Request for Proposals: Baseline Data Collection Consultancy - Citywide survey of Baseline WASH conditions at government schools in Lusaka, Ndola and Kitwe cities in Zambia

BACKGROUND

Splash is at the forefront of a growing movement to ensure that children in urban poverty have the resources they need to thrive and reach their full potential. Splash designs child-focused water, sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health and hygiene solutions (MHH) with governments in some of the world’s biggest cities. Splash is dedicated to bringing water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) solutions to children living in urban poverty in Asia and Africa, improving their health and development through sustainable and scalable WASH solutions. Initiated in 2019, Project WISE (WASH in Schools for Everyone) aims to deliver comprehensive WASH infrastructure, behavior change activities, and menstrual health and hygiene services across all public schools in Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. Splash has been implementing the project in Addis since 2019, Bahirdar since 2022 and is looking forward to replicating impact in other countries on the lessons learned from Ethiopia.

OVERVIEW

Splash is seeking an independent firm to collect data at all government-funded public schools in Lusaka, Ndola and Kitwe cities in Zambia. Splash will provide the survey questions including operational definitions, the requirements for raw data format and the data tables used for analysis.

The selected firm will be responsible for:

• Collaborating with Splash to finalize and pilot the survey questions.
• Building, testing, and managing the survey collection tools, including translation and reverse translation (if necessary)
• Recruiting, training, and supervising data collectors.
• Obtaining list of and access to all government-funded primary and secondary schools within each city.
• Conducting data collection at all locations.
• Compiling and cleaning all data
• Conducting exploratory and confirmatory data analysis
• Submitting a written report of findings to Splash.

PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION OBJECTIVES:

1. School information including location and address, campus affiliation, school administration and divisions, current enrollment, and key contact details.
2. Forecast school population and increase in schools, other plans for public schools and other relevant trends in the coming at least 5 years (ex. school feeding, school garden etc., expansion of the cities to nearby towns, any info around expansion of schools/addition of new schools etc.).
3. Information about water source and locations, water availability throughout the year (gathered from utilities provider and school administration), electricity and sewer connections and costs of these utilities (electricity, water, and sewer).
4. Information on existing school operations and maintenance capacities.
5. Information about existing WASH infrastructure including water filters, drinking/handwashing stations, and sanitation facilities.
6. Water quality tests from at least 45 randomly selected schools to be tested for chemical, physical and bacteriological parameters in each city. Interested agencies must include this cost in the financial quote and should also state in their technical proposal whether they have experience working with water quality labs and how they plan to execute this section of the assignment.

SCOPE OF WORK

The selected firm will be responsible for the following:

• Collaborating with Splash to finalize survey design (Will require collaboration to ensure questions meet local needs and context)
• Building, pilot-testing, and managing survey tool(s), including translation and reverse translation as needed.
• Recruiting, training, and supervising enumerators.
• Gathering a list of 100% of government-funded public primary and secondary schools as well as community schools where they are considered as government schools within each city.
• Obtaining permission to administer survey in each of the listed schools.
• Administering survey to approximately 316 schools: 144 in Lusaka, 84 in Ndola and 88 in Kitwe.
• Completing water quality testing of samples from a minimum of 45 randomly selected schools (15 in each city).
• Compiling and cleaning all survey and water quality testing data.
• Conducting exploratory and confirmatory data analysis and submitting written report of findings (in English language) to Splash.
• Developing a GIS map for each city showing the school location, number of students enrolled and current water, sanitation and hygiene status.
• Submitting clean, complete, original data set (in English language) to Splash in .xlsx (preferred) or .csv format.
• The firm must manage the entire survey process, including supervision of enumerators and trouble-shooting any problems that arise prior to, or during, data collection.

KEY DELIVERABLES

• Final survey instrument including question type, permitted entries, controlling questions, skip logic and all other quality assurance mechanisms desired (in collaboration with Splash)
• Digital survey tool (using whatever format or application that suits the firm, but must meet all survey design requirements including controlling questions, skip logic, required fields, required format, etc.)
• Water quality tests in at least 45 randomly selected schools per city, along with a clean dataset containing results of the tests.
• Clean, complete, compiled raw data to Splash in agreed-upon format, including data shaped for analysis (if required depending on survey tool)
• Written report of data analysis including exploratory data analysis findings and confirmatory data analysis of agreed-upon data tabulations to Splash.
• GIS maps for each city showing school locations, enrollment, and current water, sanitation and hygiene conditions.

