DATELINE FOR SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS: THURSDAY 08 JULY 2021
AFRICAN MINISTERS’ COUNCIL ON WATER (AMCOW)
11 T. Y. DANJUMA STREET, ASOKORO DISTRICT, FCT-ABUJA, NIGERIA
+234 9096074166
secretariat@amcow-online.org
info@amcow-online.org
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL: CONFERENCE COORDINATOR FOR THE VIRTUAL AFRICA WATER AND SANITATION WEEK
DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT: 15TH JULY 2021 TO 15TH DECEMBER 2021.
Background
African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW)
The African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) was formed in 2002 in Abuja Nigeria, primarily to promote cooperation, security, socio-economic development and poverty eradication among member states through the effective management of the continent’s water resources and provision of water supply services. In 2008, at the 11th ordinary session of the African Union (AU) Assembly in Sharm el-Sheikh, Heads of State and Governments of the AU agreed on commitments to accelerate the achievement of water and sanitation goals in Africa and mandated AMCOW to develop and follow up with an implementation strategy for these commitments. In recognition of the paramount role of water and sanitation to human and economic development as well as the role of AMCOW in achieving sustainable development in Africa, AMCOW has been designated as a delivery mechanism on water and sanitation for the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) of the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (ARBE) of the African Union (AU). AMCOW provides political leadership, policy direction and advocacy in the provision, use and management of water resources for sustainable social and economic development and maintenance of African ecosystems.
Africa Water and Sanitation Week
The Africa Water and Sanitation Week is a joint conference of the Africa Water Week (AWW) and the Africa Sanitation Conference (AfricaSan) Conference. Both are flagship events of the Africa Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW). These flagship water and sanitation events represent a political commitment at the highest level. Both are institutionalized platforms to discuss and collectively seek solutions to Africa’s water and sanitation challenges. This is in keeping with the decision of the AMCOW Governing Council to institutionalize a way of building momentum on achieving the Africa Water Vision 2025.
This joint edition of both conferences will feature the 8th Africa Water Week and the 6th AfricaSan conference. Whereas the AWW will be organized based on 4 subthemes, the AfricaSan conference will be organized across 5 subthemes.
Overall aim of the AWSW
The overall aim of the joint conference is to facilitate dialogue and sharing of knowledge and develop action plans on water, sanitation and hygiene towards achievement of the SDG 6 in Africa.
Specific objectives of the conference
The conference has two specific objectives which contribute to the overall goal:
(1) to ensure Water Security for all and all uses across Africa by 2030;
(2) to accelerate action to ensure every country achieves access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation by 2030.
8th Africa Water Week (AWW 8)
Over the years, the Africa Water Week series has served as a platform for dialogue for the sector. Since 2008 when the first edition of the conference was held, 7 editions of the conference have brought together more than 7000 professionals from governments, regional institutions, international partners, the private sector, the scientific community, civil society, and the media from within the continent and all over the world. In these meetings, political dialogue, sharing of lessons and experiences on sector best practices have taken place which has impacted policy formulation and service delivery towards the achievement of regional and global goals and targets for water, sanitation and hygiene. It is a platform to dialogue on water issues from all over the continent of Africa. It brings together policy makers and technocrats to exchange best practices and lessons in the sector and how best to achieve sustainable water governance to ensure access to safe water for people of the continent.
Theme of AWW 8:
The theme of the AWW 8 is: “Water Security for Public Health and Human Development”.
Based on the overall theme of the conference, the Africa Water Week will be organized across the following 4 subthemes.
(1) Transboundary water management for cooperation and shared development
(2) Enhancing Water Security through sustainable management of Groundwater Resources
(3) Building Africa’s resilience to Climate Change and related disasters
(4) Addressing Water and Sanitation sector enablers and drivers: policy, capacity development, knowledge management, financing among others
Africa Conference on Sanitation and Hygiene (AfricaSan 6):
AfricaSan series of conferences was initiated to serve as a platform for technical and political dialogue to address the sanitation and hygiene problems in Africa and therefore mitigate the impacts of poor sanitation and hygiene on the continent. The first AfricaSan conference took place in 2002. Since then, through a process of setting commitments, action-planning and monitoring, AfricaSan has become a continuous, country-led initiative to improve sanitation in Africa. The AfricaSan movement has led to two distinct high-level declarations – the eThekwini declaration on Sanitation and Hygiene in 2008, and the Ngor Declaration on Sanitation and Hygiene in 2015.
The eThekwini Declaration and Commitments on Sanitation, were a landmark outcome of the AfricaSan+5 conference’s Ministerial dialogue. The commitments set out a framework of action towards achieving the sanitation MDG. Importantly the eThekwini commitments were endorsed by the African Union Summit of Heads of State in 2008 in Sharm el Sheikh and are captured into the Sharm el Sheikh declaration. That gave it more impetus and led to a continent-wide reawakening that sanitation is key to development
AfricaSan theme and subthemes
The overall theme of AfricaSan 6 is: “Accelerating Access to Safe Sanitation and Hygiene in Africa at SDG+5 and Covid-19 era”.
