Institutionalisation of DEWATS Training Programme and Evidence Instrument in Cambodia Reference: PN171/2026/SDO-02

Terms of Reference

Institutionalisation of DEWATS Training Programme and Evidence Instrument in Cambodia

Reference: PN171/2026/SDO-02

1. Assignment at a glance

2. Background

WASH skills Development Organization (WASH-SDO) implements the BMZ-financed project “Decentralised Water and Sanitation Solutions for Small Towns in Cambodia and Laos”, together with its partner office Environmental Sanitation Cambodia (ESC).

A consultancy awarded to the Consortium for DEWATS Dissemination (CDD, India) was adapting existing DEWATS training material into a full training package — presentations, a general manual and a trainer manual — and will deliver a five-day master trainer programme in the second half of November 2026, following the contract signature in August. The format is hybrid: delivered online from India with each country office gathered in one room. Master trainers then deliver a micro-level training to CamSaN members and local organisations at the end of December 2026, with a national learning-exchange workshop in late November or early December, and a training for the Ministry of Public Works and Transport in 2027.

That sequence produces trained individuals and a good training package. It does not, by itself, produce either of the two things the project is measured on.

The first gap — an institutional programme, not a series of trainings

At project objective level the logical framework requires that one national institution or local higher education institution per country has established a self-standing, gender-responsive training programme for decentralised sanitation solutions. At output level it requires that training material integrating climate-resilient and gender-responsive approaches has been validated by at least two national institutions. The consolidated M&E review of August 2026 assessed the validation indicator as delayed at approximately 13 per cent, with no validation yet achieved in either country.

November 2026 is the moment at which this can be addressed at low cost, because the material is being contextualised then and is available in its delivered form. Converting a workshop package into a curriculum an institution will adopt is a different task from delivering the workshop, and it is not part of the CDD assignment.

3. Objective

The objective is to convert the DEWATS training package into a curriculum that one named Cambodian institution can adopt and run on its own, and to deliver the pathway and the draft instrument by which that adoption is achieved.

What this assignment is not. It is not an evaluation of the CDD assignment or of CDD’s performance. The consultant observes the master trainer programme in order to work with the material as actually delivered, not to assess the provider.

4. Scope of services

Work Package 1 — Institutional assessment and selection

Two candidates assessed in depth, not a desk scan. The assessment must go far enough that the recommendation can be defended to the institution itself: at least two candidates are to be visited and interviewed, and the recommendation must set out why the second-placed candidate was not chosen.

Scope note. Part A covers Cambodia only. The equivalent work for Laos — with the Public Works and Transport Institute and the Department of Water Supply — is to be provided for separately, through the partner office that holds the institutional relationships there. Bidders should not price work in Laos under Part A.

Assess the candidate host institutions in Cambodia against what is actually required to run a standing programme, and recommend one. Candidates to be considered as a minimum:

• The Institute of Technology of Cambodia.
• The training institute affiliated to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.
• The relevant general departments of MPWT, in particular the General Department of Sewerage and Wastewater Management (GDSWM).

Assessment criteria to cover: mandate and authority to certify or accredit; existing curriculum architecture and where a module of this kind would sit; trainer capacity and the gender composition of the trainer pool; the accreditation or approval route and who controls it; the funding or fee model that would sustain delivery after 2028; and demonstrated institutional interest.

Work Package 2 — Curriculum packaging

Working from the CDD-produced package and the updated DEWATS design tool — not the 1989 handbook — convert the material into a complete curriculum document in the format the recommended Cambodian institution requires, ready to be put to that institution for adoption. It must include learning outcomes, module structure and contact hours, assessment criteria and pass standards, trainer qualification requirements, equipment and laboratory requirements, and a delivery plan the institution can budget.

• The Ministry has stated a preference for modern, tool- and template-based training aimed at younger engineers rather than manual-and-slide formats. The curriculum must reflect that while ensuring trainees still understand the engineering behind the tools, including feasibility assessment and design calculation.
• Climate-resilient and gender-responsive content must be integrated into the learning outcomes and assessment, not appended as a session. The relevant output indicator requires this explicitly.
• Where conventional DEWATS cannot meet Cambodian discharge standards for nutrients without an additional treatment step, the curriculum must teach the assessment of when that step is required and whether the space and power for it exist.

Observation. The consultant attends the five-day CDD master trainer programme in the second half of November 2026 as an observer, online. Attendance dates are fixed at inception.

Work Package 3 — Adoption pathway and instrument

• Map the concrete adoption, validation or accreditation steps in Cambodia: which body decides, what document is required, what the calendar is, and what has historically caused such approvals to stall.
• Draft the adoption instrument — a memorandum of understanding, ministerial endorsement or institutional decision, as appropriate — ready for WASH-SDO and the partner offices to negotiate.
• State what remains to be delivered in 2027 and 2028 to reach adoption, with indicative expert days and cost, so that the requirement can be entered into the annual activity and budget plan rather than discovered later.

5. Deliverables and payment schedule

The maximum budget for this assignment is USD 4,500 with fallen in two installments as following;

Two instalments shall be made. The inception report is a quality milestone and is fallen into the first payment of this assignment. All deliverables must be accepted and invoiced before 31 December 2026; no deliverable may be dated retroactively. Please note that, in accordance with the laws of the Kingdom of Cambodia, withholding tax may applied appending on the bidder’s tax registration status.

Public holidays. Bidders must account for Cambodian public holidays in their work plans. Several fall in October 2026, and the Water Festival in November 2026 is a multi-day national holiday during which government offices and partner staff are largely unavailable. Work plans that assume continuous availability through October and November will be treated as unrealistic at evaluation.

