Job Title : Consultants ( Enterprise Specialist and Rural Water Supply Specialist )
Country Uganda
City : Kampala,
Category Consulting
Organization Relief International (RI)
Closing date Friday, 06 September 2013
About RI: Relief International (RI) is a leading global change organization and home to teams of humanitarian activist-professionals committed to transforming adversity into renewal for the world's most vulnerable populations. By partnering with beneficiaries and communities on the front-lines, RI innovatively bridges the gap between immediate relief and long-term community development.
Summary of
Responsibilities:
The EnterpriseWorks Division of Relief International has been implementing a commercial pilot project in Uganda to promote a low cost water storage product to enable the collection of high quality water at the household level.
The product was the culmination of the findings from desk and field studies conducted during the initial stages of this project to better understand the constraints facing households wishing to harvest rainwater from their rooftops.
The studies found that after a hard roof surface for collection, the biggest impediment to collecting substantial quantities of water at the household level was the cost of storage.
This project sought to address this constraint as a means to opening up a globally under-exploited source of water that is delivered without cost to the household.
Seeking two consultants for the final evaluation:
Enterprise Specialist
Specific Tasks:
Evaluate the supply chain that has been established for bob® and particularly the sustainability of the chain post-project. Provide suggestions for improvements;
Evaluate the competitiveness of bob® in the marketplace;
Determine if bob® meets a latent need in Uganda;
Determine if the promotional activities were effective in creating awareness and then generating sales, If not what can be improved;
Analyze the pros and cons of two approaches: One targeting direct sales to rural households and two the highly subsidized approach in the study area. Are there other alternatives?
Provide guidance for improvement to bob® or the distribution strategy in a wider global context.
Key Qualifications:
15 years or more experience in working with supply chains for products in Africa;
Understanding of the complexity of selling a product that is equivalent of a month's wages to rural households;
Demonstrated understanding of the rural water supply sector in Africa;
Experience conducting evaluations of product marketing and sales in Africa.
Rural Water Supply Specialist
Specific Tasks:
Evaluate the role of bob® in the context of rural water supply in Uganda;
Evaluate the suitability of the product for Uganda;
Evaluate customer satisfaction with the product;
Evaluate how bob® could better fit into the overall rural water supply sector;
Provide guidance for improvement to bob® or the distribution in a wider global context.
Analyze the pros and cons of two approaches: One targeting direct sales to rural households and two the highly subsidized approach in the study area. Are there other alternatives?
Key Qualifications:
15 years or more experience in working in rural water supply in Africa, preferably Uganda;
Experience evaluating projects based on a commercial delivery approach for rural water supply;
Demonstrated credibility in the rural water supply sector;
Understanding of the complexity of rural water supply and the potential distortions caused by subsidies in the sector;
Clear understanding of the competitive landscape from the rural user's perspective in Uganda.
Evaluation
The current evaluation will look at the commercial pilot project in Uganda to better understand the following:
Does a lower cost, more easily transportable product on the market open up access for under-served rural households?
Is having a widely promoted product that is less than half the cost of the prevailing products on the market sufficient to see a paradigm shift with a corresponding large increase in households benefiting from the collection of rainwater?
Or are there other constraints that impede a wider adoption that might include cost of installation, widespread subsidies in the sector, gender bias, and/or skepticism of new products?
Is the product having an impact on households that are using it? If so what are these effects?
Does it provide seasonal or year round supply of drinking water?
Does the quality of the water in bob® compare favorably with other options?
How significant is bob® in the broader context in Uganda?
Have there been any other comparable innovations/solutions brought into play during the project period?
How does bob® fit in the promotion of self-supply in Uganda?
The Vision of Success for this project was to demonstrate in 5 years that rainwater harvesting at the household level is a useful and viable domestic water supply option for underserved areas. Based on the vision for success, has success been achieved during this project? If not what has been achieved and what are the key obstacles to achieving wider scale success?