TIMELINE

• This survey project will run from January 2025 through February 2025
• The data and analysis report are due to Splash February 15, 2025

REPORTING

For day-to-day support, The Recipient will report to Fiker Abebe, Director of Impact, Splash Ethiopia. The recipient will also work closely with Cudjoe Bennett, DrPH, Chief Program Officer, Splash.

TEAM COMPOSITION AND SKILLS

Summary of Qualifications required for the Research team:

• Strong knowledge, skills, and experience in managing multi-site research, specifically in qualitative and quantitative methods, data visualization and reporting.
• The firm or consultant should be well experienced in conducting qualitative and quantitative data collections and have experience managing similar surveys.
• Experience with international development/NGO clients required.
• Experience in the health, education, or WASH sectors within Tanzania.
• The firm or consultant must hire/deploy experienced and professional enumerators and be responsible for the quality of their work.
• The firm or consultant must have experience conducting school-based surveys.
• Have appropriate human resources for building survey tools, administering data collection, quality control of data, data entry and management.
• The firm/consultant should have an experience administering water quality test
• Advance written and oral communication skills in English.
• Experience with GIS and map generation.

DATA OWNERSHIP

The Recipient agrees that all material produced in the performance of this Scope of Work shall be

considered “work for hire” which shall be owned by Splash. The Recipient shall not claim or assert any proprietary interest in any of the data or materials required to be produced or delivered by The Recipient in the performance of his/her/its obligations under this Scope of Work, and hereby assigns all rights, title and interest in said data and materials to Splash.

Without limiting the foregoing, Splash will have the irrevocable, worldwide right to use the data or materials in any manner and to authorize third parties to exercise any of its rights.

The Recipient shall not publish, permit to be published, or distribute for public consumption, any information or materials, oral, written, or tangible, related to its performance under this Scope of Work, without the prior written consent of Splash.

SPLASH SUBSTANTIAL INVOLVEMENT

Splash will be substantially involved in the implementation of this Scope of Work. Substantial involvement during the implementation of this Scope of Work may include the elements listed below:

• Approval of the data collection tools, plans and final deliverables. Post-award, and prior to work commencement, all key personnel will meet with the Splash team to discuss and review the work plan and research approach.
• Approval of Specified Key Personnel. Any replacement of key personnel designated and, if not yet designated, the filling of any key personnel position. Any such approvals must not change the funding envelope of this award and are subject to the applicable cost principles.
• Organization and Recipient Collaboration or Joint Participation. Splash will work jointly with the recipient to ensure achievement of Scope of Work goals and objectives and ensure that the final analysis and report benefits from Splash’s technical knowledge.
• Data collections under this activity will be subject to the standards, terms and conditions of Splash including adherence to the spirit of Common Rule of Ethical Conduct.
• Splash will provide the selected consultant with relevant background materials and key documents upon startup and will be available to the consultant throughout the entirety of the project term to answer needed questions.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL SUMMARY

SUBMISSION TIMELINE

Proposals must be submitted to Fiker Abebe, Director of Impact (fiker@splash.org) by December 18th, 2024. The contract will be granted no later than December 31st, 2024.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Questions regarding this Request for Proposal (RFP) should be submitted by email to fiker@splash.org, no later than December 11th, 2024. Any information given to a prospective applicant concerning this RFP will be furnished promptly to all other prospective applicants, if that information is necessary in submitting applications or if the lack of it would be prejudicial to any other prospective applicant.

GENERAL CONTENT AND FORM OF PROPOSAL

Preparation of Proposals

Each proposal must furnish the information required by this RFP. Proposals must be submitted in two separate parts: the Technical Application and the Business (Cost) Application. This subsection addresses general content requirements applying to the full application. The Technical application must address technical aspects only while the Business (Cost) Application must present the costs and address risk and other related issues.

Both the Technical and Business (Cost) Applications must include a cover page containing the following information:

• Name of the organization(s) submitting the proposal;
• Identification and signature of the primary contact person (by name, title, organization, mailing address, telephone number, and email address) and the identification of the alternate contact person (by name, title, organization, mailing address, telephone number, and email address);
• Applicants may choose to submit a cover letter in addition to the cover pages, but it will serve only as a transmittal letter to the point of contact. The cover letter will not be reviewed as part of the merit review criteria.

