WASH consultant or team of consultants to conduct a WASH needs assessment and to inform in the Action against Hunger’s mid-term WASH strategy

TERMS OF REFERENCE – WASH BASELINE ASSESSMENT TO INFORM AAH WASH MID-TERM STRATEGY IN MOLDOVA

Ref. ESMD01993

BACKGROUND

Action Against Hunger (AHH) is currently in Moldova, responding to the humanitarian needs of the Ukrainian refugees and host community in reception and transit centers and villages with nutrition, food security, and WASH activities. Still, further analysis on the needs and the organizations strategy on WASH is needed. The uncertainty in the evolution of the conflict in Ukraine makes the organization position itself in the contingency of possible scenarios, as well as in promoting the capacities in the provision of services in the country, in a way that results in the quality of these services to the host population, and in the capacity to support a potential emergency action on them.

Therefore, Action Against Hunger is looking for a WASH consultant or team of consultants to be work remotely and in-country to conduct a WASH needs assessment to inform Action against Hunger mid-term WASH strategy with the following objective and tasks.

OBJECTIVE:

To design and conduct a wash baseline assessment to support country strategy, including the structural, institutional and governance factors of WASH services, and to analyze gaps where AHH expertise has transformative capacity in Moldavia.

METHODOLOGY

The study applies a combination of desk research and qualitative methodology by using the key informant interview and focus group techniques.

1. In particular, the following steps should be utilized: Desk review of context and policy framework

2. To design the qualitative data collection methodology that will allow to identify main gaps in the WASH services in Moldavia and opportunities for AAH:

a. Design of data collection tools, such as key informant interviews or focus group discussions with key stakeholders and community members, as well as the sampling methodology to recruit the respondents/stakeholders.

b. Final list of stakeholders/tools to be used should be discussed with the country office based on the desk review to better understand:

i. Political and donor commitment

ii. The institutional framework of WASH service providers in the areas of intervention

iii. Stakeholder engagement, including partners we are already working with

iv. Ecosystems stressors. Field visit.

v. SBC challenges. Coordinate among partners FGD dynamics with users/potential users.

3. Based of the prior, draft a mid-term WASH strategy for AAH in Moldavia:

a. Data analysis of the data collection phase and develop the strategy based on the key findings revealed based on the assessment

b. Conduct a workshop with country office and key staff from HQ to discuss the findings, identify AAH capacity and feasibility for each of the interventions and agree on the main lines to develop a mid-term WASH strategy

4. Production of two main reports:

a. Needs and gaps reports in the WAHS sector in Moldavia summarizing the main information found under step 2.

b. Way forward roadmap to inform the mid-term WASH strategy for AAH in Moldavia.

5. Support on the development of proposal for WASH based on the concept note submitted to UNICEF in December 2022 (in case if positive feedback from the potential donor is received by the beginning of February 2023)

EXPECTED OUTPUTS

Situation and analysis of the roles and responsibilities of WASH stakeholders and their accountability relations.

• Identify opportunities in policies and priorities National and International (i.e: UE, BHA..TBC with CD and desk) on long term vision on the service providers chain. (environmental ER sensitive, IWRM and ER water supply sources,,.)

• Stakeholders mapping (on capacities, leverage, confidence…under AHH localization criteria) involved in water governance.

• Resources uses and users’ priorities (host, temporal and transits demands.

• Identify bottlenecks on actual access to WASH services and feasibility to upgrade for emergency response.

• Challenges on SBC critical to support an ER strategy based on internal capacities

• Way forward roadmap to inform the mid-term WASH strategy

• Proposal on WASH comprehensive project based on the submitted concept note (only if positive feedback is received from the potential donor by the beginning of February 2023)

BUDGET

Maximum budget of 18.000 EUR all-inclusive for professional fees. Flights Spain – Moldova, accommodation and per diem in country as well as international insurance should be covered by the consultant(s). Transportation in country will be provided by Action Against Hunger.