CONSULTANCY POSITION
Study on Construction Costs and Building Cost Index in Malawi.
VACANCY#: UNICEF/MLW/2014/020
- BACKGROUND
UNICEF Malawi has been supporting the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in the provision of learning spaces for children in primary schools. This comes against a background of very high classroom density i.e. a classroom to pupil ratio of 1 to 105 with extreme cases of up to 1 to 165-180 pupils in some of the schools.
Jointly with UNICEF, the Government of Malawi has been able to provide 2,081 new classrooms (1483, GoM; 598, UNICEF), 396 teachers’ houses (308, GoM; 88, UNICEF), and 2,249 pit latrine stances (1049, GoM; 1,200, UNICEF), in schools between 2006 and 2013 (ref: SWG report Dec 2013; UNICEF data). The main objective of this intervention is to acquire better insight into the cost built-up of school construction and quality assurance activities for school building programming.
Providing, in the coming years, a place in school for all children in Malawi will constitute, collectively, probably the biggest construction project in the country. With a current population growth of 3.2% annually (2012 est.), and current number of 4,786,060 children in the primary school-going age (2012 est.) of which just 80% is, enrolled, thousands of additional classrooms will have to be built, apart from maintaining and upgrading the existing stock to meet the goals outlined in the National Education Sector Plan (NESP) and targets in Education Sector Improvement Plan I and II.
The cost for the provision of these additional classrooms and other education facilities is high and weighs heavy on the national budget for education as well as for the funding the Government of Malawi receives for the sector through its development partners. This is coupled with the fact that the state of the construction industry in Malawi in particular lacks openness on the rationale behind the costs for quality assurance services and construction activities they deliver on behalf of clients. In addition, the Malawi construction industry - especially on the issue of access to accurate data on cost built-up - is not well-regulated either by the Government of Malawi or through the National Construction Industry Council (NCIC) due to the fact that a regularly updated building cost index for Malawi is at present not available. Furthermore the fluctuating state of the Malawi economy and devaluation of the local currency saw the costs for quality assurance and construction services and commodities further increasing rapidly from 2011 to 2014 but this has been not backed by a clear and comprehensive explanation from the NCIC on how these cost increases developed and how they were to be justified.
Therefore, a regularly updated building cost index and building materials cost database for Malawi would provide much better insight in the pricing for services and construction, the costs of building materials, components and elements, and for unit prices (m2 / m3) per building typology i.e. early childhood centres, primary and secondary schools, community centres and so forth. Finally, a building cost index and clarity in the built-up of prices for construction would bring all actors i.e. contractors, architects, UN Agencies, World Bank, INGOs, NGOs, and Government of Malawi on a level playfield regarding the actual costs of school construction in the Education Sector which eventually is to the benefit of all the children of Malawi.
UNICEF Malawi is therefore seeking to hire an individual international consultant to bring insight into the cost built-up of quality assurance and construction services in Malawi. The key objectives of this assignment are to prepare and develop a construction cost database of current prices of building materials, building components and building elements for the construction of school buildings (at the early childhood, primary, and secondary cycles of education) in Malawi. Furthermore, to prepare and develop a building cost index that can show the trend and projections of construction costs for the planning of a national school building program.
- SCOPE OF WORK
The Consultant will specifically carry out the following Tasks:
Task 1: Conduct researchon the historic trend (over the last 5 years) and the current state of the Malawi construction industry
i); Actors, professional associations, national construction industry council, and needs identification of the local construction industry;
ii) Review capacities of the national construction industry, mapping of the current construction capacity at the district level, national procurement bottlenecks and construction costs of school buildings developed by the Government of Malawi and through its Development Partners as part of the national school building program, and ;
iii) Preparation of recommendations, plan of action, and implementation schedule to address development needs and training,
Task 2: Develop a building materials databasewith current (unit) costs in Malawi:
i) Prepare a comprehensive materials database for building materials, components and element being applied for the construction and maintenance of schools in Malawi
ii) Identify the costs of individual materials, components and elements; and the unit costs per m2 and m3 of built volume; and the costs as a percentile of the total cost of construction for key construction phases i.e. sub-structure (excavation, foundation, exterior works); super-structure (ground floor, walling, roofing); finishing works/lock-up (doors, windows, painting, tiling, and so forth)
iii) Provide advisory support to the Government of Malawi, UNICEF and other Development Partners on the development, risk mitigation and review of bill of quantities prepared by exterior actors;
Task 3: Develop a national building cost index for Malawi -the consultancy will specifically:
i) Prepare and develop a building cost index that can show the trend and the projections of construction costs for the planning of a national school building program. Building construction costs, however, vary with the type of construction, design, region etc. Therefore, in order to study and develop the variations in building construction costs in the Malawi, it is necessary to compile the building cost index numbers for well-demarcated regions within which the design, construction techniques and materials used are uniform. Also different series will have to be developed for different types of school buildings such as early childhood development centers (ECD centers), primary schools, secondary schools, and water and sanitation facilities for these different school types;
ii) Prepare unit costing for various building typologies i.e. ECD centres, primary schools (urban/rural), secondary schools (urban/rural); water and sanitation facilities for these different school types;
iii) Provide advisory support to the Government of Malawi, UNICEF, and other Development Partners for utilizing the developed building cost index for cost-efficient country program and national school building program planning
iv) Prepare a set of templates and a revision routine for regular revision of the building materials database and building cost index either by the Government of Malawi and/or National Construction Industry Council (NCIC);
Task 4: Prepare three mission reports and two presentations to UNICEF and selected stakeholders and development partners:
i) An inception report that summarises initial findings directions / progress on Task 1, 2, and 3;
ii) A mid-mission report that documents progress on Tasks 1, 2and 3 above;
iii) A final report with key deliverables (annexes) of building materials database, building cost index, templates, and routine;
iv) Two presentations: i) on the state of the Malawi Construction Industry; ii) on the building materials database and building cost index
- EDUCATION AND WORK EXPERIENCE
a) Advanced University Degree, preferably a Master’s Degree or PhD in Quantity Surveying and/or Building Economics;
b) At least 10 years of experience working as a consultant and/or researcher in the construction sector in Sub-Saharan Africa;
c) Demonstrated experience, understanding and familiarity with construction costs, local context & economies, choice of technology package, building code/school construction norms & standards and project implementation and how these are interrelated in sub-Saharan Africa
d) Excellent communication and report writing skills.
e) Experience in infrastructure project implementation will be valuable.
- DURATION
4 Months
- LEVEL
Equivalent of L4
How to apply:
- METHOD OF APPLICATION
Qualified candidates are requested to submit a technical and financial proposal which at a minimum should include sections on: the consultants profile and CV; introduction; outline of the methodology to be employed and list of relevant projects delivered and Personal History Form (P-11 form) (which can be downloaded from our website at
http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_53129.html). Attach copies of certificates.
Applications should be sent on or before 12 June 2014 to the following address:hrmalawi@unicef.org
NOTE:
· UNICEF is committed to gender equality in its mandate and its staff. Well qualified candidates, particularly females are strongly encouraged to apply.
- Only shortlisted applicants will be acknowledged.
- Applications sent through the post office or hand delivered is not accepted.
UNICEF IS A SMOKE FREE ENVIRONMENT
