Terms of Reference Consultancy for Environmental and Social Impact Assessment
Water For People (WFP) is a global nonprofit working across nine countries, bringing together communities, local entrepreneurs, and governments to build and maintain water and sanitation services that will last. We have a sustainable solution to end the global water and sanitation crisis, and our employees across the world help drive this solution.

Environmental And Social Impact Assessment
Isoko Y’ubuzima Project 2022
Terms Of Reference
Context And Background
Isoko y’Ubuzima is a five-year Rwanda Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) project funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The project is implemented by a consortium led by Water For People. Other consortium members include IRC, CARE International, and VEI. The project is taking place in ten districts: Rwamagana, Kayonza, Ngoma, Kirehe, Nyagatare, Nyanza, Ruhango, Nyamagabe, Ngororero, and Nyabihu.
Isoko y’Ubuzima has three interrelated and mutually reinforcing strategic objectives: 1) Improving decentralized WASH Governance; 2) Improving Rural Drinking Water Services, and 3) Improving Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Services and Products.
As per USAID requirements, and in accordance with the Rwanda Government Law N°48/2018 of 13/08/2018 and Ministerial Order No 001/ 2019 of 15/04/2019, Water For People will hire a firm or individual consultants to carry out environmental and social impact assessments (ESIA) to meet the objectives as follows:

Objective Of The Consultancy
The overall objective of the consultancy is to ensure compliance with the national environmental legislation as well as USAID’s environmental protection regulations. The consultant or firm will identify potential social and environmental impacts (positive and negative) and design measures to prevent, reduce, and/or mitigate the negative impacts of the proposed activities.
The specific objectives include the following:
1. To determine the potential environmental and social impact of the planned construction and rehabilitation of rural water systems and propose mitigation measures that will effectively address any identified negative impacts.
2. To prepare an ESIA and Environment and Social Management and Monitoring Plan (ESMMP) according to the national and USAID guidelines and regulations.
3. To provide ESIA certificates issued by RDB for the construction/rehabilitation works
4. Provide a Water Quality Assurance Plan as per USAID guidelines
An exhaustive list of the activities to be assessed will be provided to the successful consultants or firm.

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Scope Of Work
The ESIA will be carried out for all water supply systems, new or existing, as identified by the detailed engineering design reports in seven districts: Nyabihu, Ruhango, Rwamagana, Kayonza, Nyagatare, Ngoma, and Kirehe.
The work is subdivided into two lots as follows:
Lot I: Ruhango (16 water supply systems), Rwamagana (10), Nyabihu (73)
Lot II: Kayonza (31), Ngoma (21), Kirehe (47), Nyagatare (12)
Individual consultants should indicate the lot she or he is bidding for. To accelerate the work, both lots will not be offered to the same consultant.

Main Activities To Be Carried Out
Preparation of the ESIA will include the following elements and activities:
Literature review
• Identify data availability and gaps for conducting the assessment.
• Determine the extent of additional data collection required to ensure the qualitative depth of this study and the steps required (site visits, interviews, literature review, etc.)
• Review USAID and GoR ESIA/ESMMP formats that must be used when submitting the deliverables.

Description of the project
• A detailed description of the project, which will clearly identify the specific environmental and social issues related to it, including all risks and health and safety aspects.
• Analysis of alternatives considered to reduce or eliminate negative environmental and social impacts, including the “no action” alternative. Factors will include project site location, timing, scales, partners, intensities, technologies/processes, facility designs, construction, operation and maintenance, organizational and management setups, ways of dealing with impacts, and capacity to adequately address risks/impacts.
• Description of the project location and sensitive environmental and social features. This includes a map with sufficient detail indicating the project site and the area that may be affected by the project’s direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts (i.e., area of influence)
• Components and sub-components, which consider the main elements or units, support facilities, equipment or technologies to be used, raw materials, labor (construction, operation, and maintenance stages), and work schedule. This includes any offsite activities that may be required (e.g., dedicated pipelines, access roads, power supply, water supply, housing, and raw material and product storage facilities), as well as the project’s primary supply chain.
• Provide a brief description of mechanisms and instruments for community participation (to be expanded in a separate section), including procedures for consultation and participation of groups affected by the project, and mechanisms for complaints from the population directly using the services.
• Include a non-technical summary that can be understood by different stakeholders to facilitate and encourage engagement and comments.

