CONSULTANCY SERVICES TO CONDUCT A COMMERCIAL VIABILITY AND SOCIAL VIABILITY ASSESSMENT FOR SELECTED WATER UTILITIES IN MARSABIT, ISIOLO & GARISSA

A. BACKGROUND

The Millennium Water Alliance and the RAPID+ program

The Millennium Water Alliance (MWA) is a permanent global alliance of leading humanitarian and private organizations that convenes opportunities and partnerships, accelerates learning and effective models, and influences the WASH space by leveraging the expertise and reach of its members and partners to scale quality, sustained WASH services. The Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for Integrated Development+ (RAPID+) program is convened and led by the MWA with primary funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) alongside match and investment funds from private sector actors, facilitating partners and participating county governments.

The program which runs from November 2021 to October 2026 seeks to provide improved access to water and rangeland services for more than 200,000 people in Garissa, Isiolo, Marsabit, Turkana, and Wajir counties. RAPID+ builds on the successes and lessons learned from the initial phase (2015-2021) of the program to combine the opportunities presented by the national and devolved water sector institutions. The goal of RAPID+ is improved access to safe and sustainably managed water and rangelands in RAPID+ counties that will contribute to resilient livelihoods for communities in a peaceful environment. This incorporates two outcomes: Pastoralist communities will have increased access to sustainable and safe water for multiple uses and Pastoralist communities will have improved access to safe and ecologically healthy rangeland resources that promote greater integrity, social cohesion, and gender equity.

One of the activities being executed under the first outcome is providing support for the operationalisation of the County Water Acts that were passed under RAPID. This means that under RAPID+, the facilitating partners aim at supporting the county governments to pass rules and regulations to facilitate the implementation of the Acts. Additionally RAPID+ will support the development and strengthening of the institutions stipulated under the Water Acts. More specifically for the purposes of this Terms of Reference (ToR), RAPID+ will be working to strengthen rural and urban water utilities in three of the RAPID+ counties, namely Marsabit, Garissa and Isiolo.

Why is it important to support utilities in the RAPID+ counties?

Water is mainly delivered through the community-owned water point model across rural areas in the RAPID+ counties, while in some major urban centres such as Lodwar, Garissa, Wajir, Moyale, and Isiolo, water is reticulated and delivered by regulated urban water utilities. Smaller urban centres like Merti and Garbatulla in Isiolo and Griftu in Wajir have piped water systems managed by community water user associations. There are also a few boreholes operated and maintained by private sector individuals and companies. Although the community-owned water point service delivery model is by far the most widespread approach for rural water supply in the ASALs, it has often failed to deliver the expected level of sustainability[1]. Consequently, many sector stakeholders are looking to other options for rural water service delivery including the formation of rural water utilities. In the urban areas of Northern Kenya, some of the utilities serving the areas are struggling to deliver sustainable water services and require support to meet their mandates.

1. The Rural Areas

The operation and maintenance of water systems remains poor in rural areas of several African countries. Evidence shows that up to one in four small-scale water supply systems in rural areas are non-functional at any given time. The situation is not different in the five RAPID+ counties where most of the population (an estimated 72%) live in rural areas and rely on community water points, several of which are broken down. Investment decisions by both governments and donors are currently still geared to increase access to infrastructure rather than access to sustainable water services, consequently operation and maintenance of these systems is not prioritized.

In cognizance of the challenges facing rural water supply, Isiolo and Garissa are in the early stages of setting up rural water utilities to oversee the management of rural water schemes. For example, Garissa County has set up the Garissa Rural Water and Sanitation Company (GARUWASCO) with support from RAPID. Isiolo County is interested on embarking on an exercise to determine whether a rural water utility will be viable and how it should be structured.

1. The Urban Areas

Marsabit Water and Sanitation Company (MARWASCO) was established in 2016 to oversee water supply and distribution across the whole of Marsabit county. However, since its inception the company has struggled to take off as expected. It only oversees a few water points across Marsabit town hence its categorization as an urban utility. MARWASCO barely collects adequate revenues to run its affairs necessitating significant support from the county government. The company has also been operating without a governing board to guide the strategic direction of the utility. Recently however, the organisation appointed a new managing director and board members. This presents the opportunity to strengthen the utility.

B. ASSESSMENT PURPOSE

It is against this backdrop that an assessment to determine the commercial and social viability of Garissa Rural and Sewerage Company (GARUWASCO), Marsabit Water and Sanitation Company (MARWASCO) and the proposed rural water utility within Isiolo County is required. This viability assessment will among other things highlight the gaps facing the two utilities and what is required for the proposed utility in Isiolo, identify viable opportunities or entry points on how the utilities can be supported to address the challenges and evaluate the financing needed to address the challenges at each of the water utilities.

