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 Short Term Consultants for Service Delivery Assessment (SDA)
Water and Sanitation Program-South Asia
Location: Orissa, Bihar, MP, Karnataka & Meghalaya
Last Date: September 23, 2011
Email: wspsa@worldbank.org (Reference:
DevNetJobsIndia.org)
Terms of Reference for Service Delivery Assessment (SDA) of Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) for 5 States :
State level Short Term Consultants
Last Date : September
23, 2011
1.
The Water and Sanitation Program
Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) administered by the
World Bank and funded through international partnerships with a wide
range of external support agencies assists national, regional, and local
agencies responsible for water and sanitation in developing countries to
help the poor gain sustained service access. WSP supports the reform of
sector approaches and focuses on poverty-targeted, gender-sensitive,
community-based solutions in rural settlements, urban areas, and small
towns. A current major thrust of the Program’s business plan is helping
its clients to prepare for and implement actions towards meeting the
Millennium Development Goals. In pursuing their mission, WSP provide
advisory support to projects and policies, help identify and disseminate
best practices and lessons from experience across countries, and
facilitate informal networks of practitioners and sector stakeholders.
Additional information about WSP can be found on the Program website (www.wsp.org).
WSP in South Asia (WSP-SA) currently operates through a regional office
in India and country offices in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
2.
Objective :
Assess the
performance of 5 Indian States ( Orissa, Bihar, MP, Karnataka & Meghalaya)
in delivering Water & Sanitation Services (WSS) based on benchmarking
of sub-sector service delivery pathways, past spending and future needs
versus commitments:
·
Describe how
in each state & central level WSS sectoral funds (budgetary allocations
/other funding etc) are being turned into water & sanitation services (WSS),
where it is getting stuck along the service delivery pathway, and, where
it is flowing into unsustainable or ineffective service models;
·
Provide
states in India with an overview of the range of service delivery
approaches taken by selected states in the country along with their
respective trends in sector outcomes;
Engage in and facilitate a country/state sector
dialogue that reaches consensus on key problems and practical solutions
based on both states and regional learning leading to possible policy
improvements and /or funds flow strengthening for improved/more efficient
and effective service delivery.
3.
Background :
In 2006 the report,
“Getting Africa on-track to meet the MDGs on water and Sanitation” was
prepared under the auspices of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW).
A collaborative undertaking, designed to complement existing global
reporting on WSS MDGs with a standardized yet country-led process, this
first set of country status overviews (CSOs) reported on the extent to
which 16 countries had put in place the institutions and policies needed
to meet their WSS targets, adequate finance, and sector sustainability.
The overview included recommendations on how countries could improve
performance.
The CSO was coordinated by
the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) with support from the African
Development Bank, the World Bank, United Nations agencies, and the
European Union Water Initiative.
The CSO benchmarked the
preparedness of sectors to meet the WSS MDGs based on their medium-term
spending plans and a set of ‘success factors’ – e.g. a SWAp, a sector
investment plan, sector M&E – selected from regional experience. Combined
with a process of national stakeholder consultation this prompted
countries to ask a) whether they had those ‘success factors’ in place and
b) if not whether they should put them in place.
Though the depth of
country dialogue was uneven dialogue did lead to change. In Zambia and
Ghana it resolved confusion and misunderstanding among stakeholders over
coverage figures in the sector. In Ghana the analysis of ‘success
factors’ spurred the establishment of the Water and Sanitation Monitoring
Platform to provide a comprehensive overview of sector progress and
performance. In Senegal it contributed a move to sharpen country M&E
systems and to the introduction of annual sector reviews.
Subsequently a second
round of CSOs were undertaken for 30 African countries under the auspices
of AMCOW by WSP in collaboration with WB, AfDB, UNICEF & WHO, as a
logical follow-on from CSO1 reports for getting further insight into
sector service delivery process including how they differ among countries
and how they explain trends in sector outcomes. The CSO2 looked at
analysis of delivery pathways for transforming available finance into
results outcome on water and sanitation service delivery.
Using broadly the
methodology of CSO2 undertaken in Africa and adapting to specific
country/regional context, WSP is initiating similar studies in
collaboration with WB and UNICEF in other regions including in South
Asia. Considering the governance structure in some of the countries in
South Asia, including India, where Water and Sanitation are
State/Provincial subjects, the process is termed as “Service Deliver
Assessment”(SDA) and will focus on initially 5 states in India as
suggested by the MDWS, GOI.
4.
Rationale :
The Government of India, &
State Governments have been the major provider and facilitators for water
supply and sanitation in India. Although water and sanitation is a state
subject under the Constitution in India, substantial funding has been
flowing from Government of India to states and has witnessed increase in
funding during the current Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012) . The 73rd
Constitution Amendment mandated panchayati raj institutions (PRIs or
elected local governments in rural areas)at district, sub-district and
Gram Panchayat levels, with provision of drinking water and sanitation
and was to devolve funds, functions and functionaries for this, similarly
74th Constitution Amendment devolved this to elected Urban
Local Bodies (ULBs). However, increased financing has not resulted in
corresponding improvement in service delivery.
