Expertise: social sciences, sanitation social programs
Expertise Group: Social & Political Science
Consultant Source: International
TOR Keywords:
Objective and Purpose of the Assignment
Background
- Baguio Resilient City Tourism Project. The Government of the Philippines requested support from the
Asian Development Bank for the Baguio Resilient City Tourism Project (BRCTP). The BRCTP will contribute
to the government’s Transforming Communities Towards Resilient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Tourism
(TouRIST) program. One of the project outputs is to improve sanitation infrastructure and services,
thereby improving water quality and reducing adverse impacts on health in Baguio City. The Baguio City
Government (BCG) is the implementing agency for the BRCTP. - Technical Assistance (RETA) – 9897: Accelerating Sanitation for All in Asia and the Pacific. To
complement the BRCTP, the Regional Technical Assistance (RETA) – 9897: Accelerating Sanitation for All
in Asia and the Pacific will finance this assignment to support the implementation of priority
activities under the faecal sludge management (FSM) plan 2021-2050 for the city of Baguio. The RETA
champions the principles of citywide inclusive sanitation (CWIS). CWIS is a public service approach to
planning and implementing urban sanitation systems which demonstrate three core functions: (i) a
responsible authority(ies) is executing a public mandate for inclusive urban service delivery, (ii) the
authority(ies) is accountable for performance against its mandate, and (iii) resource management and
planning reflect authority mandates, priorities, and performance accountability. - The percentage of households below the national poverty line represents around 6.5% of the city
population (The annual per capita poverty threshold was PHP22,747 in 2015. PSA (2015)). This figure is
higher in Ambalanga (9%) and Galiano (8.3%) than in Bued (6.1%) and Balili (5.9%) catchment area. These
households do not have the capacity to afford sanitation services such as building a sanitation facility
as per law and request for desludging service. More information related to household poverty level are
to be found in the FSM Plan (Baguio City Faecal Sludge Management: Situation Assessment, Amédé Ferré, - Unless otherwise stated, data are from this report).
- Safely managed sanitation and hygiene services are an essential part of preserving and protecting
human health, especially during infectious disease outbreaks, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Good management practices serve as barriers to human-to-human transmission. It was reported that the
hardest hit by COVID-19 were the poorest communities with limited access to water and sanitation
services (COVID-19 pandemic and the human rights to water and sanitation. Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). 2020). - In addition to having very limited financial capacities to access basic healthcare services, poor
communities are the most impacted by poor hygiene and sanitation. The poor suffer health consequences
from waterborne diseases and faecal contamination (e.g. diarrhea, cholera, worm infections), and are the
least able to cope with the cost of illness. This consequently affects school attendance, household
incomes, and global productivity. - These statements call for the urgent need to develop pro-poor strategies to promote public health and
reach the last mile of the population who do not have the capacity to afford sanitation services. - Access to drinking water and sanitation service is unequal in Baguio city. According to the household
survey conducted in 2020, two-thirds of the households receive water from the Baguio Water District with
significant disparities between the four catchments. The remaining households receive water from tanker
trucks (17%), protected wells (16%), and unsafe sources (4%). Water consumption is expected to be low
for these households. - Baguio’s sewerage system is composed of a separate sewerage network and covers most of the Balili
River catchment with 10,412 registered sewer connections in 2019 (Source: CEPMO, Baguio City).
Approximately 10% of Baguio population is connected to the city sewer line. The city has one sewage
treatment plant (STP) which was built in 1986 with a design capacity of 8,600 m3 per day. - Onsite sanitation is prevailing and by far the main source of liquid waste generated in the City.
Around 90% of households in Baguio city currently rely on onsite sanitation and related faecal sludge
management services. Despite proposals to increase the sewer network coverage and construct new sewage
treatment plants in the city, this is only likely to be achieved incrementally due to the high cost.