Diagnosis of the Project’s Area of Influence and Beneficiaries
Environmental scoping must be conducted with newly collected data as well as existing documentation to describe the existing environmental and social conditions, including the biophysical, socio-economic, and cultural context in which the activities will be implemented. This information, whenever possible, should be based on qualitative and quantitative data. The analysis must include:
• Environmental aspect: land use, meteorology, air quality, noise, geology, soil, natural disaster risks, water resources, flora and fauna, protected areas, environmental legacies from previous projects, pollution levels, as well as hazardous and non-hazardous waste generation.
• Socio-economic aspect: population, social composition, levels of urbanization, income indicators, levels of health and education, social organization systems, sanitation infrastructure (water, sewage, solid waste), energy and transport, the potential for an influx of workers from other parts of the country and negative social impacts, indigenous peoples and communities, gender patterns, vulnerability assessment.

Institutional and legal framework
• Description of the regulations, system, and requirements for environmental licensing and land ownership, and other authorizations necessary for the implementation of the project components and works; and identification of the need to complement the rules governing project implementation.
• State applicable international obligations and agreements (e.g., Multilateral Environmental Agreements) that must be complied with.
• Identify any gaps between national legislation and USAID guidelines, while acknowledging that higher standards must be used.
• Identify any additional environmental/social studies required according to the level of socio-environmental risk, to comply with both national and local environmental legislation.
• State and describe relevant USAID regulations and the actions required to be compliant.
• Describe the environmental management instruments for use by the project to ensure the incorporation of environmental and social variables throughout the project cycle.
• Identify the institutions responsible for the execution and environmental and social management of the program, at each level of government, and the roles and functions of each institution, identifying the needs for institutional strengthening.

Main Environmental and Social Impact
• Develop a methodology/grading system for impacts to record severity in a matrix (long vs. short-term, reversible vs. irreversible, etc.);
• Identification, analysis, and rating of the environmental and social impacts of the project and for each of the proposed activities during the different phases of the project cycle (preparation, operation, maintenance, etc.), including those impacts related to health and safety in the construction, operation, and maintenance stages;
• Consideration of positive and negative, direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts.
• Consideration of the environmental viability of the program, by weighing the damages against the environmental and social benefits; evaluation of the effectiveness of the measures to control negative impacts; verification of compliance with environmental criteria and standards; and measures to prevent and mitigate environmental and social risks;
• Consideration of areas potentially impacted by cumulative impacts from the incremental adverse impacts of the project when added to other past, existing, planned, or reasonably predictable future projects and developments (e.g., incremental contribution to pollutant emissions, forest depletion due to multiple logging concessions). Assessing potential cumulative impacts enlarges the scale and timeframe for assessing the combined effects of multiple activities and impacts.
• Consideration of areas potentially affected by impacts from unplanned but predictable developments (indirect and induced impacts) caused by the project that may occur later or at a different location (e.g., facilitation of settlements or illegal logging in intact forest areas through expansion of adjacent agricultural activities);
• Consideration of future anticipated or projected short-term impacts, e.g., increases in consumption, waste, pollution, capacity needs, and health problems resulting from the proposed project;
• Consideration of future anticipated or projected long-term impacts, e.g., indirect or secondary effects of induced unplanned development and changes in socio-economic conditions;
• Consideration of present or baseline pollution of the proposed project site or facilities, e.g., soil and groundwater pollution originating from past disposal of or contamination with hazardous substances or wastes.
• Indication of the organizational/management scope of potential impacts as well:
• The role and capacity of third-party organizations, e.g., governments, contractors (with whom the proposed project or implementing partner has a substantial involvement), or an operator of an associated facility (to the extent of the Project Developer’s control or influence over these organizations);
• Primary suppliers (where the resource utilized by the proposed project is ecologically sensitive, or where child labor, forced labor, and/or unsafe working conditions may be involved).

Preparation of the ESMMP
The ESMMP will consist of a set of mitigation, monitoring, and institutional measures, including policies, procedures, and practices – as well as the actions needed to implement these measures – to achieve the desired social and environmental sustainability outcomes. The ESMMP will be composed of:
• Measures to mitigate negative impacts during operations, and evaluation of their effectiveness. Mitigation measures must be identified for each impact/risk that was identified throughout the ESIA process.
• Flow chart of the project's actions, identifying the stages and times of execution of the environmental and social management actions.
• Description of the environmental monitoring plan in the construction and operation stages of the project, identifying the parameters to be measured, the places of measurement, the methods used, the periods/frequencies in which the measurements will be made, the costs, and the institutions responsible.
• Identification of a set of sensible, readily measurable quantitative and qualitative indicators of the mitigation measures proposed for the main impacts and risks that accompany the implementation of the project.
• Contingency and Emergency Response Plan, such as for accidents, fires, floods, and earthquakes (among those that apply);
• Reporting template for the implementing partner (and/or responsible party) that include the set indicators and provide clear guidance on how to measure them.