Under the Accelerated
Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) India made good progress in terms of
coverage. However, out of the total number of 16,61,058 habitations in
India, states reported that 30% (4,94,610) habitations had slipped back
to partial coverage and 9% habitations were water quality affected as on
April 2010.
Since the First Five Year
Plan (1951-1956), Government of India (GoI) and State governments have
spent about Rs 1,55,000 Crore on rural drinking water. Under the current
Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012), the total expenditure is likely to
exceed Rs 1,00,000 crore. Yet, despite this huge investment, the sector
is beset with problems. Ground water sources are deteriorating, many
areas are classified as water quality affected, and poor operation and
maintenance has resulted in dilapidated facilities.
Rural sanitation in India
in terms of coverage increased from 21.9% in 2001to 57% in 2008, since
the implementation by states of Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) of the
GOI, and subsequent introduction of Nirmal Gram Puroskar (NGP) in 2003.
However, major challenges remain in the sector e.g. accelerating the
program to address the base short-fall as well as population growth;
actual usage falling much short of physical coverage; NSS-65 round
reported an open defecation rate of 49.2%; variable performance across
states and districts; improved targeting of the poorest households;
integrating sanitation, hygiene and environmental sanitation. Other
challenges include improving accountability of planning and
implementation structures at different level, improving system of data
collection to monitor behavior change.
Urban water sector status
in India includes access to piped water sources 70% and 55% with direct
connections. However, service level are inequitable and unreliable . No
city in India has 24X7 water supply, and average supply varies between
0.5 hrs to 5hrs per day. Average non revenue water across cities is
around 50% , with low recovery of operating costs ranging between 40% &
70%.
In urban sanitation sector
, more than 40 million people still resort to open defecation, 82% of the
households dispose human waste unsafely, 70% of waste water is discharged
without treatment, and urban poor is worst affected. According to a WSP
study inadequate sanitation costs India 6.4% of its GDP or $54 Billion
in a year.
Attention therefore needs
to be turned to the way in which that money is being spent on water and
sanitation. If it is spent well, confidence in the sector will improve
and more investment, both public and private, will follow. If not
governments and their development partners may lose interest in the
sector and funding to the sector could even drop away again – despite the
sector’s centrality to poverty eradication.
The challenge is two-fold.
First, the sector needs to demonstrate it is making progress with impact
on service provision and health. Second, the sector needs a strong
feedback mechanism in order to learn from experience: a means of
assessing what works and what does not in order to make improvements to
the efficiency and effectiveness of sector spend.
The second problem is that
monitoring outcomes in isolation of inputs and the institutional
processes that generate the outputs and outcomes limits opportunity for
sector learning and development both within and across countries. What
drives, or holds back, progress?
A more comprehensive
approach is required. An approach that evaluates the service delivery
pathway: from the enabling environment, to infrastructure development &
service provision, through to sustaining these services at appropriate
standards.
It is not enough to have
good policies in place the sector needs to be prioritized, resource
allocation aligned with targets, budget spent, spent equitably across a
country and its social strata, result in quality output, that is
sustained, that can grow to meet demand and that is used. The whole
service delivery pathway – the institutions that mediate inputs to
outcomes – need to be in place and proactively managed.
In the case of sanitation
many countries are still figuring out what that service delivery pathway
should look like. What should the policy be, should money be spent on
subsidy or promotion, if promotion who will do the promoting, is there
enough budget for all the required sanitation and hygiene promoters, are
there appropriate materials for promoters to use, will markets supply the
demand created, how will uptake be monitored, will the quantity and
quality of uptake be sufficient to meet the MDG target and standards, and
will the uptake be sustained?
5.
Project Approach :
With the aim of
identifying structural bottlenecks in service delivery pathways the SDA
is both an analytical tool and a learning process. It is a scoping,
scanning and benchmarking exercise that will draw heavily on public
expenditure reviews (PERs) where they exist and will be useful in
deciding where best to target future PERs (both which states and which
sub-sectors).
The analysis will be based
on a standard and relatively simple set of indicators ( scorecards being
refined, ref : Annex 1—the scorecard will draw from African-scorecards
and adapt to suit Indian context) to help the country/states objectively
assess their ability to turn available finance into WSS services; to
identify where it is getting stuck along the pathway, and, where it is
flowing into unsustainable models of provision. This analysis will
provide states & GoI an overview of the range of service delivery
approaches adopted by states in the country/ region, their respective
contexts and the resulting trends in sector outcomes.
The learning process will
use this evidence-base to facilitate country sector dialogue & advocacy–
through existing review mechanisms such as joint sector reviews – based
on both country and regional learning. It will help
country/states identify structural innovations suitable to context –
important in transferring lessons from ‘mature reformer’ states to
lagging states .
