Request for Proposals
Assessment of WASH Access among Affordable Housing Finance Borrowers
Response deadline: April 20th, 2026 by 5:00 pm IST
1. General instructions
A. Water.org requests proposals from research and evaluation firms to conduct an assessment study for a project aimed at improving access to water and sanitation in India primarily through microfinancing.
B. The assessment will require the firm to facilitate and coordinate with Water.org staff and partner for data collection in the program areas in India. The program requires the firm to submit the deliverables outlined in section 2 Scope of Work.
C. Water.org is not liable for any expenditure incurred by responding firms prior to issuance of an executed contract with Water.org.
D. Submissions must be typed and submitted only by email and must follow the format of the requests for information in Section 4: Submissions Requirements. Unless agreed upon with Water.org, no changes or corrections to a response will be allowed after the deadline.
E. Proposed schedule:
- April 20, 2026 – RFP submissions due by 5:00 PM IST.
- May 1, 2026 – Results announced
- May 29, 2026 – Contract begins
- November 30, 2026 – Contract ends
The proposals must be submitted by email to Kaveri Haldar (Regional Insight Specialist) at khaldar@water.org, copying to Diwakar Das at ddas@water.org (Sr. Manager, Regional Insights) by 20th April at 5:00 PM India Standard Time. Subject line should read
“Assessment of WASH Access among Affordable Housing Finance Borrowers” <<name of bidding firm>>.” The proposal must contain a technical proposal and a financial bid using Water.org’s budgeting format.
Scope of work
Overview
For 30 years, Water.org has been at the forefront of developing and delivering sustainable solutions to the global water crisis. Water.org pioneers innovative, community-driven and market-based solutions to provide universal access to safe water and sanitation, giving women hope, children health and communities a future. To date, Water.org has positively transformed millions of lives around the world, ensuring a better life for generations ahead.
Through its flagship WaterCredit model, Water.org provides financial and technical assistance to local institutions (primarily microfinance institutions), building their capacity to offer affordable financing for water supply and sanitation services (WSS) to customers at the base of the economic pyramid (BOP). These financial products are designed based on an analysis of local market demand. Philanthropic resources provide the up-front technical assistance financial institutions need to develop these new loan portfolios. The end result: more people empowered with safe water and toilets and a sustainable, local market built for those at the BOP. WaterCredit has reached more than 29 million people across 13 countries through six million microloans. The average size of a WaterCredit loan is US$364, and the global average repayment of a WaterCredit loan since 2003 is 99 percent. Further, more than 87 percent of borrowers are women. More details can be found on the organization’s website.
Purpose
This RfP has been prepared with the aim of engaging a third-party firm to assess the current water and sanitation facilities in newly constructed homes or home improvements financed through two of our financial institution partners providing affordable housing finance companies (AHFCs) loans. It will examine the extent to which borrowers have access to safe water and sanitation (WSS) services and evaluate the quality of WSS infrastructure constructed or upgraded through their AHFC loans.Water.org will engage with a third-party firm to conduct this assessment study. The third-party firm must have previous experience working with microfinance institutions or affordable housing finance institutions and assessing development work in water and sanitation.
For detailed information, please check the complete version of the RFP attached below