Consultancy for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Review

Terms of Reference for UNICEF KCO WASH Review

Position Title: Consultancy for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Review

Level:

Fee: (Fee MUST be determined by HR not by concerned section) Planned Budget.

Location: Nairobi, with up to 20% of time off-site

Duration: 50 days –

Start Date: 13 January 2013

Reporting to: Deputy Representative

Budget Code/

Justification

A WASH review is being undertaken as part of the Kenya end of Country Programme (CP) review which is a key milestone in UNICEF’s country programming process; and provides an opportunity to undertake a comprehensive review of the progress towards achievement of the results outlined in the current CP. The review is also the basis for making the strategic choices that the country office needs to make for the next Country Programme (CP)

The Kenya water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector has been undergoing significant reform since 2002, which was accelerated further with the promulgation of the new constitution. Strong support from development partners (including UNICEF) is required to facilitate effective change. There is a critical need to align the sector with the new constitution, with particular reference to access to water and sanitation as a human right and water as an economic good and to support the achievement of MDG goal for water and sanitation and the Vision 2030 targets through devolved governments.

The Horn of Africa (HoA) crisis, which hit the region in 2011, created significant pressure on the UNICEF Kenya WASH programme but also provided opportunities to improve preparedness, co-ordination and service delivery and address underlying factors through better focus on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and resilience building. There are important lessons to be learnt from this experience, which provides an opportunity to explore the complementary and contrasting aspects of emergency and development programming and to shape the future programme for greater coherence and complementarity to achieve optimal results.

There is raised awareness among stakeholders in Kenya of the importance of DRR and the need for increased resilience. These issues have particular relevance to the WASH sector in the context of climate change and sustainable development, as well as devolution and decentralization.

The Government of the Netherlands currently has an agreement with UNICEF Kenya to provide $41 million for the WASH programme. These funds are to provide safe water and sanitation to 1.6 million people and to provide WASH facilities in almost 800 primary schools. The current agreement will expire in 2014 and there is interest from the Netherlands Government to extend co-operation into a second phase of the programme. As Kenya gradually transitions towards middle-income country (MIC) status there are two important imperatives. Firstly, UNICEF Kenya will generally move towards providing more upstream support to government and focus more on institutional capacity strengthening. Secondly, there is a set of unfinished agenda (particularly children's agenda) together with newly emerging issues that must be taken into consideration in the review.

It is anticipated that UNICEF will continue to receive donor funds and be called upon to influence the strategic direction of national WASH development and demonstrate a clear comparative advantage in ensuring accountability, strengthening sector governance, innovation and ‘value for money’. Given these external drivers of change, the review will enable UNICEF KCO to reflect on recent experience and review the current status of the WASH programme, in order to identify the risks and opportunities for future programming, and ensure that the next CP positions UNICEF for more strategic upstream engagement in the national WASH sector and geared to more effective risk management.

The review will involve consultation with a broad range of WASH sector partners and situate UNICEF’s work within the wider national WASH sector; reviewing national strategies and progress towards national targets, governance and financing mechanisms, key sector partnerships and implications of devolution. This will inform the strategic choices for the next country programme so as to position UNICEF to more effectively support and influence the directions of national WASH sector development.

Purpose

The overall purpose of the WASH programme review is to inform UNICEF’s future programming in WASH and contribute more effectively to the ongoing WASH sector reform and development.

Specifically, the review will; 1. cover relevance, appropriateness/comparative advantages of UNICEF’s interventions in the WASH sector and the extent to which it focuses on the deprived and vulnerable; systems and capacity development including financing in the sector and how sustainable they have been; 2. analyse internal UNICEF capacity and gaps in capacity, especially in relation to risk management and working more upstream. 3. undertake a preliminary analysis of the national WASH systems and institutions as well as the key bottlenecks to identify strategic areas for UNICEF’s engagement and further analysis.
4. come up with a set of recommendations to inform the country programme document (CPD) process for the new country programme (which will commence in mid-2014), specifically on the strategic direction, organizational framework and programmatic thrusts of the WASH component.

Scope of Work

The scope of the review will primarily be on the UNICEF Kenya Country Office (KCO) WASH programme. However, it will also cover the broader WASH sector in Kenya and inter-related policy, institutional and legal frameworks and systems as they are related to the programme.

Specifically, the review will determine:

Relevance to national WASH development • how effectively the programme has influenced policy formulation, strategic choices and achievement of national WASH sector targets (applying evidence generated in the field, modeling and roll out); • the degree of influence on national level commitment to resource allocations and leveraging; • internal, vertical and horizontal consistencies between sector policy/strategy and the UNICEF WASH programme; • the effectiveness and efficiency of capacity development and service delivery interventions.

Equity focus: • how well the programme has identified the needs of the most deprived populations and how these have been built into programme results and monitoring; • how well the programme has identified and addressed the challenges of balancing between equity and efficiency dilemma for optimal results

Risk management: • to what extent the WASH programme has identified and managed risks; • what were the challenges of the SWAp arrangement/Water Sector Trust Fund and what opportunities do they offer for improved accountability and efficiency including influencing sector governance

Capacity and Sustainability: • what strategies for sustainability have been adopted and how effective these have been; • what capacities were developed in the sector as a result of the WASH programme and how did these contribute to the achievement of results • what community capacities and competencies were developed and how did these contribute to sustainability and resilience • what advocacy was carried out and how effective these have been; • what competencies within the WASH section have been useful and what are the key human resource and skills gaps;

Partnerships and collaboration • How effective were the partnerships developed i) in strategically driving the national WASH agenda; and ii) in supporting scaled up implementation • Was the potential role of the private sector effectively exploited in the programme? How can it be improved

Programme Management and Implementation: • what actual results were achieved against planned results as outlined in the results matrix and against key performance indicators. • To what extent results achieved are sustainable at their respective levels (National, sub-national, communities) and if they can be replicated or integrated into policies, strategies and programmes • To what extent did programme implementation strategies contribute to national results • what are the factors affecting the pace and quality of implementation and how can these be mitigated • how efficient were the procedures and approaches adopted for infrastructural works and were they in conformity with UNICEF’s regulations

Analysis of current context and way forward:

• What are the main policy, legal and institutional changes/developments that will have significant bearings and implications on UNICEF programming? What are the key parameters for guiding UNICEF’s policy position in WASH (in this evolving context)? • What are the potential risks and opportunities for UNICEF WASH programming in the context of the new constitution and devolution? • How will the programme better incorporate the climate change and DRR agenda within UNICEF’s WASH programme? • What are the key recommendations to strengthen risk management in programme delivery?

It is expected that the review will result in a set/series of broad recommendations for the WASH component of the next country programme.

Methodology

The review will primarily be based on the review of existing literature/information and a series of meetings with key stakeholders at national and sub-national levels. In addition, there will be limited field survey amongst users including children and women in poor rural communities and informal urban settlements.

It is proposed that the consultant(s) develop(s) a detailed methodology and assessment tools for the following activities: • Introductory meeting with UNICEF staff; • Review of relevant documentation, including country programme documents and sector policies and strategies; • Individual meetings with WASH section staff; • Meetings with key sector stakeholders at national level; • Meetings with key stakeholders at sub-national level; • Inspection of financial records, funding modalities and accountabilities; • Community consultations to investigate user satisfaction and behavior change in programme implementation areas; • Inspection of constructed infrastructure and observation of hygiene behavior in schools and households; • Risk assessment of programme with respect to efficiency, effectiveness and organizational reputation.

Reporting to the Deputy Representative, the consultants will work closely with Government, UN organizations (UNICEF, WHO, WFP, UNEP, WSP/World Bank) as well as other development agencies and International NGOs. Key informant interviews will be held with officials and experts in some of those agencies at the national level, as well as in some counties. Findings of the review should be validated by local stakeholders involved through either comments on the report drafts or consultations meeting. The Deputy Representative will lead a steering committee of KCO and ESARO to brief the consultants, provide inputs to draft submissions, and to review and accept the final report of the consultants.

RWPPCR/IRs areas covered

All four WASH Intermediate Results (IRs) will be reviewed:

IR 1: 10 % of people, 50% of health facilities in 20 districts (flood prone, arid and semi-arid) including peri-urban areas consistently use improved water with adequate capacity to manage and sustain services by 2013, within an enabling policy environment/systems.

IR2: 10 % of people, 50% of health facilities in 20 districts (flood prone, arid and semi-arid) use improved sanitation and care practices including hand washing with soap with adequate capacity for sustained behavior adoption by 2013, within enabling policy environment/systems.

IR3: 6 % of school children in 20 arid, semi-arid and flood prone districts consistently use improved WASH facilities, with adequate capacity for sustained services by 2013, within an enabling policy environment/systems.

IR4: 1,000,000 vulnerable people in emergency affected areas are provided with access to improved water, sanitation and hygiene services with increased focus on DRR for enhancing community's resilience and coping strategy.

Timeline and Expected Deliverables

It is proposed that KCO engages two individual consultants for 50 working days between 1 December 2012 and 29 February 2013. It is anticipated that at least 40 of those days should be spent in Kenya, while an additional 10 days may be spent at an alternative location (for documentation review and writing up) if this is more convenient for the consultant.

• Key Deliverables

Timeline Deliverable By Day 8 Detailed workplan for assignment, revising this table. Inception report with detailed methodology, sampling design, data management , quality assurance, etc.
By Day 14 Development of a detailed outlines of the (WASH review) report By Day 26 First draft report By Day 27 Internal briefing – KCO and ESARO By Day 33 Comments provided by KCO/Steering committee Between Day 34 - 37– Stakeholder workshops (in selected groups) By Day 42 Internal debriefing – KCO and ESARO Negotiable to complete off site Final report

Desired background and experience

Key skills, technical background and experience required of a team of consultants consisting of 1 WASH sector professional (team leader) and 1 Institutional/System analyst. The required expertise could be provided by an institutional contract or by hiring 2 consultants to work as a team. The WASH expert will be the Team Leader and the System analyst will be expected to have significant knowledge and experience of the relevant organisational systems and institutions in Kenya and the Kenyan WASH sector.

WASH Sector Expert (Team leader)

• Advanced degree in water and sanitation related area preferable; • At least 10 years’ work experience in water and sanitation at national and sub-national levels; • Experience of sector policy advocacy, strategy development and funding arrangements; • Experience of WASH sector reviews and evaluations of WASH programmes; • Experience of risk assessment methodologies; • Knowledge of the Kenyan water and sanitation sector desirable; • Knowledge of UNICEF internal procedures and programming an asset; • Excellent communication, analytical and writing skills, including writing reports, strategies and proposals in English; • Ability and flexibility to work to short deadlines and prioritise work, with minimal supervision; • Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationship both within and outside the organisation; • Working knowledge of Kiswahili an advantage.

How to apply:

Interested and suitable candidates should forward their applications to:

The Human Resources Manager UNICEF Kenya Country Office

Email address: kenyahrvacancies@unicef.org