Published on: 14/01/2022
Terms of Reference for a rapid national water, sanitation and hygiene services finance study across IRC and WFP focus countries.
In our new joint strategy IRC and WFP have identified strengthening national water, sanitation and hygiene systems as a key priority for extended programming. Financing is highlighted as a specific priority and is one of the most critical building blocks to achievement of SDG6. Countries differ in the extent to which finance issues are being addressed by the water, sanitation and hygiene sub-sector. Some have elaborate financial frameworks and many initiatives underway. Others are at much earlier stages.
Against this background, WFP and IRC country programmes are also at different levels: some country teams have extensive experience and ongoing programming on national financing, others less. Some programming is more focused on specific sub-sectors than others (water, sanitation, urban, rural). Some have experience in specific aspects of finance (e.g. micro-finance) but have gaps in other areas (e.g. utility financing).
IRC with Water For People seeks a junior consultant for a rapid national water, sanitation and hygiene finance study.
Deadline for submission: 15 February 2022.
Assignment
IRC and WFP seek a consultant with expertise in water, sanitation and hygiene financing to develop an overview of the current status of financing across IRC and WFP focus countries, with a view to providing a basis for strategy development and prioritizing country and global level activities.
The assessment is expected to start on our around 15th March 2022 and be completed by the end of June 2022. The estimated level of input by the consultant is around 50-60 days.
- Using a simple framework provided by the consultant, point of contacts in each focus country will gather and provide data for the rapid assessment. This is expected to rely on existing studies and secondary data and not involve any new data collection (a small number of interviews may be considered only if studies are not available). The focus is the state of national financing and scope is: water, sanitation, and hygiene; urban and rural; all service delivery models; excluding water resources management but including current understanding and access to climate financing of water, sanitation and hygiene activities.
- Consultant to undertake initial review and analysis focusing on key gaps in national WASH financing providing the basis for an internal workshop involving countries.
- Consultant to design and facilitate an internal workshop(s) with countries to discuss initial findings. Workshops might be regional or in different languages or with appropriate translation (English, Spanish, French).
- Countries to identify opportunities related to strengthening national financing for IRC and WFP using a common framework developed by consultant.
- Consultant to consolidate opportunities, identifying major emerging themes and areas for activity, providing the basis for a second internal workshop.
- Consultant to design and facilitate a second workshop with countries to discuss opportunities identified and discuss related issues.
- Finalisation of shared global (WFP/IRC) strategy guidance in strengthening national water, sanitation and hygiene financing. Consultant to prepare short document incorporating feedback on draft from country and global staff.
- Third internal workshop to share and discuss final guidance and results.
Notes
- Country directors will provide the consultant with access to relevant team members and support in collating documentation. Each team will nominate a person (leading or engaged in finance work) to coordinate with the consultant.
- After the assignment, country teams to incorporate country specific activities and actions into strategic/annual plans (FY2023 and beyond).
- The emphasis is on consolidating what we know across all countries. We are not expecting any new primary data collection but rather summary of what is in existing sector documents (TrackFin studies, sector assessments, joint sector reviews, national development plans, etc.), and identification of strategic gaps and opportunities. The study will support IRC and WFP to learn about each others’ countries and the finance context in which they are working.
- Across all 15 IRC and WFP focus countries (IRC focus countries: Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia; Ghana, Niger, Mali; joint IRC and WFP focus countries: Honduras, India, Uganda; WFP focus countries: Guatemala, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Peru, Malawi, Rwanda).
Outputs
The consultant will prepare:
- A short inception report (after 2 weeks) with workplan and proposed framework for the assessment (developed with inputs from IRC and WFP staff).
- A database of sources, and archived files, with collated information from all IRC and WFP focus countries.
- An analysis of gaps in national water, sanitation and hygiene sector financing.
- Short reports of three internal workshops.
- A short strategy document with synthesis of findings and recommendations across all IRC and WFP focus countries (about 8-12 pages).
Skills
The consultant will have:
- Good communication skills and ability to work (virtually) with country teams.
- Good knowledge of national water, sanitation and hygiene financing systems and LMIC contexts.
- Previous consulting experience related to the financing of public services and similar sectors.
- Interest in national policy development in WASH.
- Fluency in English, and Spanish, and French an advantage. We would be willing to split the assignment if required to facilitate work across countries working in different languages.
- The junior consultant, will be supported by IRC and WFP teams. We welcome applications from consultants based anywhere, and specifically encourage consultants from the regions where WFP and IRC focus countries are located to apply.
Candidates
Candidates interested in this vacancy can submit their application (consisting of a CV and a letter of motivation) to the email address: butterworth@ircwash.org with the subject line "Application (Junior) Consultant for a rapid national WASH finance study" by 15 February 2022 at the latest.
Only those candidates shortlisted for further consideration will be contacted.
