J.1_SOO_Clean_Drinking_Water.pdf

IMPROVED ACCESS TO SAFE DRINKING WATER IN LIBERIA

ACTIVITY STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES (SOO)

1. SCOPE

This Statement of Objectives (SOO) describes the objectives of USAID/Liberia for the Clean

Drinking Water activity, which is intended to result in improved access to, use of, and sustainability of basic drinking water services in Montserrado and Margibi counties. This SOO does not state how the work is to be accomplished but provides potential offerors with the flexibility to develop cost-effective solutions and the opportunity to propose innovative approaches to meet the stated objectives and results.

Based on this SOO, offerors will submit a Performance Work Statement (PWS) describing their approach to achieving the objectives of the activity. The PWS must enable USAID to assess the performance of the work against specific, clear, and measurable performance standards (in terms of quality, quantity, timeliness, etc.), and show the method of assessing contractor performance against the performance standards.

2. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

Access to Drinking Water Services in Liberia

Liberians have especially poor access to clean water and sanitation compared to other countries in the region, contributing to poor child health outcomes. In Liberia, one out of every eleven children dies before reaching his or her fifth birthday, with water-borne diseases such as diarrhea being one of the leading causes of mortality. Lack of access to clean drinking water and sanitation and hygiene facilities is a key predictor of diarrheal diseases and malnutrition in children1. Diarrhea and malnutrition also form a vicious cycle, with diarrhea making children more susceptible to malnutrition and malnutrition making children more susceptible to diarrhea. In Liberia, 30% of children under five are stunted (low height for age), and 11 percent are wasted (low weight for height)2.

The Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) “service ladder” for water is a conceptual framework developed by the WHO and UNICEF that is used as a standardized way of measuring drinking water service levels across countries. The five rungs on the ladder measuring access to water services are shown below. To ensure improved health outcomes, the goal is to move people from the lowest rungs to at least the fourth rung: basic water services.

1 Kwami CS, Godfrey S, Gavilan H, Lakhanpaul M, Parikh P. Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene: Linkages with Stunting in Rural Ethiopia. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019;16(20):3793. Published 2019 Oct 9.

doi:10.3390/ijerph16203793

2 DHS, 2019

Access to basic drinking water in Liberia has increased over the past decade but seems to be stagnating. According to estimates in the 2017 UNICEF/WHO JMP, 73% of Liberia’s population has access to basic drinking water services. Of the population with access, 63% reside in rural areas and 84% in urban areas. The 2019 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) found similar rates, with 74% of Liberians overall having access to basic drinking water services, including 63% in rural areas and 83% in urban areas. Although the two studies are not directly comparable, they do suggest that progress has been slowing.3

Although only about 2% of the people in Liberia who use surface water live in urban areas, 50% of the people who use an unimproved water source live in urban areas. Water interventions are therefore needed in both rural and peri-urban/urban areas in order to reach people on the lowest rungs of the ladder and achieve the greatest health benefits.

According to the 2019 DHS, almost 85 percent of people in Montserrado and 76 percent in Margibi county have access to basic drinking water services, but USAID still estimates that there are over

100,000 people in these two counties who are currently using an unimproved source of drinking water or surface water. There is also very limited data on the quality of water supplied through existing drinking water systems, how the systems are being managed, or the extent to which there are disparities in access to clean drinking water within the counties.

Water Governance in Liberia

3 Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), Ministry of Health and Social Welfare [Liberia], and ICF. 2020. Liberia Demographic and Health Survey 2019-20: Key Indicators. Monrovia, Liberia and Rockville, Maryland, USA

The Government of Liberia (GOL) committed to increasing access to water and sanitation services in the country’s 2018-2023 Pro Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development, which states that

“by 2023, the government aims to have equitable, safe, affordable and sustainable water supply and sanitation services for all Liberians.”4

Management of water service delivery in Liberia remains quite centralized, which has been one of the challenges to effective services, as central authorities are often not responsive to the needs of communities. Laws and policies pertaining to centralized water service delivery include the Liberia

Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) Act of 1973, the Public Health Law of 1976, the Integrated

Water Resource Management Policy of 2007, and the Water and Sanitation Policy of 2009. Under the constitution, the provision of drinking water services in urban centers throughout Liberia is the mandate of Liberian Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC), while rural water services fall under the authority of the Ministry of Public Works (MOPW).

