TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR LEAD POLITICAL ECONOMY ANALYSIS CONSULTANT FOR KENYA, UGANDA, TANZANIA, ETHIOPIA, AND MALAWI

About APHRC:

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is an African-led research institution committed to generating an Africa-owned body of evidence to inform decision making for an effective and sustainable response to the most critical challenges facing the continent. APHRC is based in Nairobi, Kenya with offices in Senegal, and carries out its work in over 30 sub-Saharan African Countries.

APHRC’s vision is to transform lives in Africa through research, the mission is to generate evidence, strengthen research capacity, and engage policy to inform action on population health and well-being. APHRC’s work is focused on three important areas: Research, Research Capacity Strengthening (RCS) and Policy Engagement and Communications (PEC). Three complementary and coordinated programmatic divisions, supported by a strong institutional operations team.

About WASH Project

Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Malawi have made commitments to increase investment in sanitation to a minimum of 0.5% of the country’s GDP, to facilitate Universal coverage. To ensure this becomes a reality, there are several issues that need to be addressed, including a conducive enabling environment supported by a policy framework that makes it possible for the countries to invest and accelerate access to safely managed sanitation. However, the rate of growth is too slow to meet SDG expectations, and the investment in the sector must be accelerated if this was to become a reality.

APHRC is implementing a 3-year National sanitation policy advocacy project in Eastern Africa. The project intends to support countries develop or review their policies, to be compliant with the Africa Sanitation Policy guidelines that have been developed jointly with African Countries, to harmonize the process of policymaking and the best practices with regards to the content of a good policy.

Country-Specific Political Economy Analysis in the Sanitation Sector

The APHRC requires the services of a lead consultant to coordinate county-specific Political

Economy Analysis (PEA) of the sanitation sector in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Malawi. It is the expectation of APHRC that the Political Economy Analysis will, among other things contribute to a shared understanding of the current context (and how it affects Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programming; broaden the scope for informed dialogue and ownership among stakeholders; inform the Theory of Change for sanitation  policy advocacy in the each country; inform risk management and scenario planning; inform the selection criteria, prioritization and development of strategies for specific countries; and help identify partners to work with.

Scope of Assignment                                           

The lead consultant will provide the overall coordination, supervision, and quality assurance of the country-specific political economy analysis of the sanitation sector. The in-country political economy analysis seeks to identify the critical drivers of change including power structures, formal and informal institutions, and actors or agents that influence access to sanitation. Emphasis will be on context, power, institutions, actors, relationships, and processes. The review will test the explicit and implicit assumptions about the influence and interests of stakeholders and the way that power is exerted in a specific institutional and individual context that underlies policy orientation and implementation as well as atitudes and behaviors.

Specific Objectives of the Assignment

1. To identify the key power relations, dynamics and trends in governance systems, structures and processes related to WASH in the assessment countries. This should include overt and covert intermediaries, values and norms for decision making, as well as enabling institutions both formal and informal for WASH.
2. To undertake a stakeholder mapping and power analysis for WASH with a view of identifying overt and covert power brokers, structures and systems that enable these power brokers, incentives and rewards for the intermediaries and the formal and informal institutions enabling perpetuation of the perceived or real power of these power intermediaries.
3. To establish the current roles of women, youth, men, key populations and other groups in decisions and actions related to access to WASH.
4. To identify key obstacles that prevent active and influential advocacy and use of evidence for transparent, accountable, and inclusive access to access to WASH.
5. To identify key enablers that promote and influence advocacy and use of evidence for transparent, accountable, and inclusive access to access to WASH.
6. To provide recommendations on both immediate and long-term approaches/strategies that APHRC and other stakeholders can use to ensure transformative sanitation policy advocacy agendas addressing community and stakeholder needs.

Methodology

APHRC expects an in-depth, evidence-based, critical analysis and wider consultation with various stakeholders including civil society, partners, INGOs, UN agencies and governments at the country level. The PEA must deliver informed insights and reflections with practical recommendations. As part of the design, the methodology must be presented and mutually agreed upon before implementation. At a minimum, the methodology must include:

# A thorough literature review that utilizes up-to-date data and information from credible sources.

# Consultation with key APHRC/WASH staff and partners to ensure the analysis is designed in a way that will meet required needs.

