Description
UN-Habitat’s vision is “a better quality of life for all in an urbanizing world”. UN-Habitat works with partners to build inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and communities. UN-Habitat promotes urbanization as a positive transformative force for people and communities, reducing inequality, discrimination and poverty.
In line with the New Urban Agenda, UN-Habitat seeks contribute to increased equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water, improved sanitation and sustainable management of water resources, including wastewater treatment, recycling and safe reuse. It does so by facilitating policy dialogue, sharing good practices, by providing technical assistance for the development and implementation of field demonstration projects, and by supporting local, national and global data collection and monitoring in order to strengthen advocacy, policy- and decision-making.
Under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UN-Habitat is a co-custodian agency responsible for tracking global progress towards indicator 6.3.1 as part of SDG 6.3, which seeks to “by 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally”.
The partner will support UN-Habitat regionally to:
- Implement a number of activities to meet the above-mentioned global objectives including the organization of regional consultations with water and sanitation utilities, national counterparts and other relevant stakeholders on “Wastewater Management and Monitoring”.
- Support the engagement of relevant local and national stakeholders towards improved data for reporting on SDG6.3.1 building on methodology developed together with UN-Habitat
Background
Continuous and effective monitoring of sanitation and wastewater is essential to inform management decisions and investments at the local level. Decisions that can be made with proper analysis of sanitation and wastewater information pertain to the protection of the environment, ensure public health and support the transition to sustainable circular economies and climate change adaptation, among others.
Service providers and regulators have some data to plan, operate and budget for sanitation and wastewater services, but the data is most often insufficient to properly guide decision-making and investment. These gaps in knowledge can be addressed through different approaches, but standardized methods that can be comparatively applied across different settings with sufficient levels of disaggregation for socio-economic status, gender and spatial dimensions are needed.
UN-Habitat launched in 2021 a regional collaborative framework to operationalize utility-based wastewater monitoring and management in support of increased investment to attain the SDGs “Urban Wastewater 2030”. Under this framework, and as part of the Agreed work programme of the Global Expanded Monitoring Initiative (GEMI)/Integrated Monitoring Initiative (IMI/SDG6), has partnered with main regional professional networks of water utilities and regional financial and development agencies to organize a series of webinar-based consultations on wastewater management and monitoring in Latin America and in the Caribbean regions. A wastewater data collection exercise has been started through a questionnaire developed in line with the global monitoring process of SDG6.3.1. In 2022, UN-Habitat is expanding this regional approach to Africa, Arab Region, Asia and the Pacific.
UN-Habitat plans to organize regional and sub-regional webinars in Arab States and Asia (nine (9) sub-regional webinars in Asia [2-3 per sub-region: Central Asia, South Asia and South-East Asia]) with water and sanitation utilities and supporting agencies to share regional experiences on wastewater monitoring with an emphasis on best practices of wastewater treatment and reuse; and introduction of wastewater monitoring concepts under indicator 6.3.1.
This call invites governmental entities, international organisations, non-governmental organisations and academic institutions to submit expressions of interest to support the preparation of the above-mentioned series of webinars. The call is only open for non-profit organizations. Separate submissions for Arab States and Asia are expected. Selected institutions will be expected to work under the overall guidance of UN-Habitat to:
- prepare the programme of the webinars;
- select utilities’ case studies to be presented in the webinars;
- identify water and wastewater utilities to be invited and co-issue joint letter of invitation;
- associate relevant regional and international institutions and organizations to contribute technically to the webinars;
- prepare draft outcome reports for each webinar within two weeks of each event and a final report with key recommendations.
- Identify focal points in and initiate collaboration with relevant national and local institutions in target countries for collection, validation and reporting of national SDG6.3.1 data.
Submissions from or close collaboration with institutions in the global south are particularly encouraged. Selected institutions will be expected to involve and, if necessary, sub-contract relevant regional and sub-regional institutions in order to meet project objectives.
Short-listed candidates may be invited to submit detailed proposals or provide clarifications.
The Expression of Interest (EoI) should contain, but may not be limited to the following:
- A concept note including background information and the approach that will be applied to the institution’s contribution towards the organization of the webinars;
- Experience of the organization in the areas of sanitation and wastewater management, especially data collection and analysis. This should include a portfolio of projects undertaken in similar areas (references);
- A financial proposal and draft budget. The support/contribution the organization is willing to make, including cash and in-kind. contributions in terms of researchers’ staff time, office space and equipment and other support in cash and in-kind should be expressed in monetary terms;
- Governance and organizational structure; experience and qualifications of key professional staff and infrastructure facilities of the organization;
- Certified true copies of original Audited Account Statements for the last two years; and
- Latest annual report.
UN-Habitat Financial Contribution
Upon selection, UN-Habitat will enter into an Agreement of Cooperation with the selected entity. UN-Habitat will contribute financially in the range of US$25-35,000 for the successful delivery of the outputs within the planned timeframe.
Overall Timeframe
The work outlined in this EOI is scheduled to commence in May 2021 and be completed within seven months.
Submission Requirements and Guidelines
The EOI must be delivered in electronic format no later than 18 April 2022 to unhabitat.ubss.eoi@un.org with the reference number: EOI-18-04-2022 indicated in the subject.
Contact Information
Lars Stordal, Programme Management Officer, Urban Basic Services Section, UN-Habitat.
Other
Please note that this EOI notice does not constitute a solicitation. UN-Habitat reserves the right to change or cancel this requirement at any time in the EOI/or solicitation process.
Submitting a reply to an EOI does not guarantee that a Cooperation Partner will be considered for receipt of the solicitation when issued and only Cooperation Partners who are deemed qualified by UN-Habitat upon completion of evaluation of submission will receive the final solicitation document.