Background

The African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) is an autonomous African intergovernmental body formed in 2002 to provide a coordinating platform for water policy dialogue on the African continent and promote sustainable management and development of the continent’s water resources with a focus on expanding access to water supply and sanitation services in Africa. AMCOW serves as a delivery mechanism on water and sanitation to the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (ARDWE) of the African Union Commission.

To achieve its mission, AMCOW developed a twelve-year year  Strategic Plan (SP) 2018-2030 to guide its activities and initiatives. In line with this overarching strategy, AMCOW has been operating under its current Strategic Operational Plan (SOP) 2020-2024.

The SOP 2020-2024 was designed to operationalize the AMCOW Strategy 2018-2030, focusing on key priority areas including:

Strategic Priorities:

1. Ensure Water Security
2. Ensure Safely Managed Sanitation and Hygiene
3. Promote Good Water Governance and Transboundary Water Cooperation
4. Strengthen AMCOW’s Governance and Operational Effectiveness

Cross-cutting Priorities:

1. Enhance Water and Sanitation Resilience to Climate Change
2. Contribute to Adequate and Sustainable Financing of Water and Sanitation Agendas
3. Improve Monitoring, Evaluation and Knowledge Management Systems
4. Strengthen Gender Equality and Youth Empowerment in Water and Sanitation

The SOP 2020-2024 also outlined specific objectives, activities, and key performance indicators for each priority area, providing a roadmap for AMCOW’s operations and initiatives over the last five-year period.

Objective

The objective of the task is to develop AMCOW (2025-2030) Strategic Operational Plan (SOP) which is aligned to the AMCOW strategy covering the period from 2018 to 2030. Currently, as we approach the end of 2024, the SOP is set to conclude, necessitating the development of a subsequent strategy. The development of the new SOP comes at a critical juncture.It is less than two years to the last milestone year of the Africa Water Vision expires in 2025. Formulation of the post-2025 Africa Water Vision, and an accompanying Continental Policy, is underway to provide a continental implementation framework for Agenda 2063.

A mid-term evaluation of the SOP 2020-2024 has been conducted, providing valuable insights and lessons learned for the development of the new SOP. The report of the evaluation provides a key background document vis-à-vis:

1. consolidating successes from that implementation period;
2. drawing on the lessons learnt in the same period; and,
3. ensuring that mechanisms are put in place to cater for the emerging issues arising from evolving needs and priorities in the water and sanitation sector.

Thus, given the importance of this document in guiding AMCOW’s activities and initiatives during this pivotal period, AMCOW is seeking to engage the services of an experienced and professional independent consultant or team to develop the SOP 2025-2030.

Scope of Work

The new SOP 2025-2030 will play a crucial role in this transition period. Thus, it will not only translate AMCOW’s overarching strategy into specific actions but also bridge existing policy initiatives with the water and sanitation agenda beyond 2025. A particular overarching goal is to transition to an Africa Water Vision and Policy that can provide a strategic framework towards inclusive and climate resilient water security on the continent.

The SOP is expected to define high-level framework results to be attained at relevant levels; annual milestones to be achieved; work packages; and an indication of required inputs. It is expected that the existing indicator framework for monitoring the implementation of the SOP 2020 – 2024 will be updated, as appropriate, to track progress.

See the full Terms of Reference for the detailed deliverables and more: https://knowledgehub.amcow-online.org/resource/recruitment-of-consultant-s-for-development-of-amcow-strategic-operational-plan-sop-2025-2030

Evaluation Budget and Payment

A lumpsum contract, pegged at about 70 input days over a period of 7 calendar months from November 2024 to June 2025 – will be entered into with the successful bidder. If travel is envisaged, all costs related to flights, hotel accommodation and any other cost associated with a field travel should be indicated as a separate item.

Qualification and experience

The consultant (individual) or team leader (firm) is expected to have the following minimum qualifications and experience:

• Demonstrated experience in undertaking similar assignments within Intergovernmental mandated institutions such as the AU, Regional Economic Commissions, River and Lake Basin Organisations and the UN and the Not-for-Profit Organisations such as NGOs and Civil Societies within the last 15 years.
• At least an advanced degree in water resources management, development studies, strategic planning, or related fields. In case of team of consultants, the team leader should meet the qualification requirement, and the CVs of team members should be submitted.
• Demonstrated knowledge of, the African water sector, and the institutional landscape in Africa.
• Strong analytical, writing, and communication skills.
• Excellent coordination skills and experience in conducting stakeholder consultations.

Fluency in English is required; knowledge of French, Portuguese or Arabic is an advantage.

Qualified interested candidates or teams should submit their proposal (maximum 10 pages excluding CVs), including:

1. An expression of interest and technical capability statement
2. Technical offer describing in detail the approach and methodologies
3. A statement confirming availability to conduct this assignment in the period stated.
4. Relevant experience over the last 5 years. Please use the table below for each of the relevant assignments.