Public Consultation and Disclosure Procedures
The ESMMP will be developed in close consultation with project stakeholders and disclosed in draft and final form. The ESMMP should include a section that outlines a Stakeholder Engagement Plan to promote meaningful, effective consultations during project implementation, including identification of milestones for consultations, information disclosure, and periodic reporting on the progress of project implementation and issues of concern to project stakeholders.

Water Quality Assurance Plan
The ESIA will reflect the Water Quality Assurance (WQA) in the final report using the USAID WQA guidelines (ref: link annex ) WQAP_Guidance_Note_080618.docx (live.com) and, in the recommendations, provide guidelines that will be used by selected contractors during the construction phase to ensure water quality standards before and after construction are respected.

Reports / Deliverables
The following reports must be submitted to Water For People by the consultant:
• Inception report: The inception report should include a literature review of the works to be assessed, a review of existing data, a plan to collect missing data, the methodology to be used, and a work plan. The inception report must be submitted two weeks after signing the contract.
• Draft report: ESIA with its respective ESMMP that includes the results of the public consultation and disclosure process submitted one month after validation of the inception report.
• ESIA final report to be submitted to RDB for review and approval two weeks after approval of the draft report.
• ESIA certificate provided by RDB in the name of the mentioned seven districts which are: Nyabihu, Ruhango, and Rwamagana for Lot I and Kayonza, Nyagatare, Ngoma, and Kirehe for Lot II. (Each district certificate should be provided separately) for the construction/rehabilitation of water supply systems.
• All reports must be submitted in an electronic file. The report must include a cover page, the main document, and all annexes.

N.B. All reports must be submitted in the ESIA/ESMMP formats required by both USAID and the GoR.
Terms of management of the consultancy
Consultancy Nature: Short-term, individual, organizational, or group contract
Maximum time required to perform the work: Two months
Consultancy Oversight: The consultant will report to the Senior Water Supply Manager and will work closely with Water Supply Engineers, and the respective district officials.

Consultancy Expert Qualifications
The consultants or firm should be (or include) an environmental expert with at least a master’s degree in either civil engineering, environmental management, or any other related field with a professional background in water supply, sanitation, and environmental management. He/she should have conducted at least four similar environmental studies with the same complexity as this assignment. He/she should be certified and registered with the Rwanda Association of Professional Environmental Practitioners (RAPEP) and present a recent certificate of membership at least as an authorized Associate Expert in Rwanda for the period 2022/2023.

The application file should contain the following documents:
• Up-to-date and detailed Curricula Vitae of the proposed consultant or team to carry out the work (if a team is envisaged, ensure the roles and responsibilities are clearly explained).
• A technical offer, a proposal with a clear timeframe and a description of the proposed methodology, an understanding of TORs, and a detailed description of how the deliverables will be achieved.
• A financial offer detailing the costs (in Rwandan Francs) associated with the delivery of the above services, in PDF and Excel to facilitate formula verification. The financial offer must be a separate document from the technical proposal.
• Evidence of the consultant’s experience in a similar assignment: Copies of similar assignments (with evidence for satisfactory completion of these assignments).
• At least 3 references with their contacts and addresses
• RAPEP Certificate of membership for the 2022/2023 period, at least as Associate Expert in Rwanda; VAT registration certificate; RRA tax clearance certificate; RSSB tax clearance certificate (when applicable).

The selected bidder will be contractually required to comply with Water For People’s Vendor Code of Conduct https://www.waterforpeople.org/Vendor-Code-of-Conduct and will be required to deliver a Conflict of Interest Certificate prior to execution of the contract. The Conflict of Interest Certificate requires the disclosure of any potential or actual conflicts of interest with Water For People employees or their relatives including past, current or proposed business transactions, employment or offers of employment or certain gifts or entertainment. Water For People will evaluate any disclosures of conflicts of interest; if Water For People determines it cannot waive or mitigate the conflict of interest it will result in the disqualification of the selected bidder.

Submission Procedure
Interested consultants must submit their application electronically to RWProcurement@waterforpeople.org with the following subject: "ESIA for Isoko y’Ubuzima Project 2022" by the 24th of October 2022, no later than 4:00 p.m. local time.
Done at Kigali, October 10th, 2022
Eugene DUSINGIZUMUREMYI
Country Director