TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR SERVICE CONTRACTING
Assignment / Development of National Standards for WASH in Schools in Jordan and adapting the 3 stars approach to the Jordanian context.Estimated budget / (USD 50,000)
Budget Source / (2340/A0/04/884/001/006)
Location / Jordan- Amman
Duration / 1st February 2016- 31st July 2016
Estimate number of working days / 6 Months (180 Days) (Please see particular condition)
Start date / 1st February 2016
End date / 31st July 2016
Reporting to / WASH Specialist
Closing date for proposals / (11th January - Monday)
1. JUSTIFICATION/BACKGROUND
In Jordan, there are approximately 3600 public schools for children age (6-18) spread all over the country, this is in addition to private schools serving the sector of Education in Jordan. Recent assessment conducted by Japan Emergency NGO and sponsored by UNICEF revealed that 20% of the schools are rented buildings not designed or built as school, leaving school children with inappropriately and inadequately, poorly fitted WASH facilities. Rented schools will remain to be needed due to lack of funds and therefore limited construction of new schools. School conditions and WASH facilities in particular has deteriorated due to the increase in number of Syrian students attendant after the outbreak of the Syrian Crises, More than 100 schools are working in double shift burdening the dilapidated existing WASH and overall facilities in these schools.
Ministry of Education has developed detailed technical standards regarding WASH in school construction and work specification such as type of tiles, seats, flushing system, vents and skylight windows out of engineering perspective and with no consideration to the different gender needs and different groups of age needs. There has been no clear standards or guidelines on the ratio of seat to students, distance between latrine building and classrooms, internal design and setup for disabled children.
Standards and guidelines for WASH in school should be tailored to respect gender sensitivity and culture. Protection especially in girls’ school and the youngsters are not well stated or translated in terms of standards.
The above mentioned WASH in schools’ survey is an important tool and source of data used to design WASH in school standards. Other important and valuable sources and studies submitted in the last years will be also considered in addition to the experience and standards of other countries in the region such as Lebanon[1].
UNICEF’s key strategies for quality education is Healthy and hygienic school environment where child friendly school norm is introduced.
“WASH in schools” is not really a common concept in Jordan, decision makers at the MOE are used to the rehabilitation of the overall school facilities and not specifically the WASH facilities, introducing the WASH in Schools concept is one hard challenge to overcome during the upcoming programs.
Lack of functioning toilets in some schools is of particular challenge to girls and young boys, which may be hindering the engagement at school level and may be even exposing them to serious protection issues especially with the long distances between school’s building and the toilets. Children with disability lack access to equipped or designed WASH services depriving the children from access to water and proper sanitation.
Standards and guidelines are important to provide gender sensitive and equitable access to child friendly facilities including schools. Sustainability of WASH services depends primarily on the well designed and built toilets, flushing systems, properly ventilated latrines, presence of enough water storage facilities (due to the intermittent water supply scheme in Jordan) and the presence of enough facilities to serve all students and teachers attending the schools. Setting WIS standards will increase ownership as well as extending the life span of the facilities especially with the serious issues around the sustainability of these facilities due to the lack of proper operation and maintenance at school level.
The participation of school children, parents, teachers and DoE/MoE in developing practical WIS standards will certainly make an added value when it comes to practice and operation and maintenance. Development of practical standards and guidelines endorsed by Ministry of Education and sector partner should address the major issues in the sector of WASH in Schools, and these be categorised in the following groups: 1) general schools maintenance, 2) maintenance of the wash facilities, 3) the hygiene promotion and improved hygiene practices, and finally 4) sustainability of the resources and practices.
The availability of water resources in Jordan is adding to the challenges, Jordan is ranked the second water poorest country worldwide due to the lack of water and the per capita share (varying between 120 m3/yr in the most fortunate locations to 60 m3/yr -or even below- at the vulnerable areas), supplied water quantities can barely cover the needs of it’s population, available water resources are not reliable nor sustainable, ground water aquifers are severely over exploited beyond recovery points. .
