Capacity Assessment of Government institutions for programme implementation

The European Union and UK Aid in partnership with UNICEF within the framework of FGN led reform programmes in the WASH sector, recently launched three programmes (WSSSRP-II, WSSSRP-III, NDSP and SHAWN-II) to cover nearly 80 LGAs across 19 States in Nigeria.

Nigeria has been facing challenges to the delivery of effective Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) services, some of the key ones include: weak sector institutional arrangements, absence of a regulatory framework, and inconsistency in the implementation of existing policies and inadequate data for planning. Investment to expand services in the water and sanitation sector is still low. Funds provided under the federal and state budgets are not used effectively because of poor public finance management and accountability.  In addition to low funding, there are issues with maintenance and sustainability plans, accountability framework, inclusion, participation and equity.

Therefore, to strengthen accountability, the involvement and full participation of stakeholders, and the external and international relations management, it is crucial that a Comprehensive Capacity Assessment be conducted for government institutions (RUWASSAs and LGAs) to establish existing capacity needs and develop a robust action plan to address them for inclusive and effective programme engagement and functioning.

This capacity assessment approach will address a wide range of issues including the ability of the institutions to identify & rectify policy gaps, design workable programmes, assess the policy environment and communicate effectively with service providers and other WASH stakeholders.

The European Union and UK Aid in partnership with UNICEF within the framework of FGN led reform programmes in the WASH sector, recently launched three programmes (WSSSRP-II, WSSSRP-III, NDSP and SHAWN-II) to cover nearly 80 LGAs across 19 States in Nigeria.

Nigeria has been facing challenges to the delivery of effective Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) services, some of the key ones include: weak sector institutional arrangements, absence of a regulatory framework, and inconsistency in the implementation of existing policies and inadequate data for planning. Investment to expand services in the water and sanitation sector is still low. Funds provided under the federal and state budgets are not used effectively because of poor public finance management and accountability.  In addition to low funding, there are issues with maintenance and sustainability plans, accountability framework, inclusion, participation and equity.

Therefore, to strengthen accountability, the involvement and full participation of stakeholders, and the external and international relations management, it is crucial that a Comprehensive Capacity Assessment be conducted for government institutions (RUWASSAs and LGAs) to establish existing capacity needs and develop a robust action plan to address them for inclusive and effective programme engagement and functioning.

This capacity assessment approach will address a wide range of issues including the ability of the institutions to identify & rectify policy gaps, design workable programmes, assess the policy environment and communicate effectively with service providers and other WASH stakeholders.

Scope of Work:

The assessment will cover diverse thematic areas including Institutional and Administrative arrangement within the RUWASSA and LGA WASH Departments/ Units and the current structure for WASH implementation. It would also probe into the adequacy of staffing and other associated facilities that enhances the operations of the Agencies/Departments/Units such as office space furniture and equipment, availably of operational resources, etc.

This exercise will cover 9 States (with one LGA per state) Fstaout of the 19 states supported by UNICEF WASH programme- (see Appendix I: List of selected States).

The scope of work for the assignment is:

• Build on the existing institutional diagnosis conducted as part of the baseline surveys in LGAs where available.
• Design appropriate tools, instruments and methodology for the conduct of Capacity Assessment duly considering best practices in the field.
• Carry out comprehensive review of societal, technical and institutional contexts, which facilitate or inhibit performances of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agencies, and LGA WASH Departments/ Units. This will include policies, guidelines, governing mandates and organizational cultures.
• Assessment of Technical and Organizational capacity to: - analyze existing situation; generate and manage resources; implement programmes/projects; and carry out Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) and foster learning.
• Adequacy and “mix” of existing technical capacity including matching of employees with relevant posts. Opportunities for structured and unstructured learning at both the organizational and individual levels.

 Provide insight into operational constraints and make appropriate recommendations

1. Overall Objective of the Assignment:

The purpose of the assessment is to identify institutional capacity needs of implementing partners and develop a plan to strengthen their capacity to accelerate access to water supply, sanitation and hygiene in Nigeria while ensuring a strong accountability for greater sustainability at all levels.