The report generated through the assessment is expected to:

• Aid development partners working in the region to understand the nature of support they can provide to the three water utilities. Entities like World Bank and USAID have utility strengthening work that can feed off the recommendations of the assessment.
• Enable county governments to determine how best to support the water utilities to carry out their water, sewerage, and sanitation delivery mandates effectively.
• Guide RAPID+ on the activities to undertake to strengthen the Water Utilities
• Support RAPID+’s work around operationalization of the county Water Acts through institutional strengthening.
• Underpin the turn-around of water utilities in Northern Kenya.
• Support the utilities to mobilize financial resources for organizational strengthening and system expansion.

C. METHODOLOGY AND SCOPE OF WORK

We expect the Consultant to predominantly use qualitative methods to conduct this assessment of urban and rural utilities. These will include intensive Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with utility officials and county officials, and the Water Sector Regulatory Board (WASREB) among others and an in-depth interrogation of existing secondary data related to the utilities. Additionally, the Consultant is expected to undertake a literature review to determine how other successful utilities within Kenya and globally have achieved growth to recommend improvement strategies and adaptations of the same to Northern Kenya.

For the sub-task of determining the commercial and social viability for a rural water utility in Isiolo, the Consultant is expected to combine a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. This will also entail KIIs with county water officials, the community water associations, and other unofficial water providers such as water truckers, an interrogation of records at the water points (where available) and a survey with the selected communities/households.

The Consultant is additionally expected to work closely with the RAPID+ County Coordination Unit (CCUs) teams to understand the special dynamics within each county. Bidders should also propose any additional methods they think are critical to achieving the scope of work and deliverables.

The Consultant is expected to undertake two main tasks:

Task 1: Assessment of existing urban and rural utilities in the RAPID+ counties

• Assess MARWASCO and GARUWASCO

This will entail mapping out all the information on the water utility in terms of its performance on WASREP Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and basic information on the utility in terms of the population served, service area boundaries, revenues collected annually, sources and volumes of water, providing a map of the service area and the reticulation system (where available) among other.

• Determine the challenges and gaps at the water utility.

The Consultant is expected to extensively analyse the challenges the utility is facing in delivering water services within its area of jurisdiction. These challenges include reasons preventing it from attaining commercial viability, creditworthiness, inadequate data on the reticulation network and the customers, revenue collection, governance and management among others.

• Outline the opportunities/interventions (commercial and social) that can be carried out to support a utility turn-around.

The Consultant is required to develop/propose interventions that can be carried out within the utility to turn-around or improve performance. These are measures that will allow the utility to increase its revenue collection, improve water coverage, access grant financing (for the more advanced water utilities) among others. The Consultant is required to define the roles the private sector can play in supporting the turn-around at the utilities.

• Stipulate the financing required to carry out these interventions.

This sub-task under task one will involve determining the financing required to carry out the proposed interventions. The Consultant is required to pragmatically cost the interventions and align some of this with information contained in the National Water and Sanitation Investment Program (NAWASIP). While stipulating the financing the Consultant is required to propose programs or entities that can fill the financing gap.

• Develop an implementation schedule for each of the utilities.

This task will require the Consultant to develop a brief implementation plan and tracker for each of the utilities assessed to ensure that they can carry out the interventions proposed in the utility assessment plan.

Task 2: Assessing the Commercial and Social Viability of a Rural Water Utility in Isiolo

• Conduct a comprehensive assessment of the challenges facing rural water supply in Isiolo.

This will entail providing a clear description of the status of rural water supply in Isiolo County and the gaps that a potential rural water utility could fill.

• Map out prospective rural water points

The Consultant is required to collaboratively map out prospective rural water systems/water points/water user associations within Isiolo County that will be included in the assessment.

• Data collection and field work

This sub-task will involve collecting data through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods from stakeholders in Isiolo County Government and the water point mapped out above that will be used to assess the viability and need for setting up a rural water utility. For the water points, the Consultant is required to conduct a small survey with households in the areas to assess the social acceptance for a rural water utility.

D. EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

The successful bidder will be required to provide six main deliverables along the timelines specified below.

1. Inception Report/Assessment plan elaborating the methods that will be used for the assessment. This should be submitted alongside the tools that will be used to collect data during the assessment and the list of expected KII respondents.

10 working days after the assessment kick-off meeting.

2. Draft Utility Assessment Report – The consultant is expected to generate three different utility assessment reports for GARUWASCO, MARWASCO and the proposed utility in Isiolo. Each of the reports should be no more than 40 pages excluding the executive summary and annexes. The report should be concise and well written.

20 working days after completing data collection

3. Stakeholder Validation Workshop for the Utility Assessment Report – A two-day workshop shall be held to comprehensively dissect the report and seek inputs from the stakeholders including water utilities, county government officials, WASREB and development partners with upcoming programs in Northern Kenya. Day 1 of the workshop shall focus on the outputs on MARWASCO and GARUWASCO while day 2 of the workshop will focus on discussing the proposed utility in Isiolo.

10 working days after the submission of the draft assessment reports.