At the end of this consultancy, standards and guidelines are developed addressing all school children needs particularly disabled from the point of access to water and sanitation. Standards development will be done in consultative and participatory approach with students, parents, teachers and MoE/DoE engineers in addition to sector stakeholders who have been working in Jordan since the begging of the Syrian crises in 2011.
In partnership with the Royal Health Awareness Society (RHAS), UNICEF (Water Supply Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Section) is calling for consultancy services to develop the WASH in Schools Standards for Jordan and to adapt the global three stars approach to the Jordanian context. (Reference: similar standards from the region and middle income countries).
To carry out this assignment, RHAS[2]/UNICEF will provide access to the existing WASH in Schools Programme documents, progress reports, photographic and graphic records / archives as appropriate for the work and as approved by the WASH Section Chief, WASH Officer and M&E Specialist
2. OBJECTIVE AND TARGETS
Consultancy objectives:
1) National WASH in schools standards and guidelines are developed and endorsed by Ministry of Education, Ministry of Water and Irrigation and Ministry of Health.
2) Standards are integrated in MoE construction plan for new schools.
3) Adaptation of the global Three Stars Approach to the Jordanian context.
3. SCOPE OF THE WORK (WORK ASSIGNMENT)
Duties and Responsibilities
UNICEF is collaborating with the Royal Health Awareness Society (RHAS) who have long experience as local NGO in Jordan in developing standards and accreditation systems for schools, to support the consultant with his/her mission, facilitate movement and access to contacts RHAS will also provide technical assistance to the consultant and facilitate data collection, meetings and interviews with the relevant ministries, different departments of the Ministry of Education, Directorates of Education at the governorate levels and will assist the consultant in conducting interviews with school headmasters and headmistresses as well as students and parents.
The consultant then shall carry out the following:
1- Desk review of all available data, studies and surveys including reports and standards developed for countries in the region.
2- Develop data collection tools and conduct interviews with relevant MoE directorates, schools, different stakeholders, as well as interviews with students, teachers, parents and community members.
3- Draft standards and guidelines are presented and reviewed by a dedicated task force (TF) and WASH sector
4- Conduct consultative and participatory approach to review and finalize the standards
5- Submit draft report along with the standards to be reviewed by the task force (TF) and WASH sector partners and stackholders.
6- Submit final report along with school WASH national standards and guidelines manual after MoE endorsement.
Activity / Results / Payment/deliverableSubmission of inception report and work plans / Submit detailed work plan per deliverable broken down to task level under each deliverable, along with the methodology and approach for undertaking the completion of the activities / 0%
Task 1 and 2 related activities:
i. Desk/ Literature review: Review the relevant standards for WiNs in the region and middle income countries, and other successful WASH in Schools Guidelines/ Manuals from various countries.
Review the three star Approach (TSA) guide book manual and C4D materials.
Form a Task Force/technical working group to work on development of WASH in schools standards and TSA guidebook with key partners. UNICEF will support to form the Task Force.
Develop the draft outlines of the Standards (task 1), and TSAModule (task 2) in English language and present the draft outlines to MoE/ Task Force and UNICEF together with the leading local NGO-Royal Health Awareness Association (RHAS).
*collected data should be tabulated in an excel sheet with reference (and hyperlink) to the source. / a. Desk review of WASH guidelines, Jordan national building code and any specific guidelines of MOE relevant to WASH facilities at schools.
b. ToR of Task Force/ technical working group developed and Task Force formed with the support of UNICEF.
c. Draft outlines of the Standards incorporated with good experiences from Jordan and the region (task 1), TSA (task 2) in English language developed and presented to UNICEF and MoE/Task Force in consultation with GIZ Jordan who are a co-publisher for this document.
d. Review of the financial allocations within MOE for the WASH in schools- general budgetary allocations, sustainability and running costs of the facilities. / 10%
ii. Conduct secondary data collection and interviews. Meet with key stakeholders, conduct interviews and secondary data reviews at the national level. / e. Stakeholders’ interviews and secondary data review completed. / 5%
iii. Prepare draft documents (preliminary report):
· National WinS standards
· Three Star guidebook
Present the draft document to MoE/ Task Force for review and comments.
