Request for Proposals: Western Kenya Sanitation Project

Deadline: 16-Aug-23

To support county governments in improving their sanitation and menstrual hygiene management in alignment with the established GOK frameworks, the United States Agency for International Development Kenya and East Africa (USAID/KEA) has launched the Western Kenya Sanitation Project (WKSP).

USAID WKSP aims to lay the groundwork for a financially sustainable and locally owned sanitation marketplace where customers can easily find and procure the products and services that they need and where enterprises are motivated to improve products and services and invest in marketing and sales. To advance this agenda, USAID WKSP is collaborating with county governments to advocate for and ensure a dedicated sanitation and MHM-related budget lines in their annual development plans that aligns with their CIDPs. USAID WKSP is also supporting the counties to develop long term strategic plans to provide the vision and strategies for institutionalizing MBS, MH and private sector engagement and financing models through a Countywide Inclusive Sanitation (COWIS) Strategic and Investment Planning methodology.

USAID WKSP seeks the services of a consultant to provide technical assistance (TA) in the areas of Governance, Operations and Maintenance of the county government owned WSSPs including but not limited to conducting comprehensive Capacity Assessments in the areas of Governance, Administration and Human resources, Financial Management, Management and Procurement, Information Technology, Program Management and development among others. The assessment will factor in some of the areas already suggested to WKSP by the various WSSPs including but not limited to strategic plans reviews and development, Policy reviews and development, designing of strategies on demand creation for sewer connectivity, Monitoring Evaluation and reporting systems, Technological advancement and innovations, Marketing and customer satisfaction processes among others. The activity is aimed at improving functionality and sustainability of the WSSPs.

Objectives

• The objective of this assignment is to develop a comprehensive Countywide Strategic Sanitation Investment Plan for each of the eight (8) USAID WKSP Counties of implementation. The scope of work involves the following:
  • Preparation of a Sanitation and MH Strategy with a vision, guiding principles and a roadmap for the realization of the strategic investment plan;
  • Comprehensive review and assessment of the existing situation and plans with respect to sanitation, MH, drainage, and solid waste management in the county- considering the formative assessments undertaken by the project and other existing literatures;
  • Assessment of strategic options for improving waterborne and no-waterborne sanitation systems based on specific user needs and local geographic contexts in rural and urban areas, and drainage and solid waste services in the urban areas;
  • Preparation of investment plans for the prioritized policy and physical interventions;
  • Develop a communication and stakeholder engagement plan for implementation of the SIPs;
  • Providing support for consensus building around the strategic sanitation investment plan.

Scope

• Task 1: Preparation of a Sanitation Strategy
  • The first step in the development of the Countywide Strategic Sanitation Investment Plan is the development of the Sanitation Strategy.
  • A strategy is a solution to move from the current situation to where the county wants to be (County Vision 2030). It provides guidance on how to achieve an end.
  • The strategy will help the county to deal with uncertainty and changing conditions and provides a sound framework for the development of the strategic investment plan, sanitation masterplans and any future sanitation projects.
• Task 2: Detailed Assessment of Existing Sanitation and MH
  • The consultant will be required to undertake a situational assessment and prepare a report on the same.
  • The first step will be to review this situation assessment report and assess its adequacy in covering the aspects highlighted.
  • The aim is to develop an overall understanding of existing sanitation conditions and the factors that influence them.
  • The activities shall include, but not necessarily limited to the following:
    • This will involve a review of:
      • Roles and responsibilities for provision of sanitation services (sewerage and on-site sanitation) and other related services including Menstrual Health and Hygiene (MHH). This should not be limited to formal institutions but should also explore the role played by households, community organizations and informal service providers. The identification of responsibilities should be related to the links in the service chains appropriate to each type of service. For example, which agency is responsible for collection and conveyance of fecal sludge, which agency is responsible for treatment?
      • Capacities, activities of organizations and their responsibilities as related to the various links in the service chain for each type of service.
      • The engagement of these and other stakeholders in sanitation, drainage and solid waste service provision. This should include coverage of the roles of households, elected representatives, and the formal and informal private sector.
      • Any gaps and overlaps in responsibilities.
      • Institutional arrangements for coordination between different stakeholders; and processes to ensure that plans are produced, implemented, approved, adjusted as necessary to reflect changing ground realities, and periodically reviewed and comprehensively updated.
• Task 3: Stakeholder Consultations and Consensus Building
  • This task will involve the development of a stakeholder engagement and communication strategy, which will be used to engage and consult different categories of stakeholders.
  • The aim is to get consensus by various stakeholders at different stages of preparation of the strategic plan. Key stakeholders have been identified in the Sanitation Strategy and categorized based on required level of engagement. The list of stakeholders can be updated as appropriate.
  • Consensus building efforts will involve preparing short briefing reports and presentations; making presentations and facilitating a series of workshops with different stakeholders and representatives with an interest in sanitation and related services, and as identified in the Sanitation Strategy. Critical stages to conduct consensus building forums (workshops) include:
    • Launch of the strategic planning exercise.
    • Presentation of the draft Sanitation Strategy, before its formal adoption.
    • Presentation of draft report on “assessment of existing sanitation situation”.
    • Presentation of final report on “assessment of existing sanitation situation”.
• Task 4: Preparation of a Strategic Sanitation and MH Investment Plan
  • Based on the Countywide Sanitation Strategy and bearing in mind issues identified under Task 2, this task will involve assessing options and preparing a strategic plan identifying the broad approach to be taken to improve sanitation and related services, and to prepare an investment plan for the proposed interventions. This should set out the objectives and a series of steps and actions to be taken to overcome constraints and move towards desired objectives.
  • The aim of this plan is not a long list of actions needed in the future but rather to identify broad direction and key interventions to address specific objectives.

Eligibility Criteria

• Proposals are invited from seasoned consultancy firms /organizations with track record in public health research, strategic planning and development.
• The successful consultant should be a consultancy firm / organization that has a track record of at least 10 years in WASH strategic planning processes at local government level.
• Experience with COWIS methodology and working with County Governments on similar assignments is a mandatory requirement for this assignment.
• The Successful consultancy firm will be expected to present a profile of 4 consultants who will be responsible for delivering the assignment as per qualifications.

For more information, visit Research Triangle Institute(RTI).