National Learning Platform Facilitator, CamSaN National Learning Dialogue Reference: PN171/2026/SDO-03

Terms of Reference

National Learning Platform Facilitator, CamSaN National Learning Dialogue

Reference: PN171/2026/SDO-03

1. Assignment at a glance

2. Background

The Cambodia Sanitation Practitioner Network (CamSaN) is a national, open and free knowledge exchange platform coordinated jointly by WASH skills Development Organization (WASH-SDO) and Environmental Sanitation Cambodia (ESC), with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. CamSaN was formally launched at its kick-off meeting on 17 June 2026, bringing together 26 practitioners from 18 organisations across Cambodia’s non-governmental, private sector, academic and international development landscape.

The network is practitioner-driven and focused primarily on decentralised wastewater treatment systems. It operates at a particular moment for the Cambodian sanitation sector: The Law on Sewerage of 2024, and the ongoing development by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport of national technical guidelines on DEWATS, together create a time-bound opportunity to ground national policy in field-level practitioner knowledge.

CamSaN’s 2026–2027 programme includes annual national workshops, training sessions, quarterly exchange meetings and structured reviews of the DEWATS technical guideline. Central to that programme is the ambition to establish CamSaN as Cambodia’s primary national learning platform for sanitation practitioners — a space where sector-wide exchange builds both individual capacity and collective policy influence.

3. Rationale and purpose

Realising that ambition requires more than organising an event. It demands a dialogue architecture that draws out practitioner knowledge, surfaces cross-cutting sector challenges, and produces insights that can be fed into the Ministry’s guideline development process in a form the Ministry can use.

This assignment supports Activities 2 and 4 of the CamSaN 2026–2027 work plan — the annual national workshop and the quarterly exchange meetings — and contributes to Activity 5, the DEWATS technical guideline reviews, by creating a structured space in which practitioners can consolidate field knowledge for policy input.

Coordination with two other assignments

Two other consultancies in the 2026 package intersect with this event, and the consultant must work with rather than around them:

• 2026/ESC-03 — the regulatory and compliance expert supporting the national DEWATS guideline is contracted to deliver a session at CamSaN’s fourth-quarter meeting. If that is this event, the facilitator designs the dialogue and the ESC-03 expert contributes the guideline session within it. The two consultants are introduced to one another at inception. Under no circumstances should two consultants arrive to run the same session.
• PN171/2026/SDO-01 — the consultant scoping the regional CWIS Summit for 2027 uses this event as the closest available precedent. The dialogue design, the participant list and an honest account of what worked and what did not are formal inputs to that assignment, and the facilitator should expect a short handover conversation.

4. Objectives
5. Design an effective national learning dialogue: a fit-for-purpose design that enables genuine exchange among Cambodia’s sanitation practitioners and positions CamSaN as the country’s leading national learning platform for decentralised sanitation.
6. Facilitate an impactful event: a participatory dialogue that draws on the expertise of diverse practitioners, surfaces cross-cutting sector challenges, and generates actionable insights and collective recommendations.
7. Produce high-quality knowledge products: capture the learning systematically and translate it into accessible, shareable outputs suitable for the network, the SuSanA platform and sector implementation audiences.
8. Strengthen CamSaN’s standing: through the design and conduct of the dialogue, contribute to establishing the network’s credibility as Cambodia’s primary knowledge exchange platform for sanitation practitioners.
9. Scope of work

The assignment runs in three sequential phases. The consultant works closely with the CamSaN Coordination Team throughout, maintaining regular communication and seeking timely feedback on all deliverables.

Phase 1 — Preparation and design (indicatively 5 working days)

• Desk review of CamSaN’s founding documents — the joint concept note, the kick-off meeting report, the 2026–2027 work plan and the training needs assessment findings — to understand the network’s context, membership and programme.
• Targeted consultations with the Coordination Team and up to five key network members, to identify the sector issues and exchange priorities the dialogue should address.
• A facilitation framework covering session sequencing, participatory methods, group work structures, plenary formats and documentation protocols.
• All facilitation materials — session guides, working group briefs, prompt cards, visual aids and participant worksheets — adapted for a bilingual Khmer and English audience.
• A pre-event participant brief setting out objectives, agenda, preparation questions and pre-reading for members and invited participants.
• Coordination with the Team on logistics, venue, participant confirmation and interpretation arrangements. The consultant advises on these; the Coordination Team procures and pays for them.