Applications must comply with the following:

• Splash will not review any pages over the page limits noted in the subsequent sections. Please ensure that applications comply with the page limitations.
• Written in English.
• Use standard 8 ½” x 11”, single sided, single-spaced, 12 point Calibri font, normal character spacing, 1” margins, left justification, and headers and/or footers on each page including consecutive page numbers, date of submission, and applicant’s name.
• 10 point Calibri font can be used for graphs, charts, and references in footnotes. Tables however, must comply with the 12 point Calibri requirement.
• Submitted via Microsoft Word or PDF formats, except budget files which must be submitted in Microsoft Excel.
• The technical application must be searchable and editable Word or PDF format as appropriate.
• The Cost Schedule must include an Excel spreadsheet with all cells unlocked and no hidden formulas or sheets. A PDF version of the Excel spreadsheet may be submitted in addition to the Excel version at the applicant’s discretion, however, the official cost application submission is the unlocked Excel version.

Applicants must review, understand, and comply with all aspects of this RFP. Failure to do so may be considered as being non-responsive and may be evaluated accordingly. Applicants should retain a copy of the application and all enclosures for their records.

Application Submission Procedures

Applications in response to this RFP must be submitted no later than December 18th, 2024. Late applications will not be reviewed nor considered. Applicants must retain proof of timely delivery in the form of system generated documentation of delivery receipt date and time.

Splash’s preference is that the technical application and the cost application each be submitted as

consolidated email attachments, e.g. that you consolidate the various parts of a technical application into a single document before sending it. If this is not possible, please provide instructions on how to collate the attachments. Splash will not be responsible for errors in compiling electronic applications if no instructions are provided or are unclear.

After submitting an application electronically, applicants should immediately check their own email to confirm that the attachments were indeed sent. If an applicant discovers an error in transmission, please send the material again and note in the subject line of the email or indicate in the file name if it is a "corrected" submission. Do not send the same email more than once unless there has been a change, and if so, please note that it is a "corrected" email.

Applicants are reminded that email is NOT instantaneous, and in some cases delays of several hours occur from transmission to receipt. Therefore, applicants are requested to send the application in sufficient time ahead of the deadline.

There may be a problem with the receipt of *.zip files due to anti-virus software. Splash servers may automatically reject emails with zip files. Therefore, applicants are discouraged from sending files in this format as Splash cannot guarantee their acceptance by the internet server. Applicants submitting zipped files do so at the risk that their application will not be received. The maximum size for an unzipped file is 5MB.

Splash bears no responsibility for data errors resulting from transmission or conversion processes associated with electronic submissions.

Technical Application Format

In developing the technical application, the applicant should carefully consider all information contained in this RFP. The technical application must be based on the overall description of the funding opportunity described in the Scope of Work. The Technical Application should be specific, complete, and presented concisely. The application should demonstrate the applicant’s capabilities and expertise with respect to achieving the scope of work. Splash may opt to exclude from further consideration any submission which is not within these parameters.

Information submitted as part of the technical application over 15 pages and not specifically excluded in the notes below will not be evaluated.

The format for the Technical Application is as follows:

• Cover Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Acronyms
• Technical Approach
• Staffing and Management Plan
• Resumes of Key Personnel (must not exceed 3 pages each)
• Organizational chart:
  • Institutional Capacity
  • Past Performance

Technical Approach

The Technical Approach should describe the vision and strategies the Applicant proposes to use to

achieve this study's overall objective in an integrated, creative, and collaborative manner. Applicants should describe key approaches how activities will contribute to achieving the overall goal of the study, being sure to include details on how the Applicant will obtain lists of schools in each city and obtain access to them for the purposes of the data collection.

Staffing and Management Plan

The applicant should propose a management plan consistent with the technical complexity of the proposed approach, that addresses its ability to manage overall operations within this Scope of Work. Applicants should explain how key personnel as well as other staff provide the necessary skills to achieve the deliverables of the Scope of Work. The Staffing and Management Plan should also include the following:

• Organizational chart: demonstrating clear roles and lines of communication between staff
• Key Personnel: Applicants must submit resumes for Key Personnel.

Resumes (3 pages maximum for each person) must be submitted for each of the Key Personnel including background, qualifications, and past experiences that demonstrate the individual’s ability to successfully fulfill the designated role on the study.

Institutional Capacity

This section of the application provides information about the applicant‘s capability to undertake this survey effort. The applicant's current available core competencies in WASH in Schools content, unique institutional resources and experience with similar data collection, analysis and reporting activities.

Past Performance

The applicant should summarize the past performance record to demonstrate their track record in effectively implementing data collections, analyses and subsequent reports similar in nature to what is included in the scope of work.