Monitoring Consultant at UNICEF Kenya Country Office

Reporting to    Julie Aubriot, WASH Specialist
Budget Code/PBA No    SC181198 - WBS 456C/C0/11/002/005/004

Background

The WHO/UNICEF JMP team has secured a 3-year grant from BMGF to bring together selected national governments and international partners to develop and test indicators and data collection methods in urban and rural locations in up to 10 low-, middle- and high-income countries in Africa, Asia, Middle East and Latin America. The primary output of the project will be a recommended set of harmonised indicators and methods that national authorities can use to assess the extent to which excreta from on-site sanitation systems is safely managed. The project aims to provide direct support to at least 10 countries to systematically collect data and to generate estimates for safe management of sanitation services by 2021, and indirect support to a further 75 countries by rolling out the indicators and tools through UNICEF and WHO regional and country offices and partners. Kenya has been selected among the 5 initial pilot countries.
In Kenya, Sanitation is a significant challenge in Kenya. The Country did not meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets for sanitation or drinking water. The WHO/UNICEF MDG Assessment concluded that while “good progress” was made towards the MDG target for drinking water, “limited or no progress” was made with respect to sanitation (JMP, 2017). Almost 10% of the population still practices open defecation and only 29% has access to basic sanitation services (JMP, 2019). So far, the country has no available estimates for safely managed sanitation services mainly due to lack of data collection methods, clear indicators and availability of national monitoring system.
Onsite sanitation is the norm for most urban residents, as less than 20% have access to sewerage services (WASREB, 2015). Transport and treatment services are very poor across all kinds of facilities. Nationally, only 12% of the population use sewerage services, but only 5% of the national sewage is effectively treated due to failures of the sewerage system and inadequate wastewater treatment processes (KESHP, 2016). It is estimated that of the wastewater that enters the sewer network, only about 60% reaches treatment plants (KESHP, 2016). For urban areas, the eight Water Services Boards have an estimated 3,267,246 connections to the sewerage system, with coverage rates ranging between 2% and 32% of their service area (WASREB, 2015).
There are about 43 sewerage systems in Kenya and wastewater treatment plants in 15 towns (serving a total population of 900,000 inhabitants). The operational capacity of these wastewater treatment plants is estimated at around 16% of design capacity, due to inadequate operation and maintenance, as well as low connection rates to sewerage systems (WASREB, 2015). These are often neglected and characterised by blockages owing to intermittent water supply (KESHP, 2016).
On-site sanitation services and access to transport and treatment services for onsite sanitation in urban areas are equally poor. Shit Flow Diagrams have been produced for Kisumu, Nakuru (Furlong, 2016) and Nairobi (Sanergy, 2017) indicating that over 60% of excreta produced ends up in the environment untreated, due to inefficient transport and treatment services.
There are no consolidated nor up-to-date data on coverage, availability or quality of transport and treatment services for wastewater and sludge in rural and urban Kenya. For rural areas, solutions provided focus on containment rather than emptying, transport and treatment. The existing real time monitoring platform developed by the MoH and UNICEF which provides information on rural sanitation only looks at containment with no attention to emptying, transport and treatment. As such, safely managed sanitation is not captured in the current national statistics and estimates mainly due to lack of data collection methods, clear indicators and availability of national monitoring systems. Different potential future data sources and data collection methods, including household surveys, technical inspections and service provider data, need to be explored both for rural and urban settings to collate those estimates.
While the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have shifted the focus from only addressing access to sanitation facilities and containment of excreta to considering safe waste management along the entire sanitation service chain, from waste generation to disposal or re-use, this shift has not yet happened in Kenya. The proposed project led by the UNICEF/WHO JMP will help bridge that gap and monitor how safely waste is contained, emptied, transported, treated and disposed of.

Objective and Scope of Work

UNICEF Kenya Country Office is seeking to recruit an international consultant who will provide technical support to UNICEF and Line Ministries to develop and test indicators and data collection tools to be used in future household surveys and administrative reporting for monitoring SMOSS in Kenya. The pilot for which the consultant will provide support in terms of design and implementation of data collection activities will focus on both rural and urban locations, including different geographical conditions across the country. The consultant will support data analysis, evaluate the performance of indicators and tools and make practical recommendations for scaling up routine monitoring of SMOSS in Kenya.

Specific Tasks

The following tasks will be completed by the consultant:

• Conduct a preliminary literature review and scoping review including identification of existing data and gaps, and stakeholders mapping. The scoping review would ideally get an inventory of all the faecal sludge treatment plants in the country and their status;
• Conduct key informant interviews as part of the scoping review;
• Facilitate consultation meetings and discussion with key Government and non-government partners at national and county level (Line ministries: MoH; MoWSI;  Other government partners: National Institute for Statistics; WASREB; Government partners at sub-national level: COG; selected county governments and WSPs; Non-government partners: UNICEF; Water Trust Fund; KIWASH; AMREF; SNV; KSHIP; WSUP; Research Institutes; Private sector: Sanergy; Sanivation; LIXIL; Major donors such as USAID and WB.
• Propose and identify sample sites for data collection;
• Development of a data collection tools, key indicators and data collection methods including representative sample size for assessing containment, emptying, transport and treatment;
• Draft an inception report detailing the findings of the literature review and proposed workplan and methodology;
• Present the inception report during the initial national workshop;
• Develop TORs for the data collection exercise including methodology and sample size;
• Prepare training materials;
• Facilitate training workshops for enumerators and data collection team and prepare a short training report including verification methods in order to ensure data reliability;
• Support preparation, organisation of and reporting from the national workshops;
• Supervise data collection (data collection will be carried out by existing staff from the national statistical office, ministry of water/health or local governments – TBD during the inception phase);
• Consolidate and analyse data;
• Evaluate performance of indicators and tools and make practical recommendations for scaling up routine monitoring of SMOSS in Kenya
• Present data results and findings during the final national workshop.
• Draft final report.

Note that some tasks can be completed remotely while others will need travel to Kenya (Nairobi and County level).

Methodology

The project will follow, but is not restricted to, the below phased approach:

Inception and design phase - Design SMOSS Country level Survey Methodology in close collaboration with Government Partners
Detailed design of the study, including interpretation of this TOR and a detailed description of the approach, scope and methodology for the assignment. Activities in this phase will include: desk review, refinement of the scope of the project, identification of data gaps, detailed timeline of the work plan in the form of a Gantt chart, initial engagement and consultation with line ministries and key partners, development and planning of data collection approach, tools, methodology and TOR as well as presentation of the inception report at national level through a workshop held at national level. The inception report should meet UNICEF quality standards and approved by the UNICEF team before starting the next phase.

Data collection phase – Supervise Field Team to conduct the field data collection and Survey Data Analysis
The consultant will develop the TOR for the data collection exercise which will be done either by the National Statistical Office, the Ministry of Water and/or Health or Local Governments. The consultant will also develop the training materials, conduct a training workshop for the data collection team and oversee data collection at county level and ensure reliability and quality of collected data.

Reporting and findings validation phase - Draft SMOSS Survey Finding and Kenya SMOSS Report
The consultant will analyse and triangulate all the data collected and write up a report based on the results and findings. The final report will present results, lessons-learnt and best practices. A final workshop will be held at national level. The final report must meet UNICEF quality standards before it is accepted and for the final payment to be made.

Key Tasks

The following table show the key deliverables and associated proposed timeline and milestone payments: and Expected Deliverables. Payments will be made on the submission of a detailed invoice and acceptance of satisfactory deliverables by UNICEF. The timeframe for this pilot phase is 6 months, from September to February 2020.