Purpose
This Terms of Reference has been prepared with the aim of engaging third party consultant firms for periodic monitoring of the field activities of the partners of Water.org in water and sanitation microfinance in Kenya.
Rationale
As part of internal monitoring processes and requirements, and for transparent reporting to our stakeholders, Water.org engages third party consultant firm to review programs executed by our partner organizations.Water.org plans to engage consultant firms with previous experience of working with microfinance institutions and NGOs. Previous experience of assessing development work in the field of water and sanitation at household and business level is required. Previous experience with administering surveys is required. The selected consulting firm will be engaged whenever there is a need to conduct assessment of the quality of the work executed by our partner organisations in their operational areas.
About Water.org
Water.org has been at the forefront of developing and delivering solutions to the water crisis for three decades. Founded by Gary White and Matt Damon, Water.org challenges the traditional approach by pioneering innovative, community-driven, and market-based solutions to ensure all people have access to safe water and sanitation; giving women hope, children health, and communities a future. Water.org has positively transformed the lives of more than 70 million individuals in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean by providing access to safe water and improved sanitation.
Approach
Water.org empowers people to take action and deliver solutions that accelerate progress and impact. Water.org offers a portfolio of smart solutions that break down the financial barriers between people living in poverty and access to safe water and sanitation. We work with and through partners to increase access to financing for those who need it most. The approach includes pioneering market‐based approaches such as WaterCredit. Its work is comprehensive and demand‐driven – communities know what solutions will work best for them in the long‐term – and rooted in local technologies and innovations. Water.org works in partnership with local non-governmental organizations and finance institutions to achieve its objectives. The monitoring visits will focus on reviews of these partners.
WaterCredit
WaterCredit empowers those living in poverty to gain access to affordable credit to meet their own water and sanitation needs. This comprehensive initiative puts microfinance tools to work in the water and sanitation sector.
Scope of Work
The third-party monitoring firm will develop a sampling methodology and conduct surveys to verify household and WSS business WASH improvements via a mobile platform (mWater) to assess program progress and user satisfaction. This includes assessing partner services, status of WASH improvement and usage, and immediate impacts on quality of life and impact on business. Client surveys also identify risks, gender dynamics, concerns and best practices within the program implementation period.
Location
Program Monitoring interviews/visits will take place in Kenya, and interviews with borrowers from 3 partner financial institutions totalling to 608 or more.The study will cover Nairobi, Rift Valley, Central, Coast, Western, Nyanza and neighbouring regions.
Water.org will provide the survey instrument to be used for client interviews at the household and business. The survey will need to be tested and piloted to validate the instrument’s design to ensure the collection of high-quality data. The third-party will need to translate the business questionnaire into Kiswahili. A wide variety of information will be collected on water and sanitation improvements through the mobile app mWater.
General points to be covered will include, but are not limited to the following verification activities:
(1)Visit borrowers and conduct verification surveys, including questions about the water and sanitation improvement status and quality.
(2)Visual inspection of the water or sanitation improvement that the loan was used for to verify its function and usage
(3)Verify the accuracy of the partner reporting against the client data collected
Methodology
Methodological Framework
The consultant is responsible for conducting a randomized selection of conducting of a maximum of 608 Water Credit borrowers for 3 final institutions to
1) verify that they have taken out a water and/or sanitation loan
- verify that the loan has enabled the borrower to construct a functional water and/or sanitation improvement
- assess the construction quality and functionality of the improvement
- conduct a brief survey of the client to understand their use of and satisfaction with the improvement.
Mobile Survey Platform
Water.org is utilizing mWater mobile survey tools for data collection purposes. Utilizing mWater survey tools will help ensure quality control and will require training among the consultant team and enumerators. Water.org will provide remote training for the consultant team leads. The Consultant must use this platform to conduct its independent verifications of client data and is responsible for training enumerators on the survey tool and the use of mWater.
The third party will be responsible for acquiring mobile devices compatible with the mWater application. The most recent list of compatible devices can be found on the mWater website here. Please note that this list is not exhaustive.
