The UNICEF Zimbabwe Country Office is seeking Expression of Interest (EOI) to pre-qualify suitable academic or research institutions, engineering firms and consortium of individuals who will be invited to submit proposals to enter into a contract for conducting needs assessment, design of appropriate training material, delivery of training and mentoring of water and sanitation service provider staff members in Zimbabwe.
The specific Terms of Reference will be described in detail in the relevant RFP(s) when issued.
Background:**
UNICEF in partnership with the Government of Zimbabwe have been implementing a water and sanitation programme covering both urban and rural areas. Major activities have included rehabilitation of community managed pipe water schemes as well as municipal water and sewerage systems and borehole drilling and rehabilitation.
UNICEF in partnership with the relevant line ministries and agencies now intend to provide technical assistance for capacity building on operation and maintenance of water and sanitation services to contribute to the sustainability of investments already made in water and sanitation infrastructure.
The expected outputs will include improved operation and maintenance practices by water and sanitation service providers, institutionalization and sustained operation and maintenance systems with evidenced based fund allocation and increased knowledge of staff on key design and operating principles of water and sanitation systems.
Scope of the Assignment:** The selected consultant is expected to provide the following services:
Undertake needs assessment to identify key capacity gaps in the operation and maintenance of water and sanitation infrastructure
Design training modules based on client needs, optimized with available resources. It is envisaged that a variety of training packages and methodologies will be required to suit various target groups
Deliver training to target groups. This will include non water and sanitation staff who may be decision makers as well as well as various cadres technical water and sanitation staff.
Provide mentoring support to service providers for specified periods of time , including technical support for the setting up and institutionalization of viable and functional operation and maintenance system
Review and if required, design monitoring systems for water and sanitation operation and maintenance
Eligibility and Qualifications:
The consultancy will be carried out by an institution or consortium of institutions or individuals.
For institutional bidders, various institutional arrangements are encouraged to apply: proposers might be academic institutions, research centres, consultancy firms, or a consortium uniting several institutions. In the case of an institutional consortium, the lead bidding institution whom UNICEF will deal with must be clearly indicated.
Similarly, for consortium of individuals, UNICEF will only communicate with one consortium member who must be clearly identified as the team leader
For institutional bidders, interested consultants should meet the following minimum qualifications:
Should be legal entity or consortium of legal entities;
Should have demonstrated or verifiable experience in capacity building for water and sanitation service providers
Should possess experience of working on similar projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.
For consortium of individuals, the consortium should possess amongst it team members:
Demonstrated or verifiable experience in capacity building for water and sanitation service providers
Experience of working on similar projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.
HOW TO APPLY:
Response requirements: At this stage, UNICEF is requesting Expression of Interest from vendors interested in competing for the consultancy on conducting needs assessment, design of appropriate training material, and delivery of training and mentoring of water and sanitation service provider staff members in Zimbabwe.
Interested institutional bidders should submit detailed and complete institutional profile information and documents, together with a written “Expression of Interest” in response to this advertisement. The documents should include:
Description of the lead bidding entity – legal status, organizational structure. If a consortium; indicate the proposed management structure of the consortium
Total number of years of experience in the implementation of water supply projects;
Description of major similar assignments undertaken during the last 5 years including name of the project, location, name and contact details (e-mail and telephone) of the client, implementation period, cost of the project, cost of services provided and scope of services
Key professional staff (name, date of birth, years with the institution, total years of experience, nature of experience in this firm and others, education/other trainings and knowledge of local languages; and
Interested consortium of individuals should submit the following:
Detailed profile of members of the consortium, including CVs with name, date of birth educational/other trainings, professional experience and names and contact of professional referees
Proposed organisational structure of the consortium, including roles and responsibilities of members of the consortium
Description of similar projects in which team members worked before including the roles they played, location of the project, name and contact details (e-mail and telephone) of the client, implementation period, cost of the project, and scope of services
Information provided will be reviewed to assess each consortium or institutions’ suitability to be included in the upcoming competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) process.
Institutions should submit detailed and complete institutional profile information, together with a written “Expression of Interest” by either email or mail no later than 12:00 noon Harare local time on Thursday, 2 June 2016. EOI should contain the following reference:
Emailed responses should be addressed to nsafure@unicef.org and serviceszim@unicef.org.
Mailed responses can be sent to:
The Supply Section
UNICEF Harare Office
Fairbridge Avenue
P.O. Box 1250