Scope and budget. This assignment was originally drafted with a second component covering the design of the project’s monitoring instruments. That component has been withdrawn: the regional monitoring function established that two of the three instruments are either better produced by the training provider under its own contract or can be handled by the project team directly. The budget is retained at USD 4,500 and the freed effort reinvested in this scope — two candidate institutions assessed in depth rather than one, and a complete curriculum document rather than an outline specification.

6. Indicative level of effort

The following is indicative only and does not bind the consultant. It is provided so that bidders can see the basis on which the budget was set, and so that offers can be compared on a common understanding of the work.

7. Required qualifications

Essential

• At least seven years of professional experience in technical training design and curriculum development.
• Demonstrated experience converting training material into a curriculum adopted by a university, training institute or government body, evidenced by at least one completed case.
• Demonstrated experience supporting the adoption of a training programme by an institution, or comparable experience of institutional accreditation processes.
• Working knowledge of the water and sanitation sector sufficient to judge technical content; a sanitation engineering qualification is not required.
• Professional experience in Cambodia, including with government or higher education institutions.
• Availability to attend the five-day CDD master trainer programme online in the second half of November 2026.

Advantageous

• Familiarity with accreditation and curriculum approval processes in Cambodia.
• Experience with BMZ or comparable donor-funded capacity development programmes.
• Working knowledge of Khmer, or the ability to arrange competent translation within the budget.
• Experience with decentralised wastewater treatment or faecal sludge management training.

8. Content of the offer

Offers must be submitted in English and must contain the following. Incomplete offers may be excluded from evaluation.

• Technical offer (max. 4 pages): understanding of the assignment, proposed methodology, work plan with indicative dates per deliverable, and named team members with their role and days.
• CV(s) (max. 4 pages per expert), highlighting the experience relevant to the qualification requirements in section 6.
• Two reference assignments of comparable nature completed in the last five years, each with client name and a contactable reference person.
• Financial offer in USD, showing the daily fee rate, the number of days per work package, and all reimbursable costs itemised separately. The offer must state the total price inclusive of all taxes, duties and charges.
• One sample curriculum or training package from previous work, with any confidential material removed. This is a scored criterion; a description of past work is not a substitute for a sample.
• For companies and firms: registration and legal documents — certificate of registration or incorporation, tax identification number, and a valid tax patent or equivalent where applicable. These are required with the offer, not after award, so that evaluation is not held up. Individual experts submit a curriculum vitae and do not need company documents.
• Confirmation of availability for the contract period stated in section 1.
• Signed declaration of (i) no conflict of interest in relation to WASH-SDO, the partner organisation, or the institutions covered by the assignment, and (ii) acceptance of WASH-SDO’s child protection and safeguarding policy.

9. Evaluation of offers

Offers are assessed by an evaluation panel of at least three persons from WASH-SDO. Scoring is 70 points technical and 30 points financial. The lowest compliant financial offer receives the full 30 points; other offers receive points in proportion (lowest price ÷ offer price × 30). The offer with the highest total score is recommended for award.

10. Contractual and administrative conditions

• Contract type: short-term expert consultancy contract with the contracting party named in section 1. The maximum contractual duration for short-term experts is three months; expected from 24 September 2026 – 18 December 2026; the contract period may not be extended beyond that limit.
• Payment: in instalments against deliverables accepted by WASH-SDO. Payment is made by the contracting party within 30 days of receipt of a correct invoice and written acceptance of the corresponding deliverable. All deliverables must be accepted before 31 December 2026; no deliverable may be dated retroactively.
• Language: all deliverables in English. Outputs are required in English, with the curriculum document also in Khmer in the form the recommended institution requires; translation is included in the all-inclusive price.
• Ownership and publication: all outputs, data and underlying working files are the property of WASH-SDO and the partner organisation named in section 1. The consultant grants the right to publish, adapt and disseminate the outputs, including on the SuSanA knowledge platform, with due attribution of authorship.
• Confidentiality and data protection: the consultant shall treat all information received as confidential and shall handle personal data in accordance with applicable data protection law. Data from focus group discussions and interviews may not be published in a form that identifies individuals.
• Safeguarding: the consultant is bound by WASH-SDO’s child protection and safeguarding policy, which applies to the contracting party through its partner contract with WASH-SDO and forms part of this contract.
• Procurement: this assignment is awarded by the contracting party following an open call for offers under BMZ procurement rules. WASH-SDO reserves the right not to award the assignment, to award part of the scope, or to request clarification of offers. Costs of preparing an offer are not reimbursed. Offers remain valid for 90 days.
• Travel: No travel is foreseen. Participation in the CDD master trainer programme is online.
• Independence and conflict of interest: the consultant must disclose any financial, employment or advisory relationship with WASH-SDO, the partner organization, or any institution covered by the assignment. Any relationship that could give rise to a conflict of interest must be disclosed before contracting.

11. Submission

The offers are to be submitted by e-mail, in PDF, with the subject line “PN171/2026/WASH-SDO-02 – Offer”, to:     Mr. CHEM Vibol, WASH Advisor, WASH-SDO – Vibol.Chem@wash-sdo.org  with a copy to: Ms. EANG Chanthavy, Executive Director, WASH-SDO – chanthavy@wash-sdo.org ; Ms. Meas Sopheap-Operation Coordinator, WASH-SDO- sopheap@wash-sdo.org

Deadline: 21^st September 2026, 17:00 (Phnom Penh Time). Questions of clarification may be submitted to the same addresses up to four working days before the deadline; answers are shared with all bidders who have registered their interest.

This assignment is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) under the project “Decentralised Water and Sanitation Solutions for Small Towns in Cambodia and Laos” (2026–2028).