Regional recruitment: Regional Coordinator, Strengthening Capital Maintenance Practices and Capabilities in the Pacific Water Sector

Asian Development Bank (ADB)

Samoa 🇼🇸

Expertise: Regional Coordinator, Water Asset Management
Expertise Group: General Operations

Consultant Source: National
TOR Keywords: Water Asset Management Regional Coordination

Objective and Purpose of the Assignment

The proposed technical assistance will support the implementation of the Pacific Region Infrastructure
Facility (PRIF) through input to the work of the PRIF Coordination Office (PCO). PRIF is a multi-partner
coordination mechanism and technical assistance facility which supports infrastructure development in
the Pacific. PRIF partners are the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Australian Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union (EU), the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (NZMFAT),
and the World Bank Group (including the International Finance Corporation).

PRIF supports infrastructure development and maintenance in Pacific Island Countries (PICs) through
investment coordination, research and technical assistance.
The PRIF Coordination Office (PCO) is hosted by the ADB Pacific Liaison Coordination Office (PLCO) in
Sydney, Australia. It follows procurement procedures and financial management in accordance with ADB
practices.

The objective of this TA is to strengthen overall Institutional capacity asset maintenance management,
planning and execution in the water sector.
The TA will work with the Pacific Water and Wastes association (PWWA). The TA scope is to:
• Support improvement plans to enhance the overall asset management performance.
• Support strengthening workforce capabilities.
• Facilitate a platform for sharing information and knowledge.

Scope of Work

PRIF will hire a team consisting of:
• Team Leader – Asset Management Specialist: responsible for overseeing the timely implementation of the
TA, ensuring quality of the training modules, managing the regional coordinator and the training
institute (contractor), engaging with PWWA and the South Pacific Engineering Association (SPEA) to
ensure replicability and institutionalization of the training sessions, preparing the roadmap and the
lessons learned report with the support of the regional coordinator and the contractor, review the
“manual to develop improvement plans”, and organizing and delivering meetings and workshops.
• Regional coordinator: working with PWWA and its members, facilitating meetings and workshops, engaging
stakeholders regionally and nationally, Facilitating communications and engagement across stakeholders.
• Training institute: Provide mentoring and training following the IIMM methodology.

The team will provide training in asset management and whole-of-life capital maintenance by providing
mentoring services to three water utilities to:

  1. Assess their current asset management maturity levels, the tools currently being utilized, the
    effectiveness of their asset management processes and systems, their asset lifecycle cost management
    processes and systems.
  2. Identify and develop their costed improvement plans including government/strategy levels down to
    operational policies, processes and methodologies to improve the whole-of-life manage of their assets
    and improve decisions about asset planning, repairs, capital maintenance and rehabilitation (and
    extending into replacement and disposal if applicable).

The three water utilities to be selected by PRIF and PWWA will range from small, medium and big entities
to ensure processes and learnings are transferable to other entities with similar requirements in the
water sector. The Regional training sessions will be provided in collaboration with PWWA on asset
management modules where the three pilot entities will progressively present their results and share
their learnings with the participants, with the support of the contractor. The training sessions will be
scheduled at key stages in the process to provide other entities with an opportunity to ask questions,
learn from the application of the modules, and collaborate with colleagues. In all training sessions,
the team will seek to achieve gender balanced participation. The asset management training modules will
be recorded and published online. The contractor will work closely with PWWA to integrate and
institutionalize the training modules and support replicability.

Detailed Tasks and/or Expected Output

The detailed tasks include:

  1. Assist in collecting background documentation such as the PRIF water utilities training needs
    assessment, PRIF maintenance benchmarking report, PRIF asset condition assessment report; and previous
    TAs that supported asset management capabilities in the Pacific such as the NZMFAT Cook Islands Asset
    Management Framework, SPC PCRAFI, among others.
  2. Assist in engaging key stakeholders. Set up and arrange meetings in collaboration with PWWA for the
    Team to brief CEO’s of Pacific Water utilities on the TA activities and objectives. In the meeting, the
    Team will discuss the level of commitment, length and dedication required for staff of pilot entities.
  3. Assist in the review the mentoring program and approach to developing the improvement plans. Review
    the mentoring program that can be tailored to the requirements of each pilot entity, including mentoring
    program’s outputs and outcomes, staged technical progress and modules, key milestones, responsibility
    matrix, indicative schedule. The mentoring program will include the maturity assessment, the
    identification and development of improvement initiatives (task 4 below).
  4. Assist in the development three asset management improvement plans and coordinate the mentoring
    services to complete an asset management maturity assessment to assess the current and desired state (3-
    year projected) of maturity. Identify targeted improvement actions/initiatives to close the gap between
    the current and desired state of maturity.
  5. Support the development of tactical (task) level improvement initiatives that are resource
    loaded, included government, local and international support, and costed for at least three entities,
    one small, one medium and one big. The initiatives are to be compiled in three AM Improvement Plans.
  6. Assist in strengthening asset registers and data management, especially:
    a. Classify assets (type of service, criticality, spatial connectivity, etc.)
    b. Populating asset attributes (e.g. age, diameter, condition, costs, etc.)
    c. Identify failure modes and susceptibility to failure, including non-revenue water.
    d. Assess the performance and track record of the biological safety of drinking water reticulation
    systems, and provide recommendations for improvement.
    e. Assess risks of natural disasters to infrastructure
    The maturity assessment and subsequent identification of improvement initiatives will need to include
    the strengthening of asset registers where appropriate.
  7. Oversee the development of training materials and conduct a regional online training program in
    collaboration with PWWA, encompassing a series of training modules that follow the stages of the
    mentoring program and scheduled at key stages in the development of an asset management improvement
    plan. The training modules will be compiled in a “Manual for preparing tactical improvement plans for
    Pacific water utilities”. The three pilot entities will progressively present their results and share
    their learnings with the audience. Consider the establishment of a dedicated Facebook page, hosted by
    PWWA to share comments and experiences amongst all participants.
  8. Contribute to the lessons learned report incorporating feedback and suggestions from the
    participating utilities and regional bodies that will help improve the delivery and impact of future
    training sessions.
  9. Contribute to a roadmap for further support required to institutionalize the training into PWWA
    and/or SPEA services and replicate the training session to expand the impact.
  10. Participate in presenting the lessons learned and the roadmap report in a PRIF sector working group’s
    combined meeting.

The TA will issue a certification to the pilot entities and their staff that successfully completed the
training. In all training sessions, the team will seek to achieve a gender balanced participation.

The Regional Coordinator will perform the tasks above and in particular, review the Asset Management
Manual for Pacific Water Utilities report, a joint publication with PWWA. The Manual will include
detailed case studies of the pilot entities’ experience implementing their improvement plans.

Minimum Qualification Requirements

The Regional Coordinator will have a minimum of 5 years of experience working in the infrastructure
and/or training sector. Its preferable he has experience in working with regional organizations and
knowledge of the water sector.

Minimum General Experience: 5 Years
Minimum Specific Experience (relevant to assignment): 5 Years


POSITION TYPE

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EXPERIENCE-LEVEL

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