A.Water.org requests proposals from research and evaluation firms to
conduct a program evaluation for a project aimed at improving water access
and sanitation in India.
B.The evaluation will require the firm to facilitate and coordinate
with Water.org staff and Piramal Sarvajal in India. The project requires
the firm to submit the following deliverables:
A kick-off meeting
with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team at Water.org to
clarify roles and responsibilities in the evaluation process
An inception report,
including a desk review and outline of evaluation approach,
methodology and data collection instruments, and facilitator guides
(for any qualitative interviews)
A draft evaluation
report, submitted to Water.org for feedback
A final evaluation
report, not to exceed 25 pages (excluding annexes)
Presentation of the
findings and recommendations to Water.org
C.Invoicing will occur upon completion and approval of the
deliverables outlined as above in Section 1, Part B of this document.
D.Water.org is not liable for any expenditure incurred by responding
firms prior to issuance of an executed contract with Water.org.
E.Submissions must be typed and submitted only by email and must
follow the format of the requests for information in Section 4: Submissions
Requirements. Unless agreed upon with Water.org, no changes or corrections
to a response will be allowed after the deadline.
F.Proposed schedule:
March 1,
2020 – RFP submissions due by 5:00 PM CST.
March 15,
2020 – Results announced
April 1,
2020 – Contract begins
August 15,
2020 – Contract ends
G.The proposals must be submitted by email to Magdalene Goble at mgoble@water.org by
February 28, 2020, at 5:00 PM US Central Standard Time. Subject line should
read “Sarvajal Program Evaluation Proposal <<name of bidding
firm>>.” Please cc Diwakar Das at ddas@water.org.
The proposal must contain a technical proposal and a financial bid using
Water.org’s budgeting format.
Please
ensure that the total proposed budget does not exceed $18,000 USD.
2. Scope of
work
A. Overview
About
Water.org
For nearly
30 years, Water.org has been at the forefront of developing and delivering
sustainable solutions to the global water and sanitation crisis. Water.org
pioneers innovative, community-driven and marketbased solutions to provide
universal access to safe water and sanitation. To date, Water.org has
positively transformed more than 20 million lives around the world,
ensuring a better life for generations ahead.
About
Piramal Sarvajal
Piramal
Sarvajal (Sarvajal) is a social enterprise established in 2008 which
designs and deploys innovative solutions for creating affordable access to
safe drinking water in underserved areas. Piramal Sarvajal has designed,
developed and demonstrated a franchisee based decentralized drinking water
models deployed at the community level through local entrepreneurs to
create affordable access to safe drinking water.
E. Key
deliverables
Over the
course of the evaluation, key deliverables will include:
Inception report—An
inception report outlining the evaluation’s methodology, field staff,
and approach to analyzing data collected;
Draft evaluation
report—a draft of the final evaluation;
Final evaluation
report--A final evaluation report, including findings and
recommendations, and not to exceed 25 pages (excluding annexes) to be
submitted to Water.org.
3. Proposed
schedule and key dates
A tentative
schedule of key activities is presented in the table below:
Activity
Date
RFP
submissions deadline
March 1,
2020
Announce results of the selection process
March 15, 2020
Finalize
and start contract
April 1,
2020
Inception report
April 30, 2020
Collect
and analyze data and synthesize findings
May and
June 2020
Submit draft evaluation report
July 15, 2020
Review
draft report
July 30,
2020
Submit final report
August 15, 2020
4.
Submission requirements
To be
considered under this RFP, please submit the following:
A. Technical
Proposal
A narrative
proposal (no more than 10 pages excluding annexes) should include the
following sections:
a.Evaluation Methodology: Describe your overall approach and
evaluation methodology including, but not limited to, evaluation questions,
evaluation design, data collection, data quality assurance measures and
theory of change.
b.Relevant Experience: Provide details of projects of similar scope,
complexity and nature you have worked on previously.
c.Specific Expertise: Describe your level of knowledge and expertise
specific to the water and sanitation and microfinance sectors. Describe
your expertise and previous experience program evaluations.
d.Key Personnel and Staffing: Describe the key personnel and a
staffing plan for the project. Include CVs (no more than two (2) pages each
and attached as annex) of key personnel who would be part of the proposed
plan.
e.Timeline: Include a detailed timeline of key activities.
B. Financial
proposal
The
financial proposal should include a detailed budget and a budget narrative.
Please use the attached excel budget workbook to prepare and submit the
budget. The cost estimates used to prepare the budget should be presented
in Indian Rupees as well as US dollars. Please ensure that
the total proposed budget does not exceed $20,000USD.
5. Criteria
for submission
Applicants
may be individuals, groups of individuals with a designated team lead, or
firms. Applicants must have at a minimum the following qualifications:
Proposed staffing
plan includes at least one native or fluent English speaker as lead
writer.
Demonstrated
experience in conducting program evaluation in complex and developing
country contexts.
Demonstrated
experience and familiarity with the WASH and/or microfinance sector
(desired, not required.)
6. Selection
process
All proposals
submitted by the deadline will be carefully reviewed by the Selection
Committee based on established selection criteria. The selection process
may involve phone interviews with applicants. The final decision will be
based on the overall quality of the technical proposal and value for money.
The Selection Committee reserves the right to reject any or may cancel any
submission at any time prior to agreement if it is in the best interests of
Water.org.
7. Contact
Proposals
and queries related to the RFP should be sent through email to: