Haiti: Consultancy, Formulation of a long-term IFRC led WASH Programme Proposal for Haiti with a focus upon cholera control, mitigation and surveillance

Background:

Political and economic instability, recurrent disasters and the fact that Haiti remains one of the poorest countries worldwide and certainly in the America’s has exacerbated the vulnerability of its population to WASH related diseases. The lack of WASH coverage apart from the direct influence it has upon health and well-being also constrains developmental efforts and consigns many of its population to a poverty trap.

An even more significant level of WASH related morbidity and mortality took place when a cholera epidemic struck Haiti shortly after the 2010 earthquake, understandably the now endemic cholera situation is a continuing threat to life, an enormous drain on the health system of the country, a further hindrance to economic growth and one with a disproportionate effect on the poorest and most vulnerable. Presently, only 58% of the population have access to improved water supply and 56% have access to improved sanitation.

Cholera has understandably galvanised collective government and international community WASH and health efforts which is most likely to be undermined to some extent by the effects of hurricane Mathew.

Haiti is also known to face a number of general challenges, that is to say non-technical and non-sectoral, that have restricted progress towards development objectives in a number of areas. It will therefore also be important to be fully aware of these challenges and their implications for any future water and sanitation program work. For this or any other development program to be successful strategies and mitigation measures must be identified at an early stage to address such challenges or threats to the success of the program. Despite of these challenges there are a number of positive drivers for change in the water and sanitation sector in Haiti. There continues to be a high level of donor and funder interest as well as political support for significant change in access to water and sanitation services. The hurricane that recently hit Haiti (4^th October 2016) and the resulting cholera outbreak serves as a reminder to all concerned, if one were needed, of the still far from adequate state of water and sanitation services in Haiti and the very high probability of further cholera outbreaks, and their tragic consequences, if the current situation is allowed to continue. This must serve to galvanise support at all levels from the political and institutional to the community level.

Rationale:

The provision of safe water supply and adequate sanitation has been proven to stop cholera for over 150 years. Furthermore, recent efforts to eradicate cholera, such as those undertaken in Mexico in the 1990’s, have been shown to lower the overall diarrhea disease rate by 50% or more. This is not a new idea for Haiti. Indeed, the approach of the 2012 Call to Action towards eradicating the disease is based on the international community’s collective findings that the best way to completely stop the ongoing cholera epidemic, and to prevent/eliminate future incidences of the disease is to bring Haiti’s water and sanitation coverage up to regional levels, while working with vulnerable communities to raise awareness about what measures individuals can take at the household level to prevent and treat cholera. The communities which have proven to have the least resistance to the disease are those communities which are living in poverty and/or have substandard access to water and sanitation.

Therefore, there are two overarching elements in our rationale namely (a) responding to the long-term ‘chronic’ issues of lack of sustainable WASH services coupled with the need to ensure that (b) increased capacity for disease surveillance and response to ‘acute’ disease outbreaks at all levels (household, community, government and with other stakeholders) are addressed in planned activities.

Purpose:

The purpose of the consultancy is to work together with the IFRC, and other internal and external partners (who will work under an IFRC led consortium) to conduct an initial scoping study in preparation for the development of a proposal for a program to support Haiti in its efforts to eradicate Cholera.

Objectives of the proposed program:

We will take a programmatic approach to achieve the program vision and outcomes. With clearly defined outputs and outcomes the program would have the flexibility to learn, adapt and customize individual projects and interventions to meet its ultimate objectives. This would require flexibility in allocation of funding and resources while working within a well—defined monitoring and evaluation framework and within an effective governance framework. This consultancy will particularly focus upon the Urban and Pre-Urban components of the proposed program.

The proposed program will align and contribute to the overarching 10 year ‘National Plan’ launched in Haiti in 2013 and focus on the four components of the plan:

1. Improve access to water and sanitation
2. Maintain epidemiology and surveillance
3. Strengthen health care systems
4. Intensify health and hygiene promotion

With our added IFRC focus upon targeting the most vulnerable, in both rural and urban contexts, and to scale with a tentative target group of 600,000 people.

Tasks:

• Join an IFRC led team both virtually and in the field and contribute to the scoping study, consultations with government, all other stakeholders and proposal formulation.
• Provide guidance on the field work required as a result of the desk study findings.

Deliverable:**

• Desk study findings and guidance on next steps, formulation of field team and key recommendations.
• After field work and consolidation of outcomes, presentation of draft proposal consolidated also with outcomes from the IFRC led team and potentially other contributors.
• Consultation period with entire team producing final proposal document.
• The consultancy should provide the following components: A scoping and targeting study; sector review with special focus on urban target areas; stakeholder analysis; detailed proposal (in synergy with other RC/RC proposal preparation) with headings describing the consortium partners roles and responsibilities; implementation plan; means of delivery; methodology of delivery; detailed budget; HR and logistics needs; program management structure; capacity building and sustainability plan including training component, and reporting and M&E framework.
• The overall document(s) produced should also be captured in a 4 page concept note/summary.

Team Composition/Minimum Qualifications Required:

• Two or more qualified and experienced WASH experts, with a special proven background in Urban contexts.
• Access to other human or knowledge resources as seemed appropriate.

Duty Station/Time Scale:

• 5 working day’s preparatory desk study.
• 28 working day’s field work in Haiti.
• 8 working day’s consolidation of findings and presentation of proposal draft.
• 4 day’s consultation period and completion of proposal.
• In total not more than 45 person/days.

Quotations should indicate daily rates for consultants, consultant company profile (if it is a company) or at least individual consultant’s profiles. Daily rates should be separated from travel, accommodation and per diem's provided to consultants which should be itemized separately.

Fluency in French is a requirement.

All required forms of accident, medical and medieval coverage is the responsibility of the consultant’s individually or if a company, and will need to be provided if a contract is awarded. Consultant’s must agree to signing the IFRC code of conduct if awarded a contract.

Please send your applications to: Robert.fraser@ifrc.org