4. Edited and Graphically Designed Report- The Consultant should ensure the final reports are graphically designed to spruce up the outlook of the final deliverable for sharing with wide audiences.

15 working days after the stakeholder validation workshop.

E. ROLE OF MWA, THE CCUs, AND CONSULTANT

MWA will collaborate with the Consultant to undertake the following roles:

• Provide the Consultant with background documents, reports, and available secondary data for review.
• Arrange and pay for travel from Nairobi to the field county headquarters. Travel must be approved by MWA in advance of any booking.
• Arrange and pay for accommodation and per diems for the Consultant during site visits for data collection.
• Organize a validation workshop for the presentation of preliminary findings to WASH sector stakeholders.
• Review and provide input on all Consultant’s deliverables.
• Ensure smooth flow of consultancy engagement processes including contractual obligations.
• Share the final assessment report with all key stakeholders, including key program staff, partners, donor representatives, other development partners, national and county governments.

Roles of the facilitating partners (CCUs) shall include the following:

• Facilitate the Consultant’s travel and movement within each of the three counties.
• Support the Consultant in setting up key informant interviews and focused group discussions.
• Support the Consultant in conducting the surveys with selected communities in Isiolo County.
• Support the Consultant in community sensitization and mobilization of respondents particularly for FGDs.

The roles of the Consultant shall include the following:

• Conduct comprehensive literature review on water utilities and rural water supply.
• Develop an inception report, detailing the agreed upon study design, methodologies for data collection and analysis, indicators, data- gathering tools, work plan schedule to carry out the assignment, in consultation with MWA.
• Develop or refine data gathering tools in consultation with MWA.
• Plan and coordinate data collection.
• Conduct training for the data collection teams including pre‐testing of data collection tools.
• Work with the respective RAPID+ CCU in assessment planning and logistics.
• Review and analyze collected data.
• Incorporate data from other studies on improving water utility performance.
• Draft the three water utility assessment reports.
• Present preliminary findings and the draft reports to program stakeholders for validation.
• Incorporate input from program stakeholders and develop and submit the final reports. The final report should be graphically designed and aesthetically professional.

F. EXPERTISE REQUIRED FOR THE ASSIGNMENT

We expect the Consultant to present a core team with the following qualifications.

1. Team Lead/ Water Utility Expert

Number staff: 1

Basic requirements

• At least a master’s degree in a relevant field (Finance and investment, Water, Energy or Environmental Engineering), with at least 8 years relevant experience
• The person must have experience working with water utilities in Kenya and understand their functions.
• Previous experience conducting viability assessments for water utilities would be an added advantage.
• The individual must have experience of leading major consulting assessments.
• Experience in business and financial modelling will be an added advantage.
• The team lead should have strong report writing skills.

2. Financial analyst/ Investment Specialist

Number staff: 1

Basic requirements

• At least a master’s degree in finance, economics, or a related field with at least 7 years’ relevant experience.
• The person must have experience in securing utility financing for energy, gas, or water utilities. Experience in infrastructure financing is acceptable.
• Previous experience conducting consulting viability assessments for water utilities would be an added advantage.

3. Water Governance Expert

Number staff: 1

Basic requirements

• At least a master’s degree in a relevant field (water governance, policy, water law) with at least 7 years relevant experience.
• The person must have experience working with water utilities in Kenya and supporting their reformation or growth.
• Experience in community advocacy and outreach would be an added advantage.

Other requirements include:

• A proven track record of professional execution of similar consultancies/assignments and demonstratable capacity to deliver high quality outputs within a short timeframe.
• Excellent analytical skills necessary to determine measures that will lead to improved water utility performance.
• Excellent English report writing, and communication skills are required.
• Previous work experience and knowledge of the context of the ASAL (Arid and Semi-Arid Lands) areas is preferred.
• Consultants based in Kenya are preferred.

G. DURATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The Water Utility Assessment will be conducted between July and October 2023 and is expected to take a maximum of 40 consulting days spread out over five months.

H. PREPARATION AND CONTENTS OF PROPOSALS

All applicants that do not meet these requirements will not be considered in the subsequent levels of bid analysis and evaluation. Each application should consist of:

1. The Technical Proposal

• A cover letter- 1 page
• The company profile and relevant projects undertaken – 4 pages.
• The methodological approach to the assignment. – 7 pages
• Contact details of 3 organizations that have contracted the Consultant to carry out similar assignments in the last 3 years.
• Expert CVs. – No more than 4 pages per CV. The CVs for all experts should all be in a similar format.
• The company business registration certificate and tax compliance certificate (if applying as a firm) and Tax Compliance Certificate (If applying as an individual)
• One report the Consultant has developed that showcases work with a water utility/water utilities – Only 1 report.

1. The Financial Proposal

• The fees proposed must be a total “fixed price” quotation indicating the overall total amount in Kenya Shillings inclusive of all taxes.
• The calculation of fees should indicate a cost breakdown associated with the consultancy services.