Onsite sanitation and FSM related services will therefore most likely remain the main sanitation
services in the city in the short (2025) and medium terms (2035). - Poor management of both onsite sanitation facilities and communal septic tanks remains the main
challenges. Most of the systems have never been emptied, resulting in an expected heavy organic load of
the effluent; and illegal dumping of 40% of collected faecal sludge from desludging providers has
significantly contributed to the high pathogens’ concentration recorded in Baguio’s rivers. - Access to improved facilities is high with 94% of households having access to a basic sanitation
service, which is an improved facility that is not shared. Households relying on shared facilities
represent 5% of the households, and 1% practice open defecation. Most of the disposal systems are sealed
tanks (76%), i.e., a single sealed tank or septic tank with two or more chambers. Most of the facilities
are pour-flush systems (72%). However, there are 11% of households relying on pour-flush latrines mostly
encountered in Bued and Ambalanga catchments. This system does not comply with the City regulations. - Despite the regulation stating an emptying periodicity no longer than 4 years (Ordinance No. 36,
series of 2020) , the demand for the faecal sludge emptying service remain very low in Baguio. Only 13%
of households already requested the faecal sludge emptying service. Households request the service only
when problems occur with the facility. Enforcement is lacking. - The faecal sludge emptying service is performing well and entirely motorized, but desludging tariff
is expensive, usually ranging from PHP9,000 to PHP15,000 per desludged facility—roughly equivalent to
PHP2,000 to PHP3,000/m3. - Regarding households that never emptied their facility, a significant 10% of households would build
a new facility instead of requesting the desludging service. These households are significantly poorer. - The city has been operating a Septage Treatment Plant (SpTP) since 2019. The Wastewater, Water &
Ambient Air Management Division (WAMD) staff which is responsible of the operation and maintenance of
the plant are doing great effort to record faecal sludge quantity disposed at the plant. With only 11 m3
of faecal sludge per day on average disposed and treated at the SpTP in 2019, the plant operates at 60%
of its capacity which is 20 m3/day. The disposal fee is PHP400/m3 of septage disposed.
Objective and Purpose of the Assignment - With the support of ADB, the Baguio City Faecal Sludge Management Plan 2021-2050 (FSM Plan) was
developed to guide Baguio City’s interventions to deliver faecal sludge management services in an
efficient, equitable, and sustainable way to improve environmental and public health. Two consultants
have been engaged to support the implementation of the FSM plan. The FSM Plan foresees the development
of a sanitation social program to ensure universal access to FSM services, and promote public health and
environmental protection. - This Terms of Reference (TOR) is intended for the engagement of an individual consultant
(Consultant) to develop the sanitation social program.
Duration and Location of the Services - The Consultant will be engaged intermittently over a 6-month period. The Consultant is expected to
start in January 2022. - The assignment shall be in Baguio City, Philippines. The Consultant will hold office at a space
provided by the BCG, subject to travel being allowed by the government.
Scope of Work
- The Consultant is requested to develop a sanitation social program including specific mechanisms
that will allow targeted households to request for support to access improved sanitation services along
the service chain. - The Consultant will undertake a sanitation tariff and finance study. Two other studies will be
conducted under the same Technical Assistance, as follows:
(i) A scheduled desludging feasibility study to increase onsite sanitation desludging periodicity
compliance (by an individual international consultant); and
(ii) A sanitation tariff and finance study (by an individual international consultant). - The international consultants who will prepare the three studies mentioned in para. 21 will work
together as a team, and will be assisted by a coordinator. The coordinator will assist all the
international consultants with, amongst others, data collection, conducting interviews with
stakeholders, data analysis, and providing recommendations. Further, the two consultants to support the
implementation of the FSM Plan mentioned in para. 16 will also collaborate with the Consultant on the
project background, information sharing, and other technical discussions. - The Consultant in charge of the sanitation tariff and finance study will act as the Lead Consultant
to ensure consistency between the studies. S/he will review the consultants’ inputs and will ensure a
high quality and timely submission of deliverables. - For consistency purpose, the program should be developed once preliminary results and conclusions of
the scheduled desludging feasibility study and tariff study are available (These two studies are
expected to start approximately 2 months before the sanitation social program commences). - The program should be designed carefully, taking into account national and international
experiences. For instance, experimentation in the sub-region has shown in some cases that subsidies have
also delayed progress and created dependency (G. Halcrow, P. Rautavuoma, T. Choden, 2014. Tailoring pro-
poor support strategies with local governments to improve sanitation services. SNV Netherlands
Development Organisation. Reference should also be made to, among others, World Bank 2020, Connecting
the Unconnected, Approaches for Getting Households to Connect to Sewerage Networks; World Bank Group
2015, Improving On-site Sanitation and Connections to Sewers in Southeast Asia – Insights from Indonesia
and Vietnam; and World Bank Group, 2019. Doing More with Less). - The program must last at least until 2035 with regular evaluation and readjustments, and be
accompanied by well-designed information and communication campaigns to raise awareness among potential
beneficiaries of the support opportunity. The communication campaigns will be integrated into the Baguio
City Sanitation and Hygiene Behavior Change Communication Strategy and Action Plan.
