Terms of Reference: Endline survey of Improving access to clean drinking water for the urban poor Project 

Assignment Information

1. About WaterAid 

WaterAid is an international not-for-profit, determined to make clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation. We have been working with government and non-governmental partners in Pakistan since 1992 to ensure that these essential services are available to poor and marginalized communities, especially women, persons with disabilities etc. WaterAid employs a public health and climate adaptation approach to addressing current water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) service requirements and sustaining them for the future. Hygiene behaviour change, menstrual hygiene, rural and urban sanitation and safe water systems, WASH in institutions (healthcare facilities, schools, public places) and nature-based solutions for water conservation, groundwater recharge and waste-water treatment are some of the interventions used for achieving our objectives. We also work with sector partners to support and influence the behavioural, institutional and policy mechanisms for accelerating progress toward achieving safe and sustainable WASH access for the poor and marginalized communities.

     For more information, please visit (www.wateraid.org) 

2. Project Description

This project aims to improve access to clean drinking water and environmental sanitation for marginalized urban communities in Peshawar, Quetta and Karachi. It targets informal settlements and institutions (schools and healthcare facilities) where water scarcity, contamination, and infrastructure breakdowns significantly impact public health particularly among women, children, and people with disabilities. Using technical and social feasibility assessments, the project identifies locally appropriate, affordable, and sustainable technologies primarily through Water filtration plants to provide safe drinking water. Community engagement is central, with the formation of Water User Committees (WUCs), hygiene promotion sessions, and behaviour change campaigns. Operation and maintenance (O&M) systems are developed with community and institutional involvement to ensure long-term sustainability. The project also includes knowledge documentation and sharing for adaptation and wider replication. 

The project’s main goal is improved access to clean drinking water in urban settlement of Karachi, Quetta & Peshawar”

Three major project outcomes are as follows:

Outcome 1:

Improved access to clean drinking water and environmental sanitation of targeted informal settlements of Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta

Outcome 2: 

Provision of improved water and environmental sanitation facilities at institutional level

Outcome 3: 

Knowledge management and sharing for adaption and wider replication

Project Achievements/progress:

The project was implemented in three districts. District wise project achievement are as follows:

1. Peshawar

• 06 water systems developed/rehabilitated, including 4 chlorinators (benefiting 5,754 individuals), 2 kiosks (2,624 individuals), and 4 filtration plants (9,847 individuals).

• 11 Water User Committees formed across 6 communities, including both male and female groups.

• 06 O&M trainings and 5 refresher sessions conducted for a total of 60 water operators to ensure sustainable operation of water systems.

• 204 community sessions on hygiene promotion and safe water handling conducted; 7,000 leaflets distributed to reinforce behaviour change.

• 12 clean drive campaigns organized to promote environmental hygiene and sanitation practices in the communities.

2.  Quetta

• 04 Ultra Filtration Plants (UFPs) installed to provide sustainable access to clean drinking water.

• 06 Water User Committees established, including male, female, and joint committees, enhancing local ownership and governance.

• 06 O&M trainings conducted for 20 participants, building local capacity for system management.

• 42 hygiene promotion sessions conducted at community level.

• 04 clean drive campaigns executed to improve environmental conditions in informal settlements.

3. Karachi

• 02 Ultra Filtration Plants (UFPs) installed providing clean drinking water to targeted communities.

• 04 Water User Committees formed across 2 communities with equal male and female representation.

• 03 capacity-building trainings on operations and maintenance held for 150 repeated participants and water operators.

• Hygiene promotion materials disseminated. 

• 06 community-led clean drive campaigns conducted to strengthen sanitation practices.

3. Scope and Purpose of the End-line Evaluation: 

The primary purpose of this assignment is to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the project, focusing on both the achievement of its intended outcomes and its overall performance. This includes a systematic assessment based on five key evaluation criteria: relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability. The evaluation aims to generate findings that are grounded in robust evidence, are credible, and offer practical value for stakeholders. These insights will be instrumental in shaping future planning and decision-making processes, particularly by integrating lessons learned into the design and implementation of similar projects. The evaluation will specifically:

• Assess the extent to which the project met planned activities and intended outcomes. 

• Assess the project with reference to the criteria of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability. 

• Identify and analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the project approach and implementation along with the constraints and challenges in which the project was implemented 

• Highlight lessons learnt, best practices and recommendations to feed into WAP’s future programming in urban/semi-urban settlements.

4. Evaluation Criteria and Questions: 

The evaluation exercise shall be guided by the specified evaluation criteria and their corresponding questions. During the inception phase, the consultant may, in coordination with WAP’s Program Quality team, review and revise the questions as deemed appropriate; however, the evaluation criteria themselves shall remain unchanged.

1. Contextual Relevance:

The appropriateness of project objectives to the problems that it was supposed to address, and to the overall context within which it operated. The following questions should be answered.

• How well does the intervention design and approach address the identified problems? 

• Extent to which the intervention is tailored to the implementation context.