Incorporate comments and prepare 1st draft. / f. Zero draft of the Standards and Three Star guidebook developed in English (will be translated to Arabic by UNICEF).
Arial font size 11
National WinS standards – Minimum of 100 pages.
The Three Star guidebook – 50 pages maximum / 10%
iv. Consultations: Consult and co-ordinate with government partners and key stakeholders for the draft outlines
Organize the national level consultative workshop in Amman to discuss ideas and experiences of various stakeholders such as government officials from Coordination Unit at MOE, Planning Department at MOE, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environment and active national and international NGOs working in this domain. All stakeholders should be given a copy of the draft outlines of the Standard and Module in advance of the workshop. / g. One national level consultation workshops conducted. / 5%
v. Field work: Conduct field visit for WASH in schools project to observe the application of interim standards, this will be coordinated by UNICEF / h. Field level data collection completed.
vi. Analysis and Reporting
Revise the early drafts and lay out based on the outcomes of national consultations. / i. Revision of early draft of the Standards and TSA done in English language. / 10%
vii. Conduct a final review workshop to get comments from core stakeholders and task force for finalization of the Standard and Module. / j. Hardcopy final manuscript of the Standard and Module in English presented to UNICEF and MoE/ Task Force. / 10%
9. . 1.1ntat EMIS module and application of interim standardsXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXviii. Final editing to incorporate comments from stakeholders at workshop. Format the manuscript for printing.
Provide print ready document with editable soft copy to RHAS and UNICEF. / k. Hardcopy final manuscript of the Standards and Modules in English presented to RHAS and UNICEF.
Arial font size 11
National WinS standards – 100 pages minimum
Three Star guidebook – 50 pages maximum / 30%
Viiii. Final report
Summary of the exercise including challenges, achievement and lesson learnt. / l. Final report and WASH in school standards and guidelines manual / 20%
Total days
4. EXPECTED DELIVERABLES
(Tangible and measurable outputs of work assignment to be completed upon award of contract)
Undertake desk review and secondary data collection, interviews and site/field visits (tabulation of all available reports, documents and publishing on WASH in Schools from the region and other middle income countries).
Standards shall include a section on financing of WASH in Schools (WINs), i.e., what are the financial allocations for WINs- capital and recurrent costs, is there a budget line within the Ministry of Education, who is responsible for the maintenance and sustainability of the WASH facilities within schools (costs of detergents and soaps).
Development of national standards for WASH in Schools in Jordan.
Adapt the Unicef’s 3 stars approach to the Jordanian context.
Consultancy final report along with WASH in school standards and guidelines manual (tap on challenges and lessons learnt).
5. REALISTIC DELIVERY DATES AND DETAILS ON HOW THE WORK MUST BE DELIVERED
(i.e. electronic submission, hard copy, what computer programme should be used)
As part of the technical proposal, candidates shall submit proposed timeline for each activity but to be completed within the set project time frame. UNICEF will review and final workplan will be submitted along with the inception report.
Data will be needed in one Hard copy (properly binded), soft copies needed of all secondary data collected, excel sheet of the available documents (from desk review) with documents hyperlinked to the excel sheet, and final result document in PDF and Word.
6. OFFICIAL TRAVEL INVOLVED
The consultant will be conducting official travels to meet officials from relevant and line Ministries, conduct interviews, visit schools and sector partners and data collection visits if necessary.
7. DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS, SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE OR EXPERIENCE
1) Education
· Advanced university degree in one of the disciplines relevant to the following areas: Public Health, Social Science, Economics, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Sanitation Engineering, or any relevant WASH discipline.
· Additional training in Health Education or Communication for Development (Programme Communication), is an asset.
2) Work Experience
· 10 years of progressively responsible professional work experience in field of WASH in Schools or other WASH relevant experiences at international, public or private sectors.