Based on the above overall theme of the conference which is developed based on the sanitation situation across the continent, the AfricaSan 6 will be organized based on the following 5 subthemes:
(1) Inclusive Policy and Strategy for Accelerating Sanitation and Hygiene Improvement in Africa;
(2) Securing innovative financing for sanitation and hygiene in financially challenging times;
(3) Bridging the human resource gap for sanitation and hygiene in Africa;
(4) Fecal Sludge Management, Green Economy and Climate Change; and
(5) Improving Hygiene in Africa: Building on the Momentum of COVID Era Hand Hygiene
To achieve the overall aim and the objectives of the conference, in addition to the technical sessions based on the subthemes, the following sessions will be organized.
(1) Plenary sessions: There will be a total of 4 plenary sessions.
A joint AWW8 & AfricaSan opening and closing plenary.
An Inter-ministerial Plenary panel discussions on water, sanitation and hygiene separately. This is expected to produce policy and strategic recommendations for water, sanitation and hygiene improvements across the continent and intersectoral collaboration for access to WASH services.
(2) Political Dialogue: This will be a single closed session that will bring ministers responsible for water, sanitation and hygiene from Africa, representatives of key stakeholder groups together. This will produce a Ministerial/multistakeholder declaration.
(3) Country dialogue: This will be organized based on between 5 – 7 parallel sessions. It will feature senior technocrats from ministries and partners to dialogue on sanitation and hygiene based on the outcomes of the second round of the AfricaSan Ngor Commitments monitoring.
(4) Thematic learning sessions: This will be organized across 9 subthemes of both the Water Week (4) and AfricaSan conferences (5). It will be organized across 6 – 9 parallel sessions.
(5) Seminars/side meetings: This will be reserved for proposals that didn’t make it into the main thematic sessions and will be organized outside of the time for the main conference.
(6) Technical fair/exhibition: An online exhibition will set up to showcase activities, approaches, of technological innovations. This track will be paid for by the exhibitors.
(7) Africa Water and Sanitation Awards: This will be organized to identify, showcase and reward the Water, Sanitation and hygiene innovations across the continent in one single session.
(8) Sector dialogue: This will involve a set of parallel dialogue sessions involving Local Authorities, Private Sector, Civil Society, Development Partners, and Public Utilities. All these are expected to be organized in 5 parallel sessions.
Consultant: Duties and Responsibilities
The consultant will work closely with the AMCOW Secretariat and an Online Event Management Consultant in planning and organizing the AWSW thematic framework to achieve the conference objectives:
The consultant is expected to perform the following tasks:
(1) Draft terms of reference for expression of interest call to be sent to sub-theme lead conveners’ and sessions conveners
(2) Develop criteria for selecting papers / abstracts for sub-theme lead conveners’ and sessions conveners
(3) Support AMCOW in the process of hiring an Event Manager for AWSW conference, including review of proposals from bidders
(4) Provide support to the communication and visibility manager in advertising and promoting the AWSW conference
(5) Design AWSW preparation schedule, and programme with details of sessions, seminars, side meetings, exhibitors, and support the soliciting of conference sponsors
(6) Plan and finalize arrangements with co-convenors/technical and forum sessions leads, and identify chairs, presenters, facilitators and rapporteurs
(7) Provide framework content of the conference for the AWSW website(s) manager and collate participant feedback through the portal
(8) Maintain communication and coordinate planning arrangements with the organizing committee (OC) AfricaSan International Task Force and the Technical Committee of the Africa Water Week to ensure technical sessions and the Africa Water and Sanitation Awards are well coordinated.
(9) Make arrangements for the compilation of all session reports and develop Africa Water Week Conference Report
(10) In collaboration with the Knowledge Management Officer and the Senior Policy Advisor, work with the technical committee of the AWW and the AITF to synthesize policy briefs and other knowledge products from the conference.
(11) Work closely with the Communications and Visibility Manager to develop an elaborate communications plan for the conference.
Expected Outputs of the Assignment
The following outputs are expected from the assignment.
(I) The AWSW is successfully organized virtually over a period of 5 days
(II) A detail program plan for the AWSW detailing time, duration and methodology of all the plenary session, side events, thematic sessions, Awards, exhibitions and dialogue sessions;
(III) A Conference Communique and Ministerial statement and/or multistakeholder conference statement.
(IV) A conference report with recommendations for organizing self-sustaining conferences.
Qualification and Experience.
The consultant must have the following qualifications and experience:
(1) Experience in supporting water sector conferences and events will be an advantage
(2) The necessary experience planning and organizing online meetings in multiple languages with multiple stakeholders participating from different time zones;
(3) The necessary experience planning and organizing multiple dialogue sessions with multiple groups and producing political commitments
(4) Experience managing complex processes targeted at producing one set of coherent outcomes
(5) Highly meticulous and very organized, with the ability to work on tasks with little supervision.
(6) Good knowledge
