1. Background
The African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) has receipt has funding from ADB/ AWF, to assist in financing the Support for the Establishment of a Monitoring and Reporting System for the Water Sector in Africa Project – Phase II: Strengthening Capacity Building and Learning; African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) is a Pan-African Intergovernmental Organization established in 2002 in Abuja Nigeria with the primary aim of promoting cooperation, security, socio-economic development and poverty eradication among member states through the effective use and sustainable management of the continent’s water resources, and provision of water supply and sanitation services.
At the African Union Heads of State and Government Summit of July 2008, the African Minister’s Council on Water (AMCOW) was mandated to report annually on progress achieved in implementing the African Union (AU) commitments made in the 2008 Sharm El-Sheikh Commitments on water and sanitation, taking into account several international agreements including the Africa Water Vision 2025, the Africa Agenda 2063, as well as the global Sustainable Development Goals 6 (SDG-6) targets on clean water and sanitation.
In response to this directive, AMCOW in collaboration with the African Union Commission, and with financial support from Africa Water Facility (AWF) through the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), developed a web-based reporting system, the Pan-African Water and Sanitation Sector Monitoring and Reporting System (WASSMO) in October 2015: http://www.africawat-sanreports.org/IndicatorReporting/home/. The platform provides for reporting on water and sanitation sector indicators under seven themes: water infrastructure for growth; managing and protecting water resources; water supply, sanitation, hygiene and wastewater; climate change and disaster risk reduction (DRR); governance and institutions; and financing.
Since the development of the WASSMO IT system, AMCOW has produced two water and sanitation sector reports with the first in 2016 and the second in 2018. However, following a critical review of the 2018 WASSMO report, it was discovered that the quality of data submitted by member countries did not meet the required standard thus making it un-publishable.
It is on this premise that AMCOW wishes to engage the services of 2 technical experts to support the development of a high-quality WASSMO report that meets the required international reporting standards.
2. Objective of the Consultancy
AMCOW Secretariat seeks to engage a dynamic and highly skilled team of two consultants in the role of report writer to support the quality review, regional data validation and the preparation of the 2020 WASSMO Annual Results Report.
3. Scope of the Assignment
The scope of this work requires critically reviewing the WASSMO data collected from member countries to ensure that it is accurate and consistent. It further includes performing data quality assessment and cleaning to achieve the desired quality, analysis, supporting the regional data validation as well as consolidating the outcome of these monitoring and reporting processes to develop the 2021 WASSMO report to inform high-level decision making in the sector towards the achievement of Sharm el Sheikh Commitments, the Africa Water Vision 2025, Africa’s Water and Sanitation Agenda 2063, and the Sustainable Development Goals 6 targets.
Specific scope of work will cover the following areas;
- Critical Review of WASSMO Data Collected –
- Design of a standard country feedback template for engaging with member countries
- Assessing individual country data collected from member countries to ensure they are accurate and consistent
- Highlighting inconsistencies and anomalies in the data and drafting queries to countries in a designed standard feedback template
- Recommending data quality requirements to ensure data are cleaned in accordance to streamlined procedures
- Data Quality Assessment and Analysis Procedures –
- Assess the final and cleaned data collected from member countries to ensure the required data quality is met
- Ensure that the indicator and parameters used to measure each of the WASSMO indicators are calculated accurately
- Perform WASSMO data analytics on a broader scale and narrow down to the detailed analysis to better interpret country results
- Compile all country results into the WASSMO reporting template ahead of the regional online data validation workshops
- Preparation of Regional Validation Materials to Capture Country Progress for Peer-learning, Knowledge-exchange, and to Develop the 2020 WASSMO Report [including charts and graphs, as may be required] –
Support the planning and organizing of five sub-regional meetings (one virtual meeting for each of the regions with simultaneous interpretation in English and French) on the following suggested themes:
- Coordination and facilitation with AMCOW team [combined per regional meeting]
- Development of draft country reports, regional sector progress snapshots charts for each theme (disaggregated into rural and urban)
- Identification of top performing countries for each theme following the vision level analysis (population weights, trends, etc.) and graphs
- Designing power-point formats [for each country] to share their country action plans
- Coordination of rapporteur materials and compilation of sub-regional meeting reports – [per report]
- Consult with the Secretariat as well as relevant external stakeholders to ensure that the content accurately reflects and includes the major results achieved by the Members States
- Utilize the analysis from the outcomes of the sub regional validation workshops to be used to develop the final 2021 WASSMO Report (including charts, maps, graphs, and other relevant visuals)
- Under the guidance of the Secretariat, work closely with a professional editor and designer to produce the draft final report
4. Expected Output
For the completion of this assignment, the following deliverables are expected:
i. Five (5) regional WASSMO snapshots generated
ii. Five (5) regional meeting reports developed
iii. Draft Consolidated WASSMO Progress Report, which satisfies the required global standards for the water and sanitation sector reporting – chart, photo captions, and an improved visualization of the report
iv. A high-level executive summary report for decision makers and advocacy purposes
5. Qualifications
· Must have at least a Master’s degree in relevant field in such as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), social sciences, development studies, , or related fields
· At least 15 years demonstrable experience in the area of water and sanitation monitoring and reporting processes
· Proven record on report writing demonstrated through at least 3 samples
· Strong analytical and excellent writing skills in English
· The team should be bilingual (requirement): one of the team members should be fluent in both French and English;
· Experience working with similar reporting systems involving dealing with diverse entities, especially the development sector focussing on Africa will be an advantage
· Experience conducting quantitative surveys and analysis
· Ability to work effectively in a highly collaborative team
· Knowledge of AMCOW, issues and challenges of Africa’s water and sanitation sector will be an added value
6. Start Date and Duration
This is a short-term consultancy with a maximum of 70 working days. The consultant will commence work immediately upon contract negotiation, with the latest deliverables due date of August 23st, 2021.
7. Reporting Structure
a) Virtual inception meeting with AMCOW team to agree on the scope, approach, specific requirements for each task, timeframe for the consultancy
b) An interim report after the start and first milestone of the consultancy. This report should indicate the methodological approach, results obtained, difficulties and challenges encountered, and proposed solutions
c) Final report that presents the tasks performed, the results obtained, the challenges and perspectives for further improvement / scalability.
- Submissions of Applications:
- Interested candidates for this task are encouraged to send in their applications guided by the desired skills and competences and the qualifications stated above electronically, to include resume of team members, one-page motivation/cover letter highlighting the team’s suitability for the assignment.
- interested consultants may obtain further information at the address below during the office hours (08:00 -17:00 hours).
- A combined technical and financial proposal for the aforementioned deliverables. Not later than 12:00 (Noon) on Friday May 7th 2021 to:
The Executive Secretary
African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW)
No. 11, T.Y. Danjuma Street, Asokoro District Abuja, Nigeria.
Tel: +234 9096074166