Activities
The assignment requires the third-party firm to perform the following activities
a.Gather relevant program information from Water.org and the partners to plan the client survey activities and schedule.
b.Select the clients to be interviewed and work with the partner to coordinate and facilitate information sharing with them of pending interviews in advance.
c.Translate the business questionnaire into Kiswahili
d.Learn mWater platform, including conducting a survey, and reviewing the survey data that comes in.
e.Hire, train and deploy the enumerators to conduct in person surveys. In areas where the enumerators are not able to speak the local language, hire a local translator.
f.As needed, translate the survey via an Excel or CSV spreadsheet that Water.org will upload into the mWater platform so enumerators will have the survey in the local language.
g.Administer the client surveys using a method approved by Water.org. Each survey takes approximately 30-40 minutes to conduct.
h.Ensure quality control in the data collection, and review and ultimately approve or reject the surveys submitted by the enumerators in the mWater platform. Additionally, all documents, reports, surveys, and findings pertaining to monitoring visits will be kept confidential by the Consultant and submitted to Water.org after the assigned assessment is completed
Deliverables and Key Dates
The third-party firm will submit the following deliverables:
Deliverable 1: Inception report which includes proposed sampling methodology for selection of clients to be interviewed, work plan and schedule to ensure timely compliance, survey team training plan and tool testing and data quality assurance practices.
Deliverable 2: Final dataset of in-person household and business surveys which should be cleaned and validated using mWater platform.
Water.org anticipates that this assignment will be completed by 31st August 2025. Water.org understands that activities and timelines per activity may change over the life of the contract; however, an approximate timeline is below:
Timeline Deadline
- Kick-off meeting (Water.org and third-party firm) 25th June 2025
- Deliverable 1: Inception report deadline 28th June 2025
- Training on survey and mWater platform (from Water.org) 28th June 2025
- Survey implementation (household visits and Businesses) 05th July 2025
- Deliverable 2: Final database deadline 20th August 2025
- Deliverable 3: Final report deadline. 25th August
Qualifications
An ideal team will include someone with a master’s degree in a water and sanitation related course
Water and Sanitation technical background, research experience and a person with good understanding of Banking /operations. Applicants may be firms or groups of individuals with a designated team lead. Applicants must have at a minimum the following qualifications:
1.Proposed staffing plan that includes at least one native or fluent English speaker.
2.Proposed staffing plan that includes enough qualified enumerators to collect the household and enterprise surveys in the partner geographies.
3.Demonstrated experience and familiarity with the WASH and/banking /microfinance sector.
4.Demonstrated experience with conducting household and or enterprise interviews.
5.Demonstrated experience with digital data gathering techniques prerequisite
Request for Proposals
The proposal should include a technical proposal and financial proposal as well as a project timeline, The technical proposal (no more than 10 pages excluding annexes) should include the following elements:
a.Relevant Experience: Provide details of projects of similar scope, complexity and nature you have worked on previously. Include the total number of surveys administered.
b.Specific Expertise: Describe your level of knowledge and expertise specific to conducting large scale surveys using digital data collection and ensuring data quality.
c.Key Personnel and Staffing: Describe the key personnel and a staffing plan for the project. Include CVs (no more than 1 page each and attached as an annex) of key personnel who would be part of the proposed plan.
d.Timeline: Include a detailed timeline of key activities.
Budget
A proposed budget shall be included with the Consultant’s submission, and the final budget approval shall be fixed and not subject to negotiation. All taxes should be included in the budget. The Consultant shall be responsible for payment of all taxes. All amounts shall be presented in USD (25 USD per survey Budget notes are encouraged.)
How to apply
Submission of Proposals
Submission must be typed and submitted only by email. Unless agreed upon with Water.org, no changes or corrections to a response will be allowed after the deadline. The complete proposal should be emailed to bwambua@water.org and jrajabu@water.org . Applications are open for both individual and regional firms. Deadline for submitting proposals is 16th June 2025.