Phase 2 — Facilitation of the dialogue (indicatively 2 working days)

• Lead facilitation of the full event, managing agenda, time, energy and participation dynamics.
• Facilitate a varied set of participatory activities — plenary inputs, structured small-group exchange, world café or open space formats, synthesis and prioritisation, and action planning.
• Ensure that discussions, group outputs and agreed actions are captured in real time by a designated note-taker working to the facilitation framework.
• Manage the dialogue inclusively, ensuring equitable voice across gender, organisational type and seniority.
• Facilitate a dedicated session on inputs to the DEWATS technical guideline, structuring practitioner knowledge in a form usable in the Ministry’s policy process. Where the ESC-03 expert is present, this session is designed jointly.
• Participation record. Produce the participant list disaggregated by sex and by organisation type, counting persons rather than attendances. This is a project reporting requirement, not an administrative afterthought, and it is a condition of acceptance of the event report.

Phase 3 — Documentation and dissemination (indicatively 5 to 7 working days)

• An event report capturing context and objectives, a session-by-session summary, key findings and cross-cutting themes, decisions and an action register, and reflections on the process itself.
• A concise, visually accessible knowledge brief summarising insights, practitioner perspectives and recommendations, for dissemination through SuSanA, the CamSaN Telegram channel and network communications.
• Presentation of the findings and the draft report to the Coordination Team, with one round of revisions before finalisation.
• Proposed follow-up actions and programming recommendations to build on the dialogue in 2027.

6. Deliverables and payment schedule

The maximum budget for this assignment is USD 2,800 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. The contract deliberately ends on 18 December so that acceptance and final payment fall inside the financial year. 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.

The event date. The National Learning Dialogue is expected between 26 November and 4 December 2026 and is fixed at contract signature. Bidders should note that the date drives the whole schedule: if the event moves later than 4 December, the documentation deliverables cannot be completed within the financial year and the assignment would have to be restructured.

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. This matters more here than in any other assignment in the package: Phase 1 falls squarely across the November Water Festival, and participant confirmation and interpretation arrangements must be made around it.

7. Budget, and what it does and does not cover

The maximum budget is USD 2,800, an all-inclusive fixed price. At an indicative 12 to 14 working days this corresponds to a daily rate in the order of USD 180 to 210, consistent with national consultant rates elsewhere in this project.

The budget covers the consultant’s professional fees, taxes, and the consultant’s own incidental and travel costs.

The budget does not cover, and the consultant must not price for, the costs of the event itself: venue, catering, audiovisual equipment, participant travel and per diem, printing, and simultaneous or consecutive interpretation. These are procured and paid separately by WASH-SDO. Offers that absorb event costs into the fee will be treated as having misunderstood the assignment.

Applicants must present a budget breakdown showing how the ceiling is allocated across the three phases and between fees and incidentals.

8. Required qualifications

Essential

• At least five years of professional experience designing and facilitating complex multi-stakeholder learning dialogues or knowledge exchange events in a development context.
• Sound understanding of the water and sanitation sector, with knowledge of decentralised sanitation approaches or DEWATS an advantage.
• Proven ability to facilitate in a bilingual Khmer and English environment, either directly or in close coordination with skilled interpreters. Fluency in Khmer is strongly preferred.
• Experience working with mixed participant groups spanning government officials, non-governmental practitioners, private sector actors and international organisations.
• Excellent written English, with a record of producing high-quality facilitation materials and event documentation.
• Demonstrated understanding of the Cambodian development context, including government structures, sector stakeholders and the policy landscape.
• Demonstrated ability to run an event so that women and junior participants speak as much as senior men. This is assessed at interview or from the sample work, not taken on assertion.

Desirable

• Prior engagement with WASH-SDO, ESC, or the wider CamSaN network, though this is not required and confers no advantage in scoring beyond the relevant experience itself.
• Experience in knowledge management, documentation of practitioner knowledge, and production of knowledge products for international platforms such as SuSanA.
• Familiarity with participatory methods including world café, open space, theory of change and after-action review.

9. 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.
• Sample work: one facilitation guide, event report or knowledge brief produced under a comparable previous assignment. This is a scored criterion and no description of past work substitutes for it.
• Budget breakdown across the three phases, separating professional fees from incidentals, and confirming that no event costs are included.
• 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.

10. 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.

11. 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 date 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. Facilitation materials and the participant brief are required in English with Khmer versions or summaries as specified in section 6; the event is conducted bilingually, and the interpretation is arranged and paid for by WASH-SDO.
• 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: Domestic travel within Cambodia for consultations and for the event is included in the all-inclusive price. Participant travel is not.
• Independence and conflict of interest: the consultant must disclose any financial, employment or advisory relationship with WASH-SDO, the partner organisation, or any institution covered by the assignment. Any relationship that could give rise to a conflict of interest must be disclosed before contracting.

12. Submission

The offers are to be submitted by e-mail, in PDF, with the subject line “PN171/2026/WASH-SDO-03 – 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: 21st September 2026, 17:00 ICT. 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).