# Key informant interviews with a diversity of actors such as governments / local authorities, local community, civil society, international institutions, and the like.

# Presentation of the PEA for a validation workshop and revisions made according to discussions.

The study will use both quantitative and qualitative data collected from both primary and secondary sources. A protocol will be developed and submitted for approval at the national level. The data will be robust, verifiable and collected using ethical practices. The consultant will propose a method of analysis and subsequent presentation. The report should be presented in a logical, strategic, reader friendly and simple language.

Deliverables

1. Phase One
2. An Inception matrix that includes final work plan and methodology for the assignment.
3. Data collection and analysis tools for the study.
4. Draft PEA finding report for purposes of initial decision making

1. Phase Two
2. A stakeholder workshop to validate PEA findings.
3. Final policy brief and country fact sheet
4. Final Report for each selected country.

The written report will be:

# The report format and text shall be in A4 paper size and a legible Arial 12 font size.

# A country report should not exceed more than 40 pages excluding annexes and references to be submitted on an agreed deadline.

# The summary should not exceed 5 pages.

# The policy brief should not exceed 3 pages.

Confidentiality of information: All documents and data collected will be treated as confidential and used solely to facilitate analysis. Interviewees will not be quoted in the reports without their permission.

Content: All the required documents and reports in their draft and final versions shall be submitted to APHRC within agreed timelines and shall remain the explicit property of APHRC.

Expected roles of the Lead consultant

Phase One

# Prepare tools that will be used by in-country consultants for data collection.

# Support the coordination of in-country data collection

# Review the quality of the data collected by each in-country consultant.

# Review draft PEA reports submitted by each in-country consultant.

# Collate and submit draft findings to APHRC.

Phase Two

# Support the presentation of findings during the PEA validation workshop at the national level.

# Support dissemination of PEA findings and arising key messages to segmented target audiences.

# Collate and submit final PEA report.

Note.

It is expected that all Phase One activities will be handled remotely.

Expected roles of APHRC

# Arrange all logistics (transport, accommodation, etc.) for the PEA.

# In consultation with the consultant, arrange a translator if required.

# In consultation with the consultant, arrange for ethical approval in the country level.

# Lead stakeholder mobilization and engagement at the national level

# Provide relevant information relevant to WASH work and thinking.

# Provide contact details for people relevant to the PEA.

# Contribute to development of the PEA protocol.

# Organize the logistics of the validation workshop.

# Respond to ad hoc requests.

Requirements and Selection Criteria for the Lead Consultant

Consultancy Period.

The period of this consultancy will be approximately 20 pro-rated working days starting in July 2021 and ending in September 2021.

Management

All reports are subject to review and authorization by APHRC’s WASH project manager.

Bid Requirements

Consultants who meet the requirements of this assignment should submit an Expression of Interest of MAXIMUM 5 PAGES which should include the following:

1. Suitability statement that expresses commitment to availability for the entire period of the assignment.
2. Cover letter of no more than one page- Attached separately.
3. CV of lead consultant totaling no more than 3 pages- Attached separately.
4. Contact details of at least three referees.
5. Preliminary proposed PEA process, including basic context analysis, methodology, report structure and timeline informed by this ToR.
6. A phased out indicative budget of including all expected costs but broken down to demonstrate what each cost covers.
7. All text in size 12 font, single-spaced and with standard margins.

Please email your questions and response through consultancies@aphrc.org copying procurement@aphrc.org by Midnight EAT: 11^th  June 2021. Please label the email: WASH-PEA(LEAD) – RFQ Response. APHRC will contact the shortlisted candidates only. Applications should be should be addressed to:

The Human Resources Officer

African Population and Health Research Center, Inc

APHRC Campus, Manga Close, off Kirawa Road, Kitisuru

P.O. Box 10787-GPO, Nairobi

Website: www.aphrc.org

APHRC is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to the protection of vulnerable persons.