed drinking water services for all
• Output 503: By 2027 Government and partners have increased capacities to plan, implement and monitor equitable, climate resilient and gender-responsive WASH and menstrual hygiene programmes in schools, AWCs and health-care facilities at scale

Support strengthening result-based monitoring of safely managed sanitation and knowledge management and dissemination

Output 504: By 2027, Government and partners have increased capacity to promote social and behaviour change, and communities have increased knowledge on safe, gender-responsive WASH-CCES practices.

The ToR is developed to support UNICEF WASH sector in engaging technical expert consultant for developing guideline, SoPs and capacity building on climate resilient safely manage water. The consultant will also provide technical support in Surat and Narama district in planning climate resilient sanitation, solid and liquid waste management interventions for Rural and Urban areas. This is support is aligned with CPD 2023-27 outcomes and agreed in Multi-Year WASH-CCES workplan 2023-24.

OBJECTIVE/S

To facilitate Rural Development Department in implementation of national flagship programme SBM (G) through:

• Evidence based action plan development integrating climate resilience and environment sustainability for Safely Manage Sanitation
• Capacity building of key stakeholders on climate resilient sanitation approaches, developing ODF+ models, fostering convergence and Water safety and security approaches
• Implementation framework for SBC and SLRM plan with greater community involvement towards developing environmentally sustainable sanitation models  
• Support developing climate resilient WASH (CRW) models in priority districts towards sustainable access and use of WASH services to the marginalized communities

Supervisor: WASH Specialist, Gandhinagar, Gujarat

Start Date: 1^st February 2023

End Date: 31^st December 2023

DELIVERABLES AND DEADLINES

Work Assignments Overview (Include Major Tasks and Activities)            Deliverables/Outputs     Timeline/Date for submission of Deliverable

Deliverables for the year 2023               

Support development of capacity building plan for climate resilient safely manage water supply and implementation of CB plan    Capacity Building plan based on rapid Training needs assessment on Climate Resilient Safely Manage Water supply in Gujarat, Key stakeholder, Training needs/inputs and training resource.            March 31, 2023

Capacity building plan, contexulized package and progress of KRCs/ISAs on sustainability and O&M of Water Supply Schemes       30th June 2023

Support current O&M system of water supply schemes in Rural areas and support development of operational guideline     i) Report with gaps in operations and maintenance of water supply system and improved capacities for decentralized operations and maintenance of water supply system.

ii) Facilitate developing state specific operational guideline on O&M of water supply of schemes          August 31, 2023

Monitoring framework for Safely Management Water Supply – performance Indicators, measurement units, dashboard report and reporting responsibility.           April 30, 2023

Support strengthening of institutions (NABLs labs, village level samiti) for improving water quality monitoring and surveillance        Report on assessment of water quality monitoring and surveillance system and proposal to strengthen water quality monitoring and surveillance in rural areas (Laboratories and Community)      May, 2023

Capacity building report of Water Quality Lab functionaries and ISAs/KRCs on WQMS.     July 30, 2023

Facilitate planning, implementation of

ODF+ components with climate resilience and environmentally

sustainable models

in Narmada and Surat district    District Action plans with CRW and disaster risk informed interventions of 2 districts- Surat and Narmada   March 31, 2023

Report with learnings from the implementation of ODF+ components (Gobardhan, SLWM models)

with climate resilience and environmental sustainability models in Narmada and Surat district November 30, 2023

Support development of CB plan for 2 districts and roll-out CB on CR ODF+         a.            Report on capacity building of key stakeholders for Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2023 focused on improving star rating of GPs, resource mobilization, monitoring system and improved sanitation status in priority districts

b.         Report with learnings from implementation of hand hygiene system in AWC and a WASH monitoring framework     February 28, 2023

Report on learnings from capacity building of key stakeholders at GP level on water conservation, ground water recharge, water budgeting and water security planning            September 30, 2023

Facilitate assessment and demonstration of City-wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) and Faecal waste management system in one of the ULBs in Gujarat            Report on learnings from demonstration of equitable, safe and inclusive sanitation including FSSM and waste management in one of the ULB- Surat/Narmada December 31, 2023

QUALIFICATIONS / SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE / EXPERIENCE/ COMPETENCIES (CORE/TECHNICAL/FUNCTIONAL) / LANGUAGE SKILLS REQUIRED FOR THE ASSIGNMENT (Please use as applicable)

It requires an individual with maturity, good judgment and the ability to work well with teams within the UNICEF Gujarat Field Office, with senior government officials and experts. Key requirements for this position include:

• A professional with master’s degree in Public Health/Urban Planning/Civil Engineering/Environment Engineering/Rural Development/Rural Management/Social Sciences
• At least 5 years of experience in development sector, preferably in Rural and Urban Sanitation, rural water supply, hygiene promotion, community management, participatory approaches in development sector.
• Understanding of English, Hindi is essential and Gujarati language would be an asset. Fluency of speaking and writing in English and Hindi would be essential.
• Good liaising skills to interact with Government counterparts and ability to facilitate training at State, district and block level would be desirable.
• Addition certificate or experience on humanitarian WASH response and climate resilient WASH will added advantage.
• Good computer skills, at least of MS-Office application software (MS Word, Excel, Power Point) knowledge of electronic media will added advantage.

