World Bank Group Water Global Practice
Utility of the Future Center of Excellence
Utility of the Future Implementation, Mentoring and
Capacity Building for Water and Sanitation Utilities in the Western Balkans
Expression of Interest
Background
Utility
of the Future Program
Since 2019, the World Bank and its partners
have been working with utilities throughout the world via the Utility of the
Future (UoF) Program, developed with support from the Global Water Security
and Sanitation Partnership (GWSP). UoF is a novel approach that integrates
learnings from decades of analytical work and technical assistance to water
utilities, including the Water Utility Turnaround Framework. Other studies,
including a review of successful urban water utility reforms, support the
robustness of this approach. The UoF Program is growing, and a total of 95 utilities
in 35 countries have already received UoF support to date under different schemes adapted to each
utility, context and priorities, with promising results around the world. The
program also has an extended team of more than 20 UoF Advisors among consultants,
specialists and/or institutions with different operating models in all regions
to ensure program replicability and scalability. To know more about the UoF
Program, to download the UoF resources including the conceptual and
methodological UoF framework; and the UoF Toolkit for its application, visit
the link www.worldbank.org/uof.
Utility
of the Future Center of Excellence (UoF-CoE)
To further build on the Utility of the Future
Program (UoF), the World Bank, in partnership with the Swiss State Secretariat
for Economic Affairs (SECO), has established the Utility of the Future
Center of Excellence (UoF-CoE) in Tirana, Albania. The UoF-CoE expands upon the current UoF
program and is intended to complement existing capacity development efforts in
the Western Balkans region, such as the Regional Capacity Development Network
(RCDN) and the Danube Learning Partnership (DLeaP). Visit Utility of the Future Center of Excellence
While the UoF-CoE’s role as an operations
center and knowledge and innovation hub is meant to benefit utilities
worldwide, funds will be available to support up to 50 water utilities from the
Western Balkan region in the next five years with implementation of the UoF
approach – The Western Balkans Project (WBP). The WBP will provide technical
support for the utility in-depth analysis and development of 100-day action
plans and five-year strategic plans, using the UoF approach, including the access
to best practices in terms of green management, energy efficiency, and gender
balance and diversity as per the UoF “zoom-in lenses”. The WBP will then use a
competitive mechanism to support to up to 10 utilities for the implementation
of short-term projects/measures and/or preparation of a business and investment
plan.
The main activities under the WBP are:
1. Agile Sector Analysis: - Agile
analysis of the water and sanitation sector, policy, institutions and
regulation (PIR) as a
baseline for the development of the WBP, and promote sector dialogue.
2. Utility of the Future Program (UoF): Implementation of the UoF Program in up to
50 utilities in the region. A program designed to ignite, materialize and
maintain transformation efforts in water and sanitation utilities (UoF).
3. Short-term Project: Based on the level of performance and
commitment of the utilities during the implementation of the UoF Program, a
short list of 10 utilities will be selected for further support with the
development of an improvement project.
4. Business Planning: Guidance for the development of business and
investment plans for the 10 selected utilities.
5. Feasibility Study: Guidance for the development of feasibility
studies for key infrastructure projects identified in the business and
investment plan for the 10 selected utilities.
6. Mentoring and capacity building: As part of the WBP, utilities in the region
will participate in webinars, training activities, cross-fertilization,
networking, among other actions aimed at strengthening capacities and
connecting utilities within the region.
Objective of the Assignment
The
general objective of the consultancy service is to support the World Bank in: A) the implementation of the Utility of
the Future Program within a first group of up to 15 utilities to be part of the
Western Balkans Project; B) the provision of technical advisory service to World
Bank to support a first group of utilities
during the 1-Year mentoring program; C) and the provision of assistance to the World
Bank to provide in-depth support and capacity
building to up to 5 selected utilities in the Western Balkans.
Specific Tasks
The
main activities to be carried out by the consulting firm to support the World
Bank entail:
A. Utility Analysis and 100-Day Action Plan (15
utilities, to be defined)
1. Planning
UoF Implementation: Develop with the World Bank the work plan for the
implementation of the UoF Program for each of the 15 utilities (to be defined
within the 6 Western Balkans countries).
2. Ignition
Week: Support the World Bank to conduct an in-situ one-week workshop with the
utility staff, to develop the assessment of utility key process based on the
UoF methodology, and provide recommendations to formulate a detailed action
plan to be implemented by the utility in 100 days.
3. 100-Day
Action Plan: Support the World Bank to advice and guide each
utility during the implementation and follow-up of the short-term action plan.
4. Zoom-in
Analysis: Support the World Bank to develop additional
sessions with the utility staff to reinforce the analysis of up to 3 UoF elements,
and recommend potential new short and long-term improvement actions.
5. 5-Year
Strategic Plan: Support the World Bank to provide recommendations
to update the mission, vision, and strategic objectives of each utility, as
well as identify and recommend key actions, milestones, and goals for the
utility to define a 5-year strategic plan.
6. Process
and costs optimization: Support the World Bank with the identification of
main processes to be optimize in each utility, as well as identify major costs
reduction opportunities.
7. Information
System Mapping: Support the World Bank in developing a basic map of
the current information technology architecture of the utility, current
hardware and software, active licenses, information systems, obsolescence
levels, usage levels, connectivity, interaction between systems, risks,
security levels, among others.
8.
1-Year Mentoring Plan: Based on the strategic objectives, utility
assessment, priorities, and available resources, support the World Bank
drafting a 1-year Mentoring Program indicating main activities, goals,
resources, and key milestones.
9.