• To what extent are the activities and outputs being consistent with the expected outcomes and impact?

2. Results 

The extent to which the intervention has or is likely to achieve its intended objectives, outcomes and outputs. It also includes the identification of major reasons for the achievement or non-achievement of the results, and key lessons to inform further implementation or future interventions. The following questions should be answered. 

• To what extent the outputs or outcomes have been achieved / are likely to be achieved? 

• To what extent was adaptive management applied to ensure that expected results were generated?

• What were the major factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the outputs and outcomes?

3. Quality

 Quality assesses the extent to which the intervention meets WaterAid’s quality

projects/programme standards. The following questions should be answered.

• To what extent has the intervention met the relevant risk-critical minimum standards and minimum project quality standards? (WAP PQ section and relevant project manager will specify which project quality standards should be assessed)

• How can the quality of the intervention be strengthened.

4. Value for money:

Value for money measures the extent to which results have been delivered in accordance with economy, efficiency and effectiveness. The following questions should be answered.

• Was the project managed in a cost-efficient manner (in terms of human, financial and other resources versus the results)?

• Did the approach adopted help in achieving the desired results? If yes, to what extent and if no, why? 

• Which alternative or additional approaches could have been used to enhance effectiveness?

5. Transformative Change

Transformative change assesses the potential for, or contribution and progress made, in achieving lasting outcomes through assessing the catalytic effect, scalability and sustainability of interventions. The following questions should be answered.

• To what extent did the intervention contribute to and made progress, in achieving lasting outcomes? 

• What were the major factors, which influenced the achievement or non-achievement of transformative change?

5. Suggested Methodology: 

While WA Pakistan suggests consideration of mixed-methods methodology to collect the relevant data, the consultant is expected to determine the final methodological approach for presentation and approval during the inception phase. The consultant will undertake field visits and interview the stakeholders including the target beneficiaries, government officials.

For quantitative data collection, household survey will be conducted around 6 project locations in Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar (2 locations in each district). Household survey will be administered at household level through household questionnaire. Through household questionnaire information will be collected around drinking water access and treatment, practices and behaviours related to handwashing and environmental sanitation. The consultant will develop the questionnaire tool and finalize it in consultation with WaterAid Pakistan. 

Data from 600 households will be collected from the field, district wise breakup is as follows:

An average of 100 respondents from each of the 6 selected locations will be randomly selected, best efforts will be made to get an equal representation of men and women respondents. 

For qualitative data collection, key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) will be conducted. A total of 12 KIIs (4 in each district) will be conducted with the relevant stakeholders, KII tool will be developed by the consultant and will cover the aspects pertaining to water availability, challenges meeting demand versus supply, operation and maintenance mechanisms and community engagement/ ownership regarding interventions of the government schemes along with some health statistics of the area linking the poor wash conditions with relevant illnesses/diseases. Similarly, 12 FGDs will be conducted with communities/schools/Health care facilities in the selected project locations. The consultant will develop the tool for FGDs, covering areas like challenges faced by communities/student/patients in water access & availability, water quality and its treatment, health costs of water borne diseases, communities ownership and complaint mechanisms with stakeholders.

6. Deliverables  

The consultant is expected to produce the following:

1. An inception report outlining the methodology/approach, work plan with clear timelines on how the assignment will be carried out

2. Contextualized data collection and analysis tools for the endline survey

3. Copies of dully filled completed survey questionnaires, consent forms and qualitative notes (hard form).

4. Electronic copies of raw and final datasets (Excel based)

5. High quality Final reports containing analysis and establishing endline values. The final report needs to be approved by WaterAid.

7. Supervision

The consultant will report to the Manager Partnerships and Program Quality, Water Aid Pakistan.

8. Application /Proposal 

The proposal should contain the following:

1. An expression of interest explaining your interest and suitability for the position against each of the selection criteria. Please explain as to how your skills match the tasks detailed in the ToR.

2. Description of methodology which will be used for the endline assessment.

3. Your profile/portfolio. (CVs of key proposed staff)

4. Examples of similar project evaluations conducted by the proposed consultant/firm. (please attach a sample of recent research conducted on the same theme/topic)   

5. Financial proposal (In separate envelop, detailing the item wise budget needs of the assignment, including but not limited to daily rate and other costs inclusive of all taxes. The budget needs to be supplemented with budget narrative, rationalising the cost and its breakup). 

6. A workplan with deadline for each deliverable. 

9. Evaluation criteria

Candidate (firms/individual) shall submit technical and financial proposals in two separate sealed envelopes. Technical offers will first be evaluated according to the “Evaluation criteria” below and the technical qualification threshold point is “70”. 

Technical Evaluation Criteria for Shortlisting Consultancy Firms/Consultants:

Financial offer 

Please refer to clause 5 of section “Application /Proposal”. TheFinancial offer needs to

testify the fact that each deliverable is accounted for in the offer and syncs with the

workplan. All deliverables MUST be completed within the assignment duration.