However, efforts to decentralize the management of water service delivery have been underway for several years. In 2009 the Liberian Water and Sanitation Policy called for changes to the institutional arrangements at national and sub-national levels, including allowing for “independent urban authorities in county capitals,” but it did not establish clear roles and responsibilities for county-level officials in water service delivery. The Local Government Act of 2018 gave counties, city councils, and townships additional authorities including “delivery of basic public goods and services,”5 and gave Local Government Institutions (LGIs) the authority to develop water services.

In practical terms, however, there has been little progress towards operationalizing the decentralization policies and reforms, and few LGIs have involved themselves in water service delivery despite their statutory authority to do so. Overlapping roles and authorities in WASH, technical capacity challenges at LGIs, and lack of county-level funding for social services are among possible reasons for this. Improved implementation of decentralization in the water sector and strengthened leadership by LGIs will be essential to ensuring long-term sustainable water service delivery in Liberia.

The LWSC and MOPW, the two constitutionally-mandated water service providers in the urban and rural areas of the country, have a limited capacity to provide services, and the private and

NGO/philanthropic sectors fill the gap. Private water service providers are a diverse group, ranging from owners of privately built water pumps to entrepreneurs mining underground water and selling it in plastic bags.

Challenges Maintaining Water Points

4 Republic of Liberia. 2018. Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development.

5 Republic of Liberia. 2018. Local Government Act http://liberianconsulatega.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/PAPD-Pro-Poor-Agenda-for-Prosperity-and-Development.pdf http://iredd-lr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Signed-Local-Government-Act.pdf

Although Liberia is a water-rich country, a 2018 study6 found that approximately 40% of the

20,205 water points in the country were nonfunctional. The percentage has likely increased since then. Some of the reasons for the nonfunctional water points include the following:

● Water points being installed with no long-term plans made for routine operations, maintenance and repairs. Often there is no person or group taking responsibility for operations and maintenance, and there are no financial plans for how to pay for them.

This leads, for example, to pumps breaking down because no one will buy a ten dollar replacement part. Frequently there is no sense of community ownership of new water points.

● Lack of financing for operations and maintenance of water points. Water supply systems, whether large or small, usually do not generate enough money through sale of water to pay for their own operations. National and local governments rarely include any significant funding for water services or maintenance and repairs of water points in their budgets. Water systems rarely have a realistic business plan.

● Ambiguity in land tenure agreements often results in the lack of a clear agreement between the owner of the land where a water point or system is located and the intended end users of the water point or system. This can prevent water from reaching the intended end users.

Breakdown of pumps and pipes are the most frequently recurring technical reasons for nonfunctioning water points. A 2017 study found that water point managed by private operators / owners remain the most functional (92%)7.

In general, the quality and reliability of water services in rural and peri-urban areas is poor, especially for poor, marginalized, and/or vulnerable populations.

6 Liberia Water Point Survey 2017-18 7 Liberia water point survey 2017

Challenges with Particular Types of Water Points:

Liberia has benefited from significant donor investments in constructing water supply systems of all sizes throughout the country. The main problem is that there is rarely a realistic plan for sustainability and continued operations and maintenance after construction, which renders the construction itself useless and results in the huge number of nonfunctional water points.

Larger water supply systems in the country include systems of pumped water and kiosks that are present in some of the larger cities in Liberia. The main challenge with these types of systems is that they do not generate enough income through water sales to be financially self-sustaining and to be able to pay for their own operations and maintenance. In other countries this type of shortfall has been covered through subsidy systems, but in the past the GOL has not provided subsidies even when it has signed agreements to do so. There are a few water kiosks in the greater Monrovia area that have been outsourced to local residents for a share of the water sale proceeds, but this type of arrangement is still not common. There is also a lack of transparency in the management of the proceeds from water sales.