Detailed Tasks and/or Expected Output
The consultant shall develop the sanitation social program which should include:
a. Clarification of roles and responsibilities between public institutions in the implementation of the
program;
b. Identification of financing source and budget required;
c. A well-defined objective, key messages and communication channels to specifically target the poorest
households. This will be developed in cooperation with the consultant team engaged to develop the Baguio
City Sanitation and Hygiene Behavior Change Communication Strategy and Action Plan, develop the
communication objective, key messages and select the communication channels to specifically target the
poorest households;
d. Criteria for selection of household beneficiaries. Targeting the poorest households is a very complex
task in many projects, specifically when there is no national indicators, criteria, or existing social
programs, and significant informal incomes. The Consultant will:
- Develop a pragmatic approach for an efficient and impactful program
- Identify objectives and corresponding indicators in full consideration of Baguio’s context and
capacity while bearing in mind the ultimate goal of achieving universal access at long term. - Provide a suitable method for targeting the poor, and recommendations to adjust differences and reduce
inequalities (in collaboration with the consultant in charge of the sanitation tariff and finance study)
with a few to sustainability at long term. It is recommended to combine usual indicators and innovative
sustainability indicators in order to promote adoption of good practices and maintain the improved
sanitation system functioning over time.
e. Develop the beneficiary application form. This process should be as easy and as paperless as possible.
f. Develop the support mechanism to implement the program: - Identify and develop support mechanisms for selected beneficiaries to access sanitation services.
These can come in different forms such as supporting the construction/upgrade of improved and compliant
facilities, alternatively for the connection to the sewerage system through cash money (direct subsidy)
or the provision of construction material (indirect subsidy) or provision of skilled workers/staff,
whichever is appropriate - Determine specific criteria and procedures and be comprehensive and accessible to ensure support to
beneficiaries in an effective way. - Provide technical support to upgrade/build beneficiaries’ facility;
g. Provide the procedure for control and supervision to ensure subsidies are effectively used as planned;
h. Develop a monitoring system to record actual progress vs identified targets and beneficiaries and a
feedback mechanism to allow for recalibration of targets in order to optimize the program;
i. Assess feasibility to implement tariff equalization; and
j. Provide the payment procedure (and contribution of households if any)
- The Consultant will prepare a ppt presentation for each report; and organize consultations,
meetings, and workshops as necessary to collect feedback and comments to the study; He/she will assist
ADB and BCG with other tasks related to the sanitation social program as reasonably requested by ADB and
BCG. - In accordance with the conclusions of the scheduled desludging feasibility study and tariff study,
the Consultant will assess the relevancy of including support for requesting desludging service, such as
free desludging campaigns. In such a case, the program will have to define beneficiary application form,
selection of household beneficiary’s procedure, financing source and budget, desludging capacity
required, desludging planning, and the sharing of roles and responsibilities. - The program will have to be realistic, and support for implementation is expected from the
Consultant. Extensive discussions with local institutions are expected including the organization of
workshops (alternatively virtual workshops if travels are restricted).
Reporting Requirements and Time Schedule for Deliverables - The Consultant will report to Thuy Trang Dang, Senior Urban Development Specialist, Asian
Development Bank; Mr. Rhenan Diwas, Head of City Environment and Parks Management Office, BCG, and Ms
Antonette Anaban, Assistant City Planning and Development Coordinator and OIC Head of the City Disaster
Risk Reduction and Management Office during the term of his/her assignment. - If travels are allowed, the Consultant will be required to travel to the Philippines. Dates in the
schedule and places of assignment section are indicative and will be agreed with ADB prior to travel.
Client’s Counterpart Support - The Consultant will work closely with the CEPMO/WAMD, CBAO, and Baguio City Local Government Unit
(LGU). - The Consultant will have to consult at least the following key documents which will be provided by
the Client:
• Baguio City Faecal Sludge Management: Situation Assessment, Amédé Ferré, Dec. 2020
• Baguio City Faecal Sludge Management Plan 2021-2050, Amédé Ferré, Feb. 2021
• Baguio Situation Assessment, Baguio Sanitation Improvement Project, Egis, July 2020
• Baguio Feasibility Study, Baguio Sanitation Improvement Project, Egis, Feb. 2021
Minimum Qualification Requirements
The following are the minimum qualification requirements for the Consultant:
•Master’s degree in social sciences, management, public health, environmental engineering, sanitation,
or a related field, or a combination of a first degree, and postgraduate/professional training.
•At least 10 years of general experience;
•At least 7 years of experience in public institutions and designing and implementing similar sanitation
social programs. Experience and knowledge in Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) principles and
projects is an advantage;
•Demonstrated experience in developing subsidy mechanisms and support
•Regional or country experience is required; and
•Excellent written and spoken English with excellent technical report writing skills.
Minimum General Experience: 10 Years
Minimum Specific Experience (relevant to assignment): 7 Years