Closing Session for 100-day plan and launch 1-year mentoring
program: Support the World Bank to conduct a closing
session with the utility staff and key stakeholders to review the utility
assessment, analyze main achievements, lessons learned, performance
improvement, new strategic plan, final 1-year mentoring plan, utility evaluation,
and overall results of the 100-day plan and next steps.
B. 1-Year Mentoring Program (15 utilities, TBD)
10.
Mentoring and guidance in planning process:
Support the World Bank to provide recommendations on structuring and set-up the
planning team/department in each utility (if not already in place), definition
of key planning processes and policies, and guide each utility in developing
the business and investment plan. Provide recommendations on potential support
activities that could be implemented in more than one utility to pursue
economies of scale. This activity will be implemented in the 10 utilities that
are not part of the short list of 5 utilities.
11.
Mentoring and guidance in specialized areas:
Provide specialized support to the World Bank to advice the first group of 15
utilities in key strengthening areas based on the needs identified during the
previous phases. The consulting firm should have the ability and specialized
team to support the World Bank to provide recommendations and guidance to utilities,
on key processes such as: commercial management, asset management, digital
transformation, NRW, project management, human resources, environmental
management, energy efficiency, customer service, commercial management,
financial management, among others. Provide recommendations on potential support
activities that could be implemented in more than one utility to pursue
economies of scale.
C. In-depth capacity building and planning the
implementation of improvement actions (5 utilities, TBD)
Based
on the level of commitment, results of the 100-day plan, and performance
improvement, up to 5 utilities will be selected for in-depth support. Main
supporting activities for the World Bank Team to be carried out by the
consulting firm for the short-listed group of 5 utilities of the WBP are as
follows:
12.
Inputs to develop terms of reference for a selected
improvement actions – propose a draft of terms of reference / technical
specifications to the World Bank for one prioritized action derived from the
UoF Implementation for each of the 5 selected utilities. Provide
recommendations on potential actions that could apply in more than one utility
to pursue economies of scale.
13.
Business and Investment Plan – propose
to the World Bank a business and investment 5-year plan to recommend to the 5
selected utilities. The structure and content should be aligned with the UoF framework,
concept and methodology.
14.
Technical inputs to develop prefeasibility studies – propose
to the World Bank technical and economical assessment inputs to develop two prefeasibility
studies for key infrastructure project identified in the business and investment
plan, as an input for the World Bank to advice the selected 5 utilities.
Requirements
Consultant Qualification and Requirements
The
assignment requires a firm, utility, or water operator (The Firm), which can
demonstrate a minimum of 10 years of, utility advisory, management and/or
utility operation. The specific experience should include the following:
§
Direct
experience in the water utilities sector (operation of water supply and
sanitation systems and commercial management of water utilities) or under
contracts in the role of operator, or management contractor (subcontractor) for
at least the last five (5) years prior to the applications submission deadline,
and with activity in at least nine (9) months in each year.
§
Minimum
five (5) years’ experience in the following key activities:
o Operation and maintenance of
water supply and sanitation utilities
o Commercial management of water
utilities, including billing and collection systems
§
Experience
in institutional strengthening support and improvement plans to water supply
and sanitation utilities, including development of long-term business and
investment plans.
§
Specific
experience in the region will be considered an advantage.
Staff Qualification
The
consulting team should consist of qualified experts with international and
local knowledge and experience. For the EOI stage the firm should propose the
key staff of team to carry out the assignment, which should include at least
the following mandatory local and international professionals: Team Leader, Regional
Utility Expert, Thematic (international) Experts, Local Utility Expert/Advisors
(to support the initiative on each country). It will be a competitive advantage
to additionally include young professionals (no experience required) as part of
the support team in the countries where the project is implemented.
Language
The
ruling language of the project is English. All the team members, assigned by
the Consultant, must possess sufficient proficiency in the English language. However,
interactions with utilities will need to be conducted in local language and the
firm should have that into account as selecting the team for each supported
country (Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro).
Expression of Interest Requirements
Interested applicants are hereby invited to submit expressions of
interest, which should be strictly limited to 30 pages.
All submissions must include the following:
1.
Experience
of the Consultant Firm, specifically related to the assignment:
§ Direct experience operating water
and sanitation utilities.
§ Experience leading institutional
capacity building, process improvement and optimization projects across the
water and wastewater utility value chain.
§ Experience and regional presence
§ Experience in the development of
business and investment plans for water utilities.
2. 2.
Qualifications
and Competence of proposed Staff:
§ General qualifications
§ Adequacy for the project
§ International Experience
§ Experience in region and language
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
The World Bank Group invites eligible firms to indicate their interest in providing the services. Interested firms must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services (brochures, description of similar assignments, experience in similar conditions, availability of appropriate skills among staff, etc. for firms; CV and cover letter for individuals). Please note that the total size of all attachments should be less than 5MB. Firms may associate to enhance their qualifications unless otherwise stated in the solicitation documents. Where a group of firms associate to submit an EOI, they must indicate which is the lead firm. If shortlisted, the firm identified in the EOI as the lead firm will be invited to the request for proposal (RFP) phase.
Expressions of Interest should be submitted, in English, electronically through WBGeProcure RFx Now
NOTES
Following this invitation for EOI, a shortlist of qualified firms will be formally invited to submit proposals. Shortlisting and selection will be subject to the availability of funding.
Only those firms which have been shortlisted will be invited to participate in the RFP phase. No notification or debrief will be provided to firms which have not been shortlisted.
If you encounter technical difficulties while uploading documents, please send an e-mail to the Help Desk at corporateprocurement@worldbank.org prior to the submission deadline.