Local recruitment: Household and Business Survey for Water and Sanitation Borrowers

Household and Business Borrowers Survey in Cambodia

Proposal Submission Deadline: 23 March 2026

1. Introduction 

Water.org empowers market-based solutions to resolve the Water and Sanitation (WSS) crisis. The approach ranges from pioneering market‐based approaches such as WaterCredit to strengthening utilities to improve service provision. Water.org has been working in Cambodia since 2016 to pilot and expand its flagship WaterCredit program, by partnering with financial institutions to initiate dedicated WSS loans. Additionally, Water.org is also working directly or via enabling partners to facilitate access to capital for Private Water Operators (PWOs) to expand and enhance their services to customers.

As part of internal monitoring processes and requirements, and for transparent reporting to our stakeholders, Water.org engages third-party consultant firms to perform the Program Monitoring Visit (PMV) to validate data reported by the partners and to ensure interventions are meeting the goals. The Consultant will administer surveys to a representative sample of household, WSS business, and PWO borrowers to verify and understand the impact of WSS financing.

The consultant will conduct in-person interviews with 600 household clients and 151 WSS businesses (including PWOs) who availed WSS financing across 25 provinces in Cambodia. Water.org uses standard questionnaires (for household and business borrowers respectively) covering various household and business characteristics, use of capital, WSS improvements, immediate outcomes, and user satisfaction in a mobile platform called mWater.

1. Types of data to be collected 

Water.org has developed three survey instruments to be administered via mWater. Topics covered by each survey are as follows:

1. Household survey:

1. Questions regarding whether the client used the loan for its intended purpose;
2. Questions about the water and/or sanitation improvement type and functionality;
3. Questions regarding the client’s satisfaction with the loan process and partner services;
4. Questions regarding how the water and/or sanitation improvement impacted the household’s health and hygiene, sense of safety, time usage, income, and sense of self-dignity;
5. On-site observation of the water and/or sanitation improvement’s completion and functionality by the enumerators;
6. Collecting photo documentation of the household water and/or sanitation improvement;
7. Verification of the accuracy of the partner reporting (WaterCredit Loan Report) against the client data collected in the field.

1. Business survey

1. The type of WSS business and/or institution taking out a loan to expand WSS services
2. Loan usage and type of WSS improvement financed;
3. If invested in physical WSS improvements, whether the improvement is functional at the time of survey;
4. The WSS business or institution’s experience accessing and repaying the loan;
5. To what extent is the resulting improvement is improving access to water and/or sanitation;
6. The demographics of the client population served by the WSS business or institution;
7. Whether access to capital has any impact on the WSS businesses’ performance.

3. PWO survey (includes open-ended questions)
4. Financial and technical barriers faced by the PWO prior to working with Water.org
5. The type of capital accessed
6. Motivation for accessing capital
7. Usage of capital and type of improvements finance
8. Outcomes resulting from increased access to capital
9. org’s specific role in helping the PWOs access capital

Water.org will provide the survey instruments to the selected third-party firm using mWater platform. The surveys will also need to be translated into Khmer and tested prior to survey administration to validate the instrument and ensure high quality data collection.

1. Mobile Survey Platform 

Water.org utilizes mWater mobile survey tools for data collection purposes. Utilizing mWater survey tools helps ensure quality control and will require training among the consultant team and enumerators. Water.org will provide training for the consultant on the mobile survey tool, if needed. The consultants must use this platform to conduct independent verifications and be responsible for training enumerators on the survey tools and proper administration of all surveys. The third party will be responsible for acquiring mobile devices compatible with the mWater application. The system requirements for compatible devices can be found on the mWater website.

1. Methodological Framework and respondent selection 

The consultant is responsible for conducting a randomized selection of a minimum of 600 household clients and 151 business clients to: 1) verify that they have taken out a WSS loan, 2) verify that the loan has enabled the client to construct a functional WSS improvement, 3) assess the construction completeness and functionality of the facility, and 4) to understand their use of and satisfaction with the improvement.

For the household survey, the third-party firm will need to review the population list per partner and develop a representative sampling methodology.  Each partner’s client list is treated as its own population and as such will require its own sampling. The Consultant will utilize an approved sampling method that considers the WSS product types, practical field constraints, and respondent availability.

For the WSS business and PWO portion, the Consultant will take a census method approach and interview all the businesses and/or PWOs reported to Water.org. The Consultant will then work with Water.org to request business and PWO contact information from the FI partners using an agreed template and acquire the necessary clearance to locate and interview the businesses and PWOs.

1. Deliverables

The Consultant will be responsible for, but not limited to, the following deliverables and activities:

1. Inception report

Participate in a kick-off meeting with Water.org staff to clarify roles and start engaging with the 8 partners to agree on the survey plans, the necessary client data, and obtain clearance to start the fieldwork. The third-party firm will summarize the agreed plans via an inception report: 1) Proposed sampling methodology for each partner institution, 2) Workplan/timeline to ensure timely completion, 3) Enumerator training, 3) Data quality and safety protocol

2. Finalize questionnaires and train to enumerators

Review and participate in an in-person/virtual training session on the mWater app and the survey tools. The survey needs to be translated into Khmer and tested prior to the subsequent enumerator training.

3. Complete 600 households and 151 WSS business borrowers across 8 partners, and data cleaning

Administer the questionnaires via the mWater app per the approved sampling method. The third-party firm will be responsible for cleaning the data within mWater so that the dashboards reflect accurate findings.

4. Fieldwork report, including 2 client stories

Submit a brief fieldwork report per partner, include 2 client stories per partner describing before and after experience with the loan.

1. Key dates

Water.org anticipates that the entire assignment will be completed no later than 15 September 2026. Water.org understands that activities and timelines per activity may change accordingly with the Consultant’s proposal; however, an approximate expected time requirement and key activities are as follows:

1. Submission requirements

Proposal must be submitted in English to include a narrative, timeline, budget, and the CVs of the key personnel and staffing (no more than 10 pages excluding annexes). The narrative should include description of the third-party’s relevant qualifications, preliminary sampling methodology, enumerator staffing and training plans, and protocol for data quality control.

Applicants must be firms that have at a minimum the following qualifications:

1. Proposed staffing plan includes at least one native or fluent English speaker as lead writer.
2. Proposed staffing plan includes a sufficient number of qualified enumerators to collect the in-person household and business surveys in the partner geographies with appropriate language capacities.
3. Demonstrated experience and familiarity with the WSS and/or microfinance sector.
4. Demonstrated experience with conducting household or business surveys.

Budget 

The proposed budget should not exceed $32,000. The proposal must include budget details provided on this link and presented in USD.

Contact

Proposals and queries must be sent through email to:

Kiki Tazkiyah – SEA Insights Lead

ktazkiyah@water.org

Rafael Castillo – Senior Impact Integrity Specialist

rcastillomanrique@water.org