Terms of Reference

Consultancy to Undertake Mapping of Fecal Sludge Management (FSM) Stakeholders and Infrastructure

Duty Station: Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire  

Starting Date: December 15, 2025

Duration of Consultancy: 30 – 50 days spread over a period of 3 months

Nature of Consultancy: Mostly remote  

1.0 Context

1.1 The Pan African Sanitation Actors (PASA)

The Pan African Association of Sanitation Actors (PASA) is an umbrella body of national associations of non-sewered sanitation actors in Africa. It is a not-for-profit, non-political network of peers whose mandate is to strengthen and develop the sanitation value chain on the African continent. PASA activities seek to unite all African actors in the sanitation sector to join forces to better defend the interests of the sector. PASA was officially launched in Cape Town, South Africa, on the sidelines of the Fifth International Fecal Sludge Management Conference in February 2019.

PASA embraces all private sanitation actors that share the Association's objectives and values. PASA’s current membership is drawn from 25 countries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Namibia, Niger, Republic of Congo, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tchad, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

1.2 PASA’s visions

“A leading association of sanitation actors operating professional, and safely managed sanitation services for all in Africa.”

1.3 PASA’s mission

“To strengthen the capacity of member associations in building professional, sustainable, accessible, and profitable sanitation enterprises.”

Though PASA is headquartered in Dakar, Senegal, it is presently in partnership with the African Water and Sanitation Association (AfWASA) which serves as a fiscal sponsor for its institutional strengthening program. Thus, PASA Secretariat is presently hosted by AfWASA in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

To supports PASA’s work towards improving the value chain of sanitation, AfWASA is recruiting a consultant.

2.0 Objective of Consultancy

The objective of this exercise is to map out manual emptiers in all 35 PASA member countries, and fecal sludge management treatment plants across the continent.

3.0 Scope of the consultancy

The scope of the consultancy will cover two broad areas.

1. Treatment plants and in some cases wastewater treatment plants that receive sludge from non-sewered systems and

2. Fecal sludge manual emptiers.

4.0 Deliverables

The consultant is expected to work closely with PASA members in its member states to produce the following.

1. First deliverable

Provide an inception report and detailed work plan with the methodology to be used in the mapping of FSTPs across the continent and manual emptiers in all 35 PASA member states.

1. Second deliverable

Provide an assessment of the mapping of FSTPs showing the type of FSTP and design, year of construction, who financed the construction, the capacity and number of people it is serving, the efficiency of the plant and lessons learnt from its operation and maintenance so far. This deliverable is also expected to provide the geospatial location of the treatment plant and other relevant information. The consultant will work with PASA to create an updateable database of these treatment plants to enable PASA and its partners use this as baseline and for tracking progress in the construction, use of FSTPs, treatment, reuse or safe disposal of fecal sludge. The consultant is expected to work with PASA Secretariat to present a report on the state of FSTPs in Africa in February 2025 at the launch of the 1 City – 1 FSTP initiative in Kampala, Uganda. This report will highlight the gaps, opportunities for investment and an approximation of the financial resources needed to ensure all FS is safely managed in Africa.

• Third deliverable

Produce a database of fecal sludge manual emptiers showing their local associations (if any), biodata and nationality. It will also show if they have or are receiving any form support government or any organization including whether they have been vaccinated or not. From this information, the consultant is expected to develop a plan for improving the health, safety and dignity of manual emptiers in all PASA member countries.

1. Final deliverable

A detailed report of the mapping assessment conducted.

5.0 Minimum Qualification Requirements/Education and/or skills required

The consultant is expected to possess a minimum of the education and skills below.

• PhD or Master’s degree sanitary engineering, environmental engineering, water management, or a related field

• At least 20 years experience working on CWIS across Africa.

• Experience woking with networks of sanitation actors is an added advantage

• Extensive experience working to strengthen the value chain of sanitation in Africa

• Ability to work with multiple stakeholders including government, community, civil society and private sector

• Excellent written and spoken French and English with excellent technical report writing skills.

6.0 Travel required

The consultant is expected to travel to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire and Kampala Uganda within the period of the assignment.

7.0 Duration

The consultancy is expected to last 30 – 50 days across trois months.

8.0 Terms of Payment

The contract currency will be in US Dollars.

This consultancy will be based on a lumpsum payment in tranches based on deliverables provided in the terms of reference according to the table 1 below.

Table 1: Payment milestones.

9.0 Application Procedure

Interested candidates are expected to submit the following:

1. A curriculum vitae with evidence of previous related work

2. A short proposal on how the work will be done

AfWASA/PASA is working towards a gender equitable workforce, hence female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Applications must be sent before 14^th December 2024 to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Applicants must specify in the subject of the mail: Mapping of Fecal Sludge Management (FSM) Stakeholders and Infrastructure

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.