Burkina Faso: Action Research - Rural Sanitation results in a subsidy-driven environment in Togo and Burkina Faso

Background of the assignment

The Plan UK Programme Strategy (2014-2020) indicates that ensuring quality programming and targeting marginalised children, especially adolescent girls, are two critical components of the programming we carry out in all our thematic areas. For Plan UK to assess these components in our current programming and plan for a future of increased WASH quality and improved impact on marginalised children, there is need for action learning and analysis.

This proposed assignment will help analyse the rural sanitation projects in Burkina Faso and Togo, funded by Plan UK and the EC under the EC Water Facility and implemented between 2010 and 2016. It will also provide a brief analysis of the rural sanitation situation in other countries in the region where Plan International has offices i.e., Mali, Niger and Benin.

Plan UK wants to learn from this component of the WASH portfolio, to consider how to support Burkina Faso and Togo in the future of their WASH programming and influencing work, to start raising the profile of these challenges in the wider WASH sector, especially in Togo, Burkina Faso and French speaking West Africa. The EC Water Facility portfolio has been an important source of funding for Plan UK over the past 5 years and significantly increased the existing Plan UK WASH portfolio. Out of these five countries three of the projects in Burkina Faso and Togo share similarities including: high rural sanitation subsidies within the national sanitation policy; high number of latrines constructed by Plan (around 30,000); ongoing concern about the sustainability of the chosen sanitation technologies and the influence on behaviour change, which can ultimately influence a slippage to open defecation. The action research will focus on the sustainability and use of latrines by marginalised groups, constructed by Plan in a subsidy-driven environment in Burkina Faso and Togo. The specific research questions would include:

1. Are the latrines, constructed from 2010-2016, sustainable and replicable without further subsidy?
2. Are there gaps between user expectations and the sanitation infrastructure in place? Is this gap differentiated by gender and age? Does this influence use?
3. If available, does a consultative/participatory process with women, children and adolescent girls increase long term use of sanitation?
4. What is the nature of the current sanitation policy environment and the constraints and opportunities for future programming and influencing in the region?
5. How can Plan, in a supply driven sanitation environment, work towards sanitation sustainability in the future?

This suggested analysis will enable Plan UK to:

1. Feed into EC, relevant Government Ministries and WASH sector learning in the region
2. Provide an analysis of the niche that Plan UK could hold in the WASH sector in policy influencing in the region
3. Reflect on the internal strengths/weaknesses and the external WASH environment opportunities
4. Develop a policy/advocacy strategy to influence Governments in the region, the EC, other donors, and other strategic targets

Qualifications/special skills/knowledge

· Strong planning and report writing skills

· Significant experience of rural sanitation policy and stakeholder analysis in West Africa

· Significant experience in gender equality

· Fluent in English and French (spoken and written)

· Previous experience carrying out mapping/landscape analysis exercises and advising on policy direction

· Knowledge and understanding of the global WASH sector

· Experience working for large NGOs/institutions on rights based programming and policy approach

· Experience facilitating meetings and workshops

· Consultative approach

Result of the services

The work would be carried out in close collaboration with the Plan UK and Country Office WASH advisers in the region, Plan UK WASH Programme Officer, EC WASH representatives in the region, and other key informant people in the region. We encourage university, learning partners or individual consultants to apply.

Key activities to be conducted by the consultant will include:

• Analysis of existing monitoring, mid-term and evaluation data from Plan UK EC projects in Burkina Faso and Togo.
• Literature review, including rural sanitation subsidies in Niger, Benin and Mali.
• Field visits including qualitative data capture based on community FGD, participatory activities and individual interviews with community members, especially women, adolescent girls, children and excluded groups e.g. people living with disabilities.
• Analysis of the WASH policy in Burkina and Togo
• Key stakeholder interviews with WASH sector stakeholders (who could include relevant Government Ministries, EC, UNICEF, WSSCC, other donors, WASH NGOs and CSOs)

The expected results include a written report in English and French of max 30 pages divided in the following sections:

• Executive summary
• Introduction
• Methodology
• Literature review including Plan internal data (technical reports, evaluations, M&E data)
• Findings and analysis
• Recommendations & Conclusions - tailored to Plan Togo, Plan Burkina and Plan UK.

A presentation will be developed and presented at Plan UK office.

Duration (including timeline)

This piece of work is expected to take 40 days for desk review, interviews (in person and through skype), field work in Togo and Burkina, analysis, feedback/roundtable meetings and preparation of final report.

Work plan

To be defined with the consultant and carried out from March 21^th to May 6^th 2016.

Specific task and responsibilities

Defined research questions/methodology

Analysis of existing data and literature review

Stakeholder interviews

Consultation meeting with WASH working group and/or other local WASH networks in Burkina Faso and Togo

Analysis and writing up of report

Dissemination plan for Plan UK

Reporting line

Report directly to Plan UK WASH Programme Officer with technical support from Plan UK WASH and Gender Advisers, policy and research manager and the Plan UK WASH coordination team.

Consultants who meet requirements are invited to submit expressions of interest including the following documents on or before March 06th 2016 to Aytor Naranjo (aytor.naranjo@plan-uk.org )

1) Bid leader's CV

2) Brief indication of three recent consultancies or projects which the Firm/Consultant considers most closely relevant to the present work: this should occupy no more than one page.

3) A cover letter indicating how the Firm/Consultant would build an approach and apply their knowledge capital to deliver on the Consultant’s responsibilities

4) We expect candidates to quote their contracting fees plus any expected expenses.

Evaluation of bids for short-listing will be based on the Firm/Consultant's experience (as indicated by items 1 and 2 above), total cost and on the amount and quality of work to which the Consultant commits (as indicated by items 3 and 4 above).

Any questions should be sent to aytor.naranjo@plan-uk.org