Description
International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a CGIAR Research Center, seeks applications from suitably qualified candidates to undertake a consultancy assignment under CGIAR initiative on “Resilient Cities Through Sustainable Urban and Peri-urban Agrifood Systems”.
Project Background
Sri Lanka currently produces around 8,800 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) every day out of which 58% is produced in Western Province (WP). With varying solid waste collection rates across 49 local authorities in the Western Province, collected waste amounts to about 3,500 tonnes per day. The collected waste is mostly disposed across 21 dumping facilities including the larger landfills such as Kerawalapitiya and Karadiyana while a small amount is composted. Current composting capacity of the plants located in Western Province is about 200 tonnes per day with about 26 compost plants.
Government institutions are offering support to the local authorities to improve waste management in the Western Province including providing technical advisory support. Under the key roles and responsibilities vested upon these institutions, it monitors the waste recycling processes to ensure sustainable waste management in the local authorities. Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tools at the local authority level have been introduced to monitor and rank their performance in terms of waste management and composting. Having identified the need for analyzing centre-specific bottlenecks for the continuous improvement of waste management in WP and the existing M&E system, this Consultancy is intended to strengthen the advisory services for local authorities.
In this context, the planned IWMI-led assessment is designed to support government authorities in improving their current M&E tools related to effective waste management and composting, and to developing guidelines and training to improve resource recovery and overall performance.
To these ends, activities will work on the following objectives:
- To analyze performance challenges and identify bottlenecks for under-performing recycling centers and compost stations in Western Province.
- To identify strategies to improve resource recovery and reuse practices
- Strengthening the coordination, M&E mechanisms, and quality options and standards at different institutional scales
Below key activities are proposed to achieve the aforementioned objectives;
- Understand the current M&E mechanisms, data needs and related reporting in the Western province
- To interview experts and staff at district level to understand their perceptions and insights into bottlenecks undermining KPI performance
- Data collection to verify the reported challenges followed by a comparative analysis.
- To improve the existing compost plants M&E tools and, key performance indicator system and waste disposal index to include additional parameters that help local authorities to address root causes of low performance (waste collection, waste transformation, compost sales).
- Pilot testing of the improved M&E tools with the local authorities to ensure the practicability of the tools and publish the results collaboratively
- Review of existing resource recovery and compost value addition guidelines, standards, and regulations, and adapt these to the context of Sri Lanka
Objective of the Assignment
The consultant will be responsible for delivering substantive input to the activities given above, with close engagement of IWMI and other government institutions engaged and with close collaboration of other local partners identified by the project.
Scope of Work
The consultant will be actively engaged with the data collection from waste recycling centers (composting stations) within the Western Province, identify the bottlenecks of the local authorities in underperforming related to the areas of waste collection, plant management, operations and maintenance and marketing of compost, and support developing the current M&E tools to improve the waste management systems at local level.
In addition, the consultant will support jointly publishing the research findings.
Duration: Six (06) months from mid-May to mid-November 2023
Your application must include:
- a copy of your curriculum vitae;
- a cover letter that addresses IWMI’s requirements stated above;
- a brief proposal including a cost estimate, and
- contact information of three professional referees who may be contacted if you are short-listed for the position.
This is a nationally recruited position and only citizens of Sri Lanka are eligible to apply.
Please note that only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
Requirements
Qualifications, experience, knowledge, skills and abilities required:
- Masters in Environmental Science related to resource recovery, circular economy, solid waste management.
- Prior experience in solid waste management, resource recovery, composting, monitoring and evaluation including at least 5+ years demonstrated experience in project data processing, analysis and management.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
Benefits
IWMI believes that diversity powers our innovation, contributes to our excellence, and is critical for our mission. We offer a multi-cultural, multi-color, multi-generational and multi-disciplinary working environment. We are consciously creating an inclusive organization that reflects our global character and our commitment to gender equity. We, therefore, encourage applicants from all cultures, races, ethnicities, religions, sexes, national or regional origins, ages, disability status, sexual orientations, and gender identities.