Interested individuals or firms are invited to submit a formal proposal and resume no later than 10 October 2024. The application should be addressed and emailed with a subject line: AMCOW SOP 2025-2030 to:

The Executive Secretary 

African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) 

No. 11, T.Y. Danjuma Street, Asokoro District 

Abuja, Nigeria. Email: info@amcow-online.org  

10^th May 2024

Background

The African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) has the primary mission of providing political leadership, policy direction and advocacy in the provision, use, and management of water resources for sustainable social and economic development and maintenance of African ecosystems. AMCOW serves as a delivery mechanism on water and sanitation to the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (ARDWE) of the African Union Commission.  At the African Union Heads of State and Government Summit of July 2008, the African Minister’s Council on Water (AMCOW) was mandated to report annually on progress achieved in implementing the African Union (AU) commitments made in the 2008 Sharm El-Sheikh Commitments on water and sanitation, taking into account several international agreements including the Africa Water Vision 2025, the Africa Agenda 2063, as well as the global Sustainable Development Goals 6 (SDG-6) targets on clean water and sanitation.

In response to this directive, AMCOW in collaboration with the African Union Commission, and with financial support from Africa Water Facility (AWF) through the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), developed a web-based reporting system, the African Water and Sanitation Sector Monitoring and Reporting System (WASSMO) in October 2015: https://www.africawat-sanreports.org/Ui. This platform provides for reporting on water and sanitation sector indicators under seven themes: water infrastructure for growth; managing and protecting water resources; water supply, sanitation, hygiene, and wastewater; climate change and disaster risk reduction (DRR); governance and institutions; and financing.

To further enhance the WASSMO system’s efficacy, AMCOW is set to upgrade its capabilities by incorporating a new model for improving the tracking of indicators related to water and sanitation. The model, designed to better monitor decreasing and increasing indicators, is depicted as follows:

• For decreasing indicators:
  t* = tLst + {LOG(Y*/YLst)} / {LOG(1+r-bar)}
• For increasing indicators:
  t* = tLst + {Y* – YLst} / q-bar

Incorporating this model will allow for a more precise and nuanced understanding of the sector’s progress and challenges, ensuring that the system remains relevant and robust in the face of evolving sector dynamics.

This model integration initiative will be facilitated by the AMCOW M&E Team and the consultant who will assist in embedding the model into the online system, as part of AMCOW’s continuous efforts to improve data quality and reporting standards. The consultant’s role will be critical in ensuring that the WASSMO system is not only comprehensive but also capable of producing high-quality, actionable insights for policy-making and strategic planning. The AMCOW Secretariat is seeking a Data Analyst and Visualisation Consultant (DAVC) to support analysis, visualisation and to provide quality assurance checks on the data to produce the 2023 WASSMO report for high-level recommendations and decisions.

1. Tasks and Responsibilities

Through a consultative and participatory process, the consultant will work with the AMCOW Secretariat to perform the following activities:

• Support the integration of the new model for tracking water and sanitation indicators into the WASSMO system, ensuring compatibility and functionality within the existing framework.
• Perform data validation and cleaning to ensure accuracy and reliability, following international data standards.
• Interpret data, analyse results using statistical techniques
• Develop and implement databases, data collection systems, data analytics and other strategies that optimize statistical efficiency and quality.
• Identify, analyse, and interpret trends or patterns in complex data sets
• Filter and “clean” data by reviewing computer reports, printouts
• Assist the team in improving and streamlining processes regarding data flow and data quality assurance checks to improve data accuracy, viability, and value.
• Support the delivery of analytics and reporting solutions using BI/Data Visualization software or others.
• Provide analysis presentation – A Data Analyst Consultant will present the findings of the WASSMO report to the AMCOW Secretariat.

Deliverables

• WASSMO/AFRICASAN data exploration, analysis and modelling performed on the database, resulting in a clean data set to inform the 2023 WASSMO report narrative.  
• Any additional deliverables that are part of the WASSMO/AFRICASAN data analytics outputs (infographics, charts, etc.).
• The brief report with the highlights of the findings.

Qualification and Experience

• A minimum of master’s degree in management information systems, statistics, Business Intelligence, Computer Science, or Statistics is required.
• Relevant work experience as a data analyst or business data analyst and visualisation for both quantitative and qualitative data.
• Familiarity with the water and sanitation sector landscape.
• Ability to write a concise and clear analytical research report on the results of the WASSMO Member States’ data.
• Excellent command of written and spoken English. French will be an advantage.

Skills and Abilities

• Highly skilled in research and analysis: Very strong qualitative and analytic skills; keen attention to detail and data accuracy.
• Technical expertise regarding data models, database design development, data
• mining and segmentation techniques
• Knowledge of statistics and experience using statistical packages for analysing
• datasets (Excel, SPSS, SAS etc)
• Excellent communication skills: Strong knowledge of and experience with
• reporting packages (Business Objects etc), databases (SQL etc), and data
• visualization tools (Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, etc).
• Other: Demonstrated competence with using standard data software packages
• (MS Excel, MS Access, etc).

Contract Duration: The contract will be effective from the date of signing and will last for not more than 90 days.

Reporting language: English and French

Mode and Logistics: The consultancy service will be provided remotely.

How to Apply

Interested candidates who meet the required qualifications and experience are invited to submit:

• updated CV
• cover letter explaining their motivation and suitability for the assignment.
• 1 copy of previous work
• Budget

Interested applicants should submit their formal proposal and resume not later than May 27^th, 2024 in English, addressed and email to:

The Executive Secretary

African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW)

No. 11, T.Y. Danjuma Street, Asokoro District

Abuja, Nigeria.

Email: info@amcow-online.org 

For more information, kindly refer to http://www.amcow-online.org Note: Female candidates with required qualifications are strongly encouraged to apply. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.