The specific objectives include:

1. Comprehensive assessment of the structure, systems and capacity needs of RUWASSAs and LGA WASH Departments/ Units with regard to the Water and Sanitation sector at the State and LGA level in the areas of policy design & strategy formulation, resources and budget allocation, programme and project implementation and Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning;
2. Design a comprehensive capacity building plan for the State and LGA level stakeholders based on the above assessment;

Develop a training plan for staff and set up a mechanism for the creation and regular update of a resource pool of trained women and men in WASH, especially with regard to sanitation and other emerging issues such as climate change

1. Major Tasks to be accomplished:

The assessment will adapt the UNDG capacity assessment framework with Organization as entry point covering the four functional capacities:

1. Policy Design and Strategy Formulation;
2. Resources and Budget Allocation:
3. Programme and Project Implementation
4. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

Around three core issues:

1. Public Sector Accountability;
2. Inclusion/Participation & Equity
3. External / International Relations

See task attached (Appendix II)

Additional areas of exploration

Local Government Level : Do authorities have the capacity to:

• Ensure that government is democratically accountable?
• Ensure that government is subject to independent audit?
• Ensure that meeting of local bodies are held in public unless there is a legal basis for being restricted?

Comprehensive capacity building programme

• Based on the above review of systems, structures and staffing, identify capacity gaps and recommend strategies and plans to address these gaps in the short-term (in the next 2 years) and medium-term (in the next five years);
• Develop a comprehensive Training Plan for the short-term (in the next 2 years) and medium-term (in the next five years) covering training objectives, scope, methodology, expected outputs, duration of course, need for field visits, target groups/ departments, etc.
• Discuss ways to improve links with academia and other actors in the sector;
• Determine in terms of systems and procedures (provision of manuals, guidelines, etc., typically followed by training), technical training (includes workshops and off-the-shelf training courses), procurements, or policy analysis.

Suggest key Resources/ Handbooks or publications required for reference at State and LGA level

1. Expected Deliverables

The main output of the assignment is to prepare a Capacity Assessment Report for each of the 9 states RUWASSAs including the 9 LGAs that include an institutional needs assessment; recommendations, action plan and a comprehensive capacity building programme for the various entities’ Water and Sanitation Sector Staff.

Following are the key deliverables:

• Inception Report within two weeks detailing the methodology, work plan for the assessment. It will also include the Capacity Assessment Tools / Instruments required for the assignment.
• Initial stakeholder consultations to clarify objectives and expectations and validate capacity assessment tools and methodology
• Preliminary findings within 8 weeks
• Draft Report – within 10 weeks of award of contract
• Conduct Final stakeholders workshop within 16 weeks
• Minutes of Stakeholder meetings
• Draft Final version of the report – 16 weeks

Final Capacity Assessment Report for all the 9 states RUWASSAs and the 9LGAs in a publishable format in 16 weeks

1. Qualifications or specialized knowledge/experience required:

A capacity assessment team will include an international and one or two national experts familiar with the context and content of the capacity assessment. Pairing a national consultant with an international consultant will definitely ensure to a mutually enriching exchange of knowledge and skills and strengthen the capacity of the national consultant to conduct a capacity assessment

The organizational prospective experts must have relevant experience in capacity building with relevant postgraduate qualification in social sciences, and related work experience of at least 10 years. The experts will have had significant experience of working on similar assignments in the country or region.

• Demonstrated experience in organization and management of consultation meetings, workshops and conducting structured and un-structured interviews.
• Demonstrated expertise in the area of capacity building and analysis including expertise in international norms and standards in this regards;
• Basic analytical skills (the ability to draw patterns, detect trends and identify extremes);
• Ability to balance between focused exploration on one hand and open-mindedness on the other hand. Ability to work effectively and collaboratively in a team. Ability to work efficiently under pressure, manage multiple tasks and meet deadlines, while maintaining attention to detail
• Sound knowledge of the Water, Sanitation & Hygiene sector;

Experience in applying adult learning methodologies and workshop

• Strong analytical, writing and communication skills;
• Demonstrated ability to identify, collect data and write comprehensive reports;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Ability to promote a knowledge sharing and learning culture;
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to convey complex concepts and recommendations, both orally and in writing, in a clear and persuasive style tailored to match different audiences.

General skills and competencies needed for all team members for secondary data review:

The Team needs to include at least the profiles below with strong problem solving abilities will be required to lead a successful and time bounded assessment:

• International Assessment Coordinator
• National Assessment expert
• Information Analyst

Coordinating an assessment implies both the overall coordination of the assessment team and responsibility for the final outputs, but also includes:

• Mobilizing external resources (material, human and financial)
• Encouraging stakeholders to take part to the assessment
• Facilitating consensus around the objectives, information needs and scope of the exercise
• Liaising with external actors and managing their expectations around the assessment results
• Ensuring buy-in and ownership around the assessment
• Promote and ensure the use of the data for decision making.

These responsibilities have proven to be extremely time and resource consuming. A dedicated Assessment Coordinator is required to carry them out.

Appendix I: LIST OF SELECTED STATES