1. Introduction / Background

GWOPA is the Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance with its Secretariat led by UN-Habitat and hosted in Bonn, Germany. GWOPA leads the global movement for Water Operators’ Partnerships (WOPs). These peer-support partnerships between water and sanitation service providers work by harnessing the skills, knowledge, and goodwill within a strong utility to build the capacity and improve the performance of another utility that needs assistance or guidance.

The Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA) ensures that WOPs are well-known, supported, adopted, and adequately funded and that WOP actors benefit from GWOPA knowledge products and services. Its global membership is comprised of local public water and sanitation service providers from all continents. More information on the initiative can be found at: https://gwopa.org/

As per the GWOPA’s Charter, the GWOPA Secretariat is seeking public regional or national water and sanitation utility associations or similar types of non-for-profit organizations or networks to apply to become WOP platforms within the Global WOPs Alliance.

The WOP platforms are national, sub-regional or regional public utilities’ associations or other type of organisations, networks, or institutions with a not-for-profit status, which coordinate and implement WOPs in their respective areas, in full compliance with the GWOPA Charter and its guiding principles. Public operators constitute the main constituency of their respective governing bodies. WOP Platform’s main activity revolves around WOPs and utility capacity building.

2. The Opportunity

In compliance with its Charter, GWOPA is offering the opportunity to utility associations or other types of relevant entities to become WOP platforms within the Alliance.

3. What we are Seeking

We are looking for organizations interested in becoming formal ‘WOP Platforms’ to support the global scale up of high-quality Water Operators’ Partnerships.

Following the definition in the GWOPA Charter, to become a WOP Platform, organizations must have the following characteristics (see GWOPA’s Charter Annex 7: WOP Platforms):

• They must be ‘national, sub-regional or regional public utilities’ associations with a not-for-profit status or other type of organizations, networks, or institutions with a not-for-profit status and their main constituencies/members/partners must be public utilities
• Their main mandate or activity should be the coordination and implementation of WOPs in their respective geographies, in full compliance with the GWOPA Charter and its guiding principles.

To become a WOP Platform, organization would need to fulfil the following roles:

• Support, jointly with GWOPA, the WOP practice in their respective regions or countries;
• Support GWOPA’s efforts in developing a global knowledge and repository of good WOPs practices, fueled by the local practitioners, and made available globally;
• Articulate and coordinate, jointly with GWOPA, advocacy and communications efforts, including the organization and/or contribution to relevant events at any geographical level;
• Sit as an observer in the GWOPA Steering Committee, in compliance with the role of national, sub-regional or regional WOP platform;

Organizations fulfilling the criteria will be invited to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with UN-Habitat and provide proof of their status.

4. The Expressions of Interest (EOI) should include, but is not limited to:

• Your organization’s involvement to date with WOPs and GWOPA
• Why your organization is interested and well-suited to support GWOPA at the national, sub-regional or regional levels
• How your organization fulfils the terms of the definition of a WOP platform above
• How your organization plans to fulfil the roles of WOP Platforms (WOP Implementation, WOP knowledge activities, and communication and advocacy activities, as above)
• A completed institutional membership form for GWOPA (if not already a member).

5. Submission Requirements and Guidelines

Expressions of Interest must be delivered by email to unhabitat.ubss.eoi@un.org with the reference “EOI-GWOPA Platforms’ in the subject of your email, with copy to anne.bousquet@un.org.

Failure to indicate the reference or attach the form may result in your proposal not being considered.

Contact Information

Should you require further clarification on the call, please contact Anne Bousquet, Programme Management Officer, Urban Basic Services Section, UN-Habitat, @anne.bousquet@un.org.

Other

Please note that this EOI notice does not constitute a solicitation. UN-Habitat reserves the right to change or cancel this requirement at any time in the Expressions of Interest/or solicitation process.

Submitting a reply to an EOI does not guarantee that a Cooperation Partner will be considered for receipt of the solicitation when issued and only Cooperation Partners who are deemed qualified by UN-Habitat upon completion of evaluation of submission will receive the final solicitation document.