The medium-term aim is to
reach consensus on the key policy strategies/actions required. Policy
actions that will put in place the basic but complete service delivery
pathway for each sub-sector in each state as well as an indication of the
volume and nature of funding required to adequately finance the WSS
country targets & MDGs. In the short-term the consultation built into the
SDA process will initiate this medium-term consensus building through:
a) the extensive network
of technical agencies involved in championing the SDA process in country,
taking part in the analysis and responding to priority actions through
their programming;
b) integrating the SDA
method with states/ country monitoring systems
The SDA reports and the
regional synthesis report will be respective states/ country and
regionally-owned documents, informed by national and regional
consultations. In country they will guide both sector policy
implementation and the sector policy change agenda addressing core
government systems holding back the sector. For development partners the
reports will be a reference work to guide the design of technical
assistance, aid coordination and investment. Also the emerging
international policy dialogue will influence the quality and quantity of
aid flowing to the countries.
6.
Scope of Work :
Ø
State
consultant will conduct the study process covering selected
state/s in consultation and under guidance of a national consultant &
WSP , in order to maintain a standard and objective approach to the SDA
across the states. WSP will coordinate links between national/ state
consultants and respective in-country agencies (UNICEF, WSP/Bank, WHO &
Government counterpart agencies).
Ø
Provide
technical inputs and assist in finalization of the Scorecard indicators
and the Costing model (SDA instruments provided by WSP used in Africa CSO
study) after discussions with WSP and counterpart GOI/State
agencies/departments.
Ø
Participate
& contribute in a launch/orientation workshop for SDA to be organized by
WSP and MDWS , to discuss the methodology ,instruments and time table for
the SDA study.
Ø
After
initial consultation with the national counterpart Ministries, WSP and
selected state/s, state consultants will collate existing data ( score
card indicator & costing model/financial data) for the selected state/s
and present in a structures way outlined in the SDA instruments. This
will be drawn from available documents on : sector public expenditure
review, value for money studies, joint sector reviews, utility self
assessment, credit rating reports, household survey analysis, and
previous sector assessments. This desk review, and a “zero draft SDAs”,
will serve as a means to identify information gaps.
Ø
The state
consultants will discuss and verify the initial desk review findings from
the respective states with the national consultants , discuss the score
cards, costing model and questionnaire with the stakeholders and fill the
data gaps. Visit by the national consultant to states will also be used
for discussing the nature and timing of the consultation process with
sector ministries and departments, reflected in a country/state
consultation plan.
Ø
The state
consultants then in consultation with the national consultant will
prepare the SDA “Consultation draft” for their respective states/country
assist the country/state agencies to liaise with respective
state/national government to agree on a version for circulation.
Ø
Following
feedback on the SDA “consultation draft” from development partners, civil
society and government ministries the state consultants will work with
the national consultant to facilitate identification and prioritization
of policy and practice actions called for by sub-sector and sector
stakeholders
Ø
In
consultation with WSP and the national consultant the state level
consultants will set up sub-sector consultation meetings with 10-12 key
people at state level to go through the detailed findings of the
consultation drafts. These sub-sector meetings will focus on identifying
few key policy and practice actions, which will be discussed with the
concerned counterpart Ministries in GOI.
Ø
The state
level consultants will incorporate the feed back and priority actions
into the final draft of the SDA for respective state and work with WSP/national
consultant and partners to finalize the SDA with the government that will
include priority areas for action.
7.
Outputs :
The State Consultants will
be responsible for the following outputs. The delivery of outputs will be
developed in consultation with the WSP team.
Ø
Analytical
inputs in refinement of SDA instruments (e.g. scorecards/indicators ,
costing tool , & questionnaire for sector ministries/departments)
ØCollation
of existing data put in SDA format and based on this and desk review
development of a ‘Zero draft’ of the SDA for the specific state/s
ØParticipate
and provide technical inputs in national and state level consultation
meeting, contribute to discussions on scorecards, costing tools and
questionnaire with the stakeholders and prepare a “Consultation Draft’
for the SDA for each state.
ØSet
up and participate in consultation with WSP state sub-sector consultation
meetings to discuss the consultation draft of the SDA and identify key
policy and practice action points
ØBased
on these feedback prepare the final draft SDA for specific state/s and
finalize the same including identification of priority actions in
consultation with WSP and the government counterparts.
8.
Work Relationships :
Ø
Report to
Christopher Juan Costain/Nabaroon Bhattacharjee at WSP Delhi and
coordinate with other members of the team as required
Ø
Liaison with
Governments, NGOs and other institutions at state level
9.
Key Competencies :
Ø
Postgraduate
degree or equivalent qualifications in a relevant discipline
Ø
Minimum of 8
years of progressively responsible experience of working in water &
sanitation, institutional/governance/policy and related issues,
especially with governments/government agencies
Ø
A sound
understanding of key policy, operational & institutional issues in the
Indian water and sanitation sector
Ø
Strong
analytical skills related to government policy, budgets and service
delivery aspects
Ø
Ability to
work independently, seeking guidance on complex issues from senior
specialists
Ø
Excellent
verbal and written communication skills in English & Hindi
Ø
Able to
travel within the state and outside the state at short notice
10.
Duration of the contract :
Duration of the contract
will be 60 days, beginning on signing of contract until 30 June 2012.
Annexure:
SDA Score Cards | 