14.       SELECTION PROCESS (tick one and delete what is not applicable):

(A)       X Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS)              

(B)       Technically Qualified Least Cost Selection (LCS)

(A)       QCBS (Technical Evaluation Criteria – with weights for each criteria)

A two-stage procedure will be followed in evaluating proposals, with evaluation of the technical proposal being completed prior to any evaluation of the financial proposal. Evaluators of the technical proposals shall have no access to the financial Proposals until the technical evaluation is completed.

The evaluation criteria will be a split between technical and financial (price proposal) scores (80 / 20).

15.       IDENTIFICATION OF RISKS FOR THE CONSULTANCY/INDIVIDUAL CONTRACT AND PLAN FOR MITIGATION (FOR INTERNAL PURPOSE ONLY)

Transfer of key government official or the change in strategic priority in the Government Departments may lead to change in some of the Consultancy deliverables. UNICEF will jointly discuss a plan of action for the deliverables with key relevant departments and stakeholders to finalize an action plan, additionally timely joint reviews will be conducted to keep progress on track. Joint performance discussion will be undertaken with consultant to guide the progress on key deliverables. Since the Terms of Reference is deliverable based and it is likely that consultant will be able to deliver in timely manner.

16.       PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Payment will be linked to deliverables as outlined in the attached financial template. For contractors, payment will be made against a monthly report.

17.       PERFORMANCE REVIEWS:

The supervisor shall complete interim and annual performance evaluations using the UNICEF evaluation templateOutput Evaluation Form with scores and comments justifying the scores for all the deliverables submitted by the Consultant. An interim appraisal will be done at the mid-term of the assignment against the major tasks captured above. The performance Evaluation form will be used for the final evaluation. 

18.                  CHILD SAFEGUARDING  

Is this project/assignment considered as “Elevated Risk Role” from a child  safeguarding perspective?  

              YES    X  NO       If YES, check all that apply:

           Direct contact role             YES    X  NO      

If yes, please indicate below the number of hours/months of direct interpersonal contact with children, or work in their immediately physical proximity, with limited supervision by a more senior member of personnel: 

            Child data role                      YES   X  NO      

If yes, please indicate below the number of hours/months of manipulating or transmitting personal-identifiable information of children (name, national ID, location data,       photos):

More information is available in the Child Safeguarding SharePoint and Child             Safeguarding FAQs and Updates 

IMPORTANT NOTES (TO BE INCLUDED IN THE FINAL TOR TO BE ADVERTISED):

• Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.
• The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the health insurance (and visa if applicable) required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.
• UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

Application Procedures

(1)        Qualified female/male candidates are requested to please indicate their ability and availability to undertake the terms of reference above.

(2)        We request you to please inform us where you have seen this advertisement.

(3)        Your application should be sent to Gandhinagar.consultants@unicef.org by COB 27^th  January, 2023 1030hrs with subject line State Consultant – CLIMATE RESILIENT WATER AND SANITATION (NARMADA AND SURAT)” in separate files consisting of:

• An application letter with CV
• P11 form (which can be downloaded from our website at http://www.UNICEF.org/india/overview_1440.htm)
• A financial proposal in PDF format indicating deliverable based fee as per template attached. Please mention your name in the file name while saving.

 (4)       The selection will be on the basis of technical evaluation & financial proposal in the ratio of 80:20. 

 (5)       Only short-listed candidates will be called for further discussion/interview (if applicable). 

(6)        The financial proposals of only those candidates, who are found technically responsive, will be opened.

(7)        Any attempt to unduly influence UNICEF’s selection process will lead to automatic disqualification of the applicant.

(8)        Joint applications of two or more individuals are not accepted.

(9)        Please note, UNICEF does not charge any fee during any stage of the process.

For any clarifications, please contact: Gandhinagar.consultants@unicef.org

[1] For this RFP, the Technical Proposal has a total score of 80. Bidders must score the minimum points against cumulative total of 56 points to be considered technically compliant and in order for the Financial Proposals to be opened

[2] For this RFP, the Financial Proposal has a total score of 20.