In Montserrado and Margibi counties, two of the large-scale water supply systems are the White

Plains water reservoir, which supplies water to Monrovia, and the Kakata urban water supply scheme, which was renovated in 2010. The White Plains system is running at only 20% of its capacity, and the Kakata system is largely nonfunctional due to disrepair.

Smaller-scale water supply systems that are common outside of major cities include hand pumps and protected dug wells. These types of water points frequently require maintenance and repair of parts including the well apron, components of the pump, and components of the tap and tank.

As described above, there has often been no system put in place to finance this type of small-scale maintenance and repair, and instead of making repairs people will often start using a different, less safe source of water if their primary water point becomes nonfunctional.

Water Services in Montserrado and Margibi Counties

In Montserrado county, outside of the areas covered by the White Plains water treatment plant , a variety of different types of water points are used, with the most common being protected dug wells or taps, and open or unprotected dug wells or springs. Unprotected dug wells are becoming more and more coming in greater Monrovia due to rapid urbanization and increased demand for water. A recent survey on drinking water behaviors in Montserrado county provides further information8.

Margibi county has a range of different types of water services. T he largest city in county, Kakata, had constructed a fairly complex urban water supply in the p ast decade, but the system is now largely non functional due to lack of maintenance and repairs. .

8 Urban Water Assessment Report 2021 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kNa1ynpajXHLN-NHQmXA-uVQEkdeOZZ8/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=107474486878987237095&rtpof=true&sd=true

Similarly, , two medium- sized piped water systems built in Dolo Town and Unification

Town for a cumulative population of approximately 10,000 people are also nonfunctional for the same reasons . These communities now depend on commercial bottled water . Hand pumps and protected dug wells, , often supported by NGOs, faith based organizations, or corporate sector actors are the most common sources of water in Margibi county .

USAID Water Investments in Liberia

Liberia is a priority country under the United States Government (USG) Global Water Strategy.

USAID has made significant investments in the water sector, including the construction of water treatment plants and water supply kiosks in the cities of Robertsport, Sanniquellie, and Voinjama.

These water treatment plants have modern solar-powered infrastructure, but have faced challenges with management, operations, and financial sustainability, due to a failure to expand service networks over time, the lack of a viable business plan, and overstaffing and over-centralized management.

For the reasons described above, including infrastructure schemes designed without taking end user requirements into account, lack of governance frameworks to manage and sustain the infrastructure and ensure its financial sustainability, and lack of community ownership of water infrastructure, construction of water infrastructure has historically not been a very sustainable activity in Liberia. It is possible to spend a huge amount of money on construction that has relatively little sustainable impact in the water sector. USAID is therefore transitioning to a more sustainable approach to its support of the water sector, emphasizing local water governance, improved water service delivery, and improved behaviors around water use.

3. PURPOSE

Building on lessons learned from the past, and in support of the GOL’s efforts to ensure sustainable access to clean drinking water for all of its citizens, USAID/Liberia seeks to award $18 million for a new five-year activity, with the overall goal of increasing access to, use of, and sustainability of basic drinking water services in rural Montserrado and Margibi counties. In addition, this activity will provide continued financial management and operations support to the three existing water treatment plants in Robertsport, Sanniquellie, and Voinjama, beginning in the fourth quarter of

2022. Locations other than the initial target counties will be decided based on need and concurrence from USAID.

Offerors are encouraged to share their approach, but USAID envisions this to be done by establishing locally-managed water service delivery models of appropriate scale for each target community. The activity will clearly identify and address the multiple barriers inhibiting universal access to drinking water services in Montserrado and Margibi counties, including poor governance, lack of community involvement in designing and managing local water systems, lack of funding for sustainable operations and maintenance of water systems, and insufficient customer demand for basic water services.

This activity will seek to sustainably eliminate the use of unimproved and surface water sources in rural Montserrado and Margibi, thus moving everyone to at least a basic level of water service.

It will also improve the operations and sustainability of existing basic water services.

Problem Statement:

Water service delivery in Liberia has suffered from the capacity limitations of national-level entities including the Ministry of Public Works (MoPW) and the Liberia Water and Sewer

Corporation (LWSC). As such, sub-national provision and/or management of services has been envisioned by the GOL since 2009, as a means through which water service delivery could be improved and better sustained. While the GOL recognizes that it needs to partner with private water service providers (WSPs) for the delivery of critical services, the availability of quality partners is limited, as is the GOL’s experience related to partnering with, overseeing, and contractually managing such partners.

Finally, even in areas where basic water services are available, many people choose not to use them because it is cheaper to continue to use existing unimproved water sources, or because the unimproved water sources are closer to their homes. It is therefore essential to ensure that not only are basic drinking water services available, but that people use them, and that barriers to the use of clean drinking water are analyzed and addressed.

To address the above challenges, this activity seeks to enhance the stewardship of national and local government towards addressing the challenge of water service delivery in general, and in particular to (1) ensure that local government institutions are able to effectively plan, budget, and oversee water service delivery; (2) ensure that water service providers managed by local government entities are able to equitably provide basic water service delivery in the target counties; and (3) ensure that households use basic drinking water services when they are available. In doing so, the activity will sustainably increase the availability and use of basic drinking water services in the target counties, which particularly focus on marginalized populations.

As described above, many residents of the target counties use small-scale water systems or water points including hand pumps or protected dug wells. A water service provider in the context of these types of water points, for example, may be an individual or organization that conducts routine maintenance and repairs a few times a year. Water service delivery may simply involve ensuring the continued operation of a pump or well within a community. Water service delivery is any system of extracting, cleaning, and conveying water for human consumption, regardless of the scale.

4. PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES

The framework above summarizes the main results intended to be achieved through this activity.

(Offerors may also propose their own results frameworks.) USAID envisions a systems strengthening approach that will emphasize governance, innovative public and private financing, service delivery, and demand creation for improved water services. Involving communities in the design and management of the new or renovated water points will be a key strategy for sustainability. Any water distribution scheme supported under this activity will have to have low operations and maintenance costs in order to be sustainable, and communities will have the chance to voice their opinions on what type of water scheme would be best for them.

The Clean Drinking Water activity has three main objectives as described below.

Objective 1: Local Government Institutions Effectively Plan, Budget, and Oversee Water

Service Delivery

Offerors are requested to propose technical approaches and specific interventions for enabling appropriate local government institutions (LGIs) in the target counties to effectively plan, budget, and oversee water service delivery. Most LGIs have little to no experience in this area and look upto national institutions such as LWSC and MOPW for service delivery. Proposed interventions should take into account USAID’s principles of good water governance,9 including transparency, participation, efficiency and effectiveness, and accountability. This approach can also be applied

9 https://www.globalwaters.org/sites/default/files/usaid_wash_governance_tech_brief_7_508.pdf to ensure the sustainability of the three USAID-supported water treatment plants in Voinjama, Sanniquellie, and Robertsport.

Expected results could include but are not limited to the following:

1. Local leadership structures, institutional arrangements and governance framework for sustainable water service delivery are established and/or improved

● Development of a general sub-national framework for water service delivery

● Development of a specific framework for public and/or private water service delivery managed by LGIs in the target counties, including institutional arrangements, contractual arrangement(s), roles and responsibilities, financing and costs/tariffs, etc. This must apply to all scales of water systems and water points.

2. Policies and regulations for water service delivery are improved, implemented, and enforced

● Analysis of current policies and regulation and development of plans for improvement

● Reforms in institutions, policies, and processes necessary to support local leadership structures and frameworks for water service delivery

3. Improved institutional capacity and coordination around planning, budgeting, and monitoring water services

● Increased capacity in LGIs to solicit, contract with, manage and oversee private water service providers. (This includes small-scale providers, such as someone who conducts periodic maintenance on a hand pump.)

● LGIs have established and enforceable minimum service delivery standards and procedures

- i.e. technical [e.g. water quality, quantity, location and operation], and social [e.g.

community engagement, gender equity and inclusion]

● LGIs have the capacity to carry out necessary governance functions including but not limited to the following:

○ Establish and streamline internal roles, responsibilities, and communication among departments and staff

○ Conduct solicitation and contracts management for public-private partnership

(PPP) arrangements (if applicable)

○ Monitor and enforce applicable regulations service delivery standards

○ Manage and share data and information

○ Conduct financial planning, management, and budgeting (local government perspective)

○ Troubleshoot any conflicts with water service providers to resolve issues and decrease risks associated with service disruptions

○ Engage and partner with civil society to ensure the voices of communities -especially women and girls and other marginalized populations - are taken into account

Objective 2: Equitable and Inclusive Water Service Delivery Improved and Expanded

Offerors are requested to propose technical approaches and specific interventions to improve and expand equitable and inclusive water service delivery in the target counties, with the active involvement of end users. This could include approaches to (1) set up sustainable water service delivery models appropriate to the local context; (2) build the capacity of water service providers

(WSPs) to partner effectively with county-level LGIs, and to deliver services in accordance with contractual arrangements; and (3) ensure access to basic drinking water services for poor, marginalized, or hard-to-reach households by addressing social, financial, and physical barriers.

WSPs can be of any scale, including, for example, someone who manages a community’s protected dug well.

As described above, construction of water infrastructure alone, with no community ownership and no long-term plans for operations and maintenance, has never been a sustainable way to expand water service delivery in Liberia. While offerors may propose construction activities as part of their overall approach, including repairs and renovations of existing water systems and new infrastructure to expand basic water services to populations currently using unimproved water sources, construction cannot be the starting point of the activity. Before any construction activity can, the Contractor must at a minimum (1) analyze previous similar water infrastructure construction activities in Liberia and the reasons for their success or failure, (2) demonstrate a clear understanding of why water points similar to the ones the Contractor proposes to renovate or construct have become nonfunctional in the past in Liberia and present a clear argument for why these problems will not recur under the proposed approach, (3) conduct extensive community engagement to ensure that the end users for the proposed water point are lead decision-making around the choice of the type of water point and the design of the long-term sustainability plan for operations and maintenance, (4) ensure community buy-in and investment in the long-term operations and maintenance of the water point or system, and (5) put in place a governance framework that will ensure the long-term sustainability of the water point or system. Offerors who wish to propose construction activities should clearly explain how they intend to carry out all of these steps. Proposed construction activities will be heavily scrutinized to determine whether they are realistic, practical, and feasible given past lessons learned in Liberia.

1. Professional and financially resilient water service delivery models adopted

● Current water service delivery models in the target counties, analyzed for efficiency, cost effectiveness, and ability to inclusively reach all households, including poor and marginalized members of the catchment population

● Barriers to inclusive water access clearly identified and understood by LGIs and WSPs

● Community-led consultative processes carried out to determine the best sustainable water service delivery models for different areas of the target counties

● Development and adoption of new water service delivery models and plans for implementing them

● Cost recovery of water services improved

● The scoping, design and construction of ancillary infrastructure necessary to support repairs, improvements, and expansion of basic water service delivery are supported.

2. Water service providers have the capacity to manage water services

● WSPs have the necessary capacity related to (i) financial management and accounting,

(ii) operations and maintenance, both preventive and responsive, and (iii) customer service and engagement.

● WSPs have the capacity to carry out necessary functions including but not limited to the following:

○ Operate and maintain (O&M) assets

○ Monitor the quantity and quality of water services

○ Troubleshoot issues and make repairs as needed

○ Develop and implement water safety plans

○ Perform life cycle costing and planning for system upgrades and expansion

○ Demonstrate gender inclusive hiring and training of staff

○ Develop business plans for financial sustainability and create business opportunities for market expansion

● WSPs partner effectively with county-level LGIs, and are prepared to expand services into new geographies, in partnership with new LGIs

● WSPs are consumer focused, by establishing a program/process for collecting consumer feedback to gauge use, satisfaction and identify opportunities for improvement.

3. Water service providers incentivized to extend inclusive services to poor and marginalized households

● Financial barriers to water access removed for poor households (e.g. through direct targeted subsidies and or cross subsidies)

● WSPs are aware of social and physical barriers to access to basic water services and create plans to help poor and marginalized households overcome these barriers

● Increase in persons with first-time access to at least basic water services

Objective 3: Uptake and Maintenance of Key Water Use Behaviors among Households

Increased

The ultimate outcome of providing safe drinking water is positive health gain in the population.

Offerors are requested to propose technical approaches and specific interventions to ensure that once basic drinking water services are available, people use them, including poor and marginalized households. This could include approaches to (1) promote social norms around clean drinking water and the use of basic water services; (2) remove barriers to the use of basic water services; and (3) ensure the participation of marginalized groups in decision-making related to basic water services.

1. Social norms around the use of basic water services created and uptake of clean drinking water increased

● Current social norms related to drinking water in the target communities are clearly identified and understood by local stakeholders and the communities themselves. This includes people’s reasons for choosing to use a particular water source

● Activities such as community-led social and behavior change campaigns implemented to increase the use of basic water services

● Monitoring systems in place to track the use of basic water services and uptake of clean drinking water

2. Financial, social, and physical barriers to the use of basic water services are removed

● Financial, social, and physical barriers to the use of basic water services are clearly identified and understood by communities, households, marginalized groups, WSPs and local governments.

● Communities, households, and marginalized groups collaborate with LGIs, WSPs, and other stakeholders to remove these barriers

3. Participation of women and other marginalized groups in decision-making related to water access and management increased

● Current decision-making systems related to drinking water in the target counties are analyzed and understood, including analysis of current participation of marginalized groups

● Barriers to participation in decision-making around drinking water services are clearly identified and understood by LGIs, WSPs, communities, households, and marginalized groups

● Strategies to increase participation of women and marginalized groups are implemented

5. PERIOD AND PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

Period of Performance: The activity will have a five-year period of performance from 2022-

2027.

Place of Performance: The two initial target counties for this activity will be Montserrado and

Margibi. Additional places of performance may be negotiated with USAID during the life of the award. Interaction with national-level stakeholders and GOL entities will also be required. This activity will also provide operational support to three USAID-funded water treatment plants in

Sanniquellie, Voinjama and Robertsport.

6. GUIDING PRINCIPLES

a. Gender Equality: Promoting gender equality and advancing the status of women and girls is vital to achieving USAID’s development objectives. USAID policy mandates that all applicants mainstream and integrate gender equality, female empowerment, and measures for reducing gender-based violence into their interventions. The Contractor will be expected to develop an action plan that demonstrates compliance with ADS 205 and the

Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act and should explicitly state how this activity supports the gender policies and strategies of the United States and the

Government of Liberia.

b. Equity and Inclusion: A primary driver for this activity is increasing equitable access to clean drinking water for all Liberians in the target counties. This will require not only service delivery improvements, but also direct engagement with marginalized populations in order to better understand barriers to accessing and using basic drinking water services, including behavioral and/or sociocultural considerations. Equity and inclusion must be a guiding principle throughout the activity.

c. Private Sector Engagement: While the GOL has adopted the principle of private sector engagement (PSE) in the development of the water services in its water sector strategies and policies, in practice PSE is very limited. Improved PSE will require engagement with the main local stakeholders, including local government, private partners, and other local organizations. Engagement with private sector actors is critical to stimulate innovation and investment to meet demand in the water sector. The Contractor will work to facilitate private sector market development across the activity, aiming to remove barriers to private sector involvement in water service delivery.

d. Youth Engagement: The Contractor will incorporate youth engagement within all result areas and monitor the participation of youth in the activity. The Contractor will include concrete and practical approaches that will address the challenges that youth face in accessing and using basic drinking water services, and will involve youth in the decision-making, management, and leadership of this activity.

e. Coordination: The Contractor will coordinate activities with other implementing partners and development partners working in the target areas across various sectors. As directed by USAID, the Contractor may need to participate in coordination platforms, joint work planning exercises, joint quarterly reviews, joint field visits, and share monitoring data with other partners. Many development partners, including the World Bank, UNICEF, and FCDO (formerly DFID), intend to support water development in these areas in the upcoming years. The Contractor, in consultation with the COR, will need to coordinate support to complement other USAID activities and other development partners and fill critical gaps. Coordination with the national government will also be required.

f. Local Systems: The Contractor will propose an approach that relies on local systems, works with both formal actors and informal actors, and considers how cooperation will be sustained and scaled up beyond the life of the activity. The Contractor will work with local communities, community organizations, and leaders for improved sustainability, and will involve government system actors and communities in leading their own development as co-designers and co-implementers of specific aspects of the program.

The Contractor will identify opportunities for partnering with organizations led by women and young entrepreneurs, allowing local actors to assume responsibility for managing and implementing aspects of the activity. This support may be reinforced through a Grants Under Contracts mechanism.

g. Grants Under Contract: Building local Liberian capacity in water service delivery and management is a key aspect of this activity. To support capacity-building efforts as well as program implementation, the Contractor may subcontract with, or provide limited grants to, Liberian business associations, civil society organizations, governmental organizations, professional associations, or other stakeholders involved with water service delivery.

h. Construction Risk Management: If the Contractor proposes any construction activities, it must incorporate principal elements of USAID’s preferred approach to construction as outlined in USAID’s “Construction Risk Management Policy – A Mandatory Reference for ADS Chapter 201.”

i. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning: The Contractor will develop a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) plan as a management tool to measure progress against intended results. The initial draft will be submitted with the proposal, with an updated

MEL plan submitted for approval by the COR within 60 days of award. The Contractor will monitor and report on activity progress and agreed-upon indicators through narrative reports and reporting databases as instructed by USAID. Progress should be measured against a stated baseline or baseline data gathered at the start of the activity.

Requirements for developing a baseline should be included in the proposed budget, to be performed in collaboration with the Mission and local counterparts. The MEL plan will follow guidelines outlined in ADS 201.3.4.10, including data sources, disaggregation, collection methodologies, and data quality assessments for each indicator. The Contractor will comply with all data quality assessment requirements as well as any independent outside evaluations of the project performance as conducted by USAID or its auditors.

j. Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA): USAID has defined CLA as a guiding framework for the implementation of its activities. The Contractor must ensure that CLA and developmental evaluation underpins all activities and management. The activity’s learning approach will include processes and actions designed to (1) identify and fill knowledge gaps through research, knowledge sharing, and other means; (2) facilitate application of learning from assessments, evaluations and periodic monitoring and reflection processes; and (3) build a sustainable system for sharing knowledge with key stakeholders and activity beneficiaries. Specific learning questions will be identified and answered during implementation. The Contractor will present a vision and strategy for management that intentionally plans for consideration and adaptation of approaches based on program learning, experience, and inputs from empirical evidence and both internal and external researchers and evaluators. This will involve strategic collaboration with key stakeholders in organizing, facilitating and documenting systematic continuous learning and adaptive management activities.

k. Resilience: In building up sustainable water systems, this activity will play a critical role in building communities’ resilience to potential future shocks including pandemics and water insecurity.

l. Sustainability Plan and Exit Strategy: The contractor is required to plan for the end of the activity, and start implementing the activity’s sustainability plan from the beginning.

The c ontractor must ensure that USAID’s investment not only lasts beyond the project life, but continues to benefit the end user. The offeror will be required to design a system of principles, practices, and procedures to sustain the gains of this activity . All the required actions to ensure sustainability must be completed before the end of activity .