Consultancy to Develop an Online Policy Tracker/ Dashboard, for the Sector Forum for Water -RAPID+ Consultancy

A. Background

The Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for Integrated Development Plus (RAPID+) program is a five-year program running from November 2021 – September 2026 convened and led by MWA. The program has primary funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation (SDC) and contributions and investment funds from private sector actors, four facilitating partners including CARE Kenya, the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Food for the Hungry (FH) and World Vision (WV) and the five hosting county governments of Garissa, Isiolo, Marsabit, Turkana, and Wajir. RAPID+ aims to improve access to water and rangeland services for 200,000 people in the five program counties. RAPID+ activities are anchored on four strategic pillars namely gender equality, market systems development, peace building and knowledge management.

B. Project Goal and Objectives.

The program goal is to improve access to safe and sustainably managed water and rangelands across the five counties to contribute to resilient livelihoods for communities in a peaceful environment. This goal is pursued by the following two outcomes.

1. Pastoralist communities have increased access to sustainable and safe water for multiple uses benefiting men, women, and youth, and
2. Pastoralist communities have improved access to safe and ecologically healthy rangeland resources that promote greater integrity, social cohesion, and gender equity.

The program Theory of Change (TOC) states that “If we improve access to sustainable and safe water for multiple uses that benefit men, women and youth and also improve access to safe and ecologically healthy rangeland ecosystems, that promote greater integrity, social cohesion and gender equity through strong public, private and community institutions; then communities in the target areas will have increased income, gender equity and empowerment, enhanced livestock systems, a more peaceful environment, conserved ecosystems and improved health status; and therefore, resilient livelihoods that promote peaceful cohesion and gender equity will be achieved.”

C. Purpose of the Assignment

A primary output of the RAPID+ program is to ensure that Public Institutions in the water sector have the capacity and governance structures to provide high-quality services. To achieve this output, the program is working with the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC) to operationalize their Sector Forum for Water. The Sector Forum for Water (SFOW) aims to support the FCDC member counties to progressively improve water and sanitation service provision equitably and sustainably. The purpose of this assignment is to support the FCDC to develop an online tracking tool/ dashboard that will allow respective FCDC counties (10 in number) to upload documents and track progress on implementation of water sector policy/regulatory documents.

MWA is therefore seeking the services of a competent Consultant to undertake this assignment as per the objectives and scope of work below:

D. Assignment Objectives

This assignment will achieve the following objectives:

• Develop a policy tracking tool/ dashboard for tracking water policy instruments developed by FCDC counties including County Water Policy Papers, County Water Legislations and County Water Regulations
• Develop a data collection tool and database linked to the policy tracker dashboard
• Provide capacity-building to users of the tracking tool/ dashboard i.e., FCDC, County Water Department Officials and RAPID+ teams on maintenance of the dashboard, and inputting data
• Provide guidelines/ manuals for use of the tracking tool/ dashboard
• Provide maintenance support for the policy tracker dashboard

E. Scope of Work

The consultant shall be required to undertake the following tasks:

a). Develop an online dashboard to track the progress of policy enactment processes for key water sector policies and related regulations developed by FCDC counties including County Water Policy Papers, County Water Legislations, and County Water Regulations. Features of the dashboard shall include:

• Allow users to input data as per the reporting template with a combination of narrative text boxes, drop down menus, clickable lists in a clear and simple format that is easy to use
• Clearly show key milestones that each policy instrument should undergo and be updated with data from the counties.
• Allow users to upload documents to an online database for collection of policies, acts, policy briefs and other related documents linked to each milestone.
• Show the user where they are in the flow of the reporting process; save as they progress; skip pages and come back to them later and provide a final overview of what has been completed and what has yet to be completed.
• The dashboard should include a section that allows users to review some preselected variables in the form of a ‘Dashboard’ or other appropriate graphic
• The Dashboard should allow for some real time manipulation of data by time period and/or selection/de-selection of variables.

b) Facilitate a workshop and present the Policy Tracker/ dashboard to FCDC, FCDC County members and RAPID+ teams

c) Conduct a training session with the County teams on how to input data into the online data collection tool. The consultant shall develop a short guideline for sharing the teams – this shall also be accessible as a download from the website.

d) Conduct a training session with the FCDC IT team on how to maintain the policy tracker/ dashboard. The consultant shall develop a short guideline for this purpose – this shall also be accessible as a download from the website.

e) Develop short guidelines/ manuals on use and maintenance of the policy tracker dashboard.

f) Offer maintenance support for the dashboard for at least 2 years post deployment. (NB. Solutions with minimal or no maintenance requirements will present a clear advantage)

F. Roles and Responsibilities

The roles of the consultant(s) shall include the following:

• Develop an inception report, detailing the proposed methodologies for development of the policy trackers, including stakeholder engagement process during the development process, indicate any data-gathering tools, work plan schedule to conduct the assignment, in consultation with MWA RAPID teams and FCDC.
• Carry out interviews with FCDC team, RAPID+ partners, national and county sector policy makers, department heads, private sector actors, water sector institutions (e.g., water services providers, water user associations/ committees)
• Develop an online policy tracker/ dashboard to track policy development and execution in the FCDC member counties; develop an online data collection tool for use to populate the policy tracker – these shall be linked
• Prepare for and facilitate live/online learning (to be determined) workshop to present the policy tracker / dashboard to FCDC, County and RAPID+ teams and solicit feedback from participants on recommended actions
• Produce guideline/ user manuals for updating and maintenance of the policy tracker/ dashboard

G. Deliverables and Timelines

The expected deliverable and anticipated timelines for each are shown below:

Deliverable

Description

Timelines

Dates

Inception Report

MS Word, PDF

Workplan in MS Excel

1 week after contract signing

Late April 2025

Prepare and share design concept

MS Word & MS Ppt

2 weeks after contract signing

Late April 2025

Mockup/ test version of the policy tracker

Online FCDC website/ Dashboard on an Opensource platform

3 weeks after contract signing

Mid-May 2025

Facilitate Workshop with SFOW/ County/ RAPID+ to obtain user feedback on testing of the Mock-up

Zoom meeting

4 – 6 weeks after contract signing

Late May 2025

Live Version [on FCDC website] of the policy tracker with documentation/ guidelines

Online FCDC website/ dashboard on Opensource platform

8 weeks after contract signing

June 2025

H. Anticipated Level of Effort (LoE)

The estimated level of effort for this assignment is 8 man-days.

NB. The LoE above should serve as a guide on the level of complexity expected of the assignment.

I. Duration of Assignment

It is expected that all activities within this consultancy will be completed within a period not exceeding 2 Months from the date of signature of the consultancy contract with MWA.

Tentative starting date: Mid – April 2025

J. Consultant’s Qualifications

Below are the preferred qualifications for the consultants applying for the consultancy:

• University Degree in IT, Computer Science, Data Science or related IT/ Communication Field
• 5+ years of experience of IT platform implementation in highly technical and analytical roles is mandatory
• Advanced Industry-Standard Qualification in Back and Front-End Web-Development
• 3+ years of experience of implementation of web-based platforms
• Demonstrated experience in the implementation of web-based online reporting systems and tracking dashboards on at least 3 previous assignments
• Advanced skills in HTML, CSS and Javascript
• Knowledge of cloud-based database platform implementation, including hands-on experience in implementation and performance tuning of relevant open-source software
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Experience with quantitative and qualitative analysis and data collection.

K. Reporting and Communication

Internal: The consultant will be reporting to the RAPID+ Water Intervention Manager while keeping a close working relationship with the Program Hub. The consultant will be expected to communicate regularly with the FCDC, RAPID+ Program Hub and the County Coordination Units (CCUs) during the exercise.

External: The consultant will be in close communication with other stakeholders including staff from the National and County Government Water Departments, WASREB. Consultants must adhere to the MWA Code of Conduct and Protection from Sexual Exploitation Abuse and Child Abuse (PSEA-CA) policies as well as research ethics consideration when performing their duties and interactions with external parties.

L. Information and Support to be provided by the Client

The client shall provide access to any relevant program documents.

M. Submission

This call for proposals is open to firms and individual consultants.

N. Interview Presentation

Short-listed consultants will be required to give a presentation showcasing their proposed concept/s prior to final selection.

Budget

All costs inclusive of taxes should be included in the quoted budget outline by the consultant. This shall Include an itemized budget indicating professional fees, related expenses and taxes.

Application Process.

Interested consultants are expected to submit technical and financial proposals in English, including the following:

• Short cover letter stating interest and availability-1 page.
• Profile of consultant, a clear demonstration of previous experience in development of online dashboards – 1-3 pages
• Methodological approach outlining the consultant’s understanding of the specific objectives and proposed methodology- 1-2 pages.
• Proposed activity schedule/ work plan with timelines-1 page.
• Financial proposals including consultant fees and any logistical costs-2 pages-indicating the overall total amount in Kenya Shillings inclusive of all taxes.
• Professional CVs of consultants – No more than 4 pages.
• Contact details of 3 organizations (including a contact person) that have contracted the consultant to carry out similar work-
• The consultant shall share a portfolio AND links to websites of reputable clients with similar trackers/ dashboards from at least 3 previous assignments
• Statutory, administrative, and fiscal documents.
• For firms, copies of a valid Kenyan certificate of tax compliance, certificate of incorporation, and KRA certificate and Business Permit.
• For individuals, copies of a valid Kenyan certificate of tax compliance, KRA PIN certificate, and National Identification Card.

Tagged as: Kenya, Millennium Water Alliance