World Bank Group Water Global Practice Utility of the Future Center of Excellence Utility of the Future Implementation; Mentoring and Capacity Building for selected Water and Sanitation Utilities in the Western Balkans Expression of Interest BackgroundUtility of the Future ProgramSince 2019; the World Bank and its partners have been working with utilities throughout the world via the Utility of the Future (UoF) Program; developed with support from the Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership (GWSP). UoF is a novel approach that integrates learnings from decades of analytical work and technical assistance to water utilities; including the Water Utility Turnaround Framework. Other studies; including a review of successful urban water utility reforms; support the robustness of this approach. The UoF Program is growing; and a total of 95 utilities in 35 countries have already received UoF support to date; with promising results around the world. The program also has an extended team of more than 20 UoF Advisors among consultants; specialists and/or institutions with different operating models in all regions to ensure program replicability and scalability. To know more about the UoF Program; to download the UoF resources including the conceptual and methodological UoF framework; and the UoF Toolkit for its application; visit the link www.worldbank.org/uof. <https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/water/publication/utility-of-the-future> Utility of the Future Center of Excellence (UoF-CoE)To further build on the Utility of the Future Program (UoF); the World Bank; in partnership with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO); has established the Utility of the Future Center of Excellence (UoF-CoE) in Tirana; Albania. The UoF-CoE expands upon the current UoF program and is intended to complement existing capacity development efforts in the region; such as the Regional Capacity Development Network (RCDN) and the Danube Learning Partnership (DLeaP). Visit Utility of the Future Center of Excellence <https://blogs.worldbank.org/water/empowering-utilities-accelerate-universal-access-introducing-utility-future-center-excellence> While the UoF-CoE’s role as an operations center and knowledge and innovation hub is meant to benefit utilities worldwide; funds will be available to support up to 50 water utilities from the Western Balkan region with implementation of the UoF approach – The Western Balkans Project (WBP). The WBP will provide support for the utility in-depth analysis and development of 100-day action plans and five-year strategic plans; using the UoF approach; including the promotion of best practices in terms of green management; energy efficiency; and gender balance and diversity as per the UoF “zoom-in lenses”. The program will then use a competitive mechanism to support to up to 10 utilities for the implementation of short-term projects/measures and/or preparation of a business and investment plan. The main activities under the WBP are: 1. Agile Sector Analysis: - Agile analysis of the water and sanitation sector; policy; institutions and regulation (PIR <https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/water/publication/adapting-to-a-changing-world> ) as a baseline for the development of the WBP.2. Utility of the Future Program (UoF): Implementation of the UoF Program in up to 50 utilities in the region. A program designed to ignite; materialize and maintain transformation efforts in water and sanitation utilities (UoF <https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/water/publication/utility-of-the-future> ). 3. Short-term Project: Based on the level of performance and commitment of the utilities during the implementation of the UoF Program; a short list of 10 utilities will be selected for further support with the development of an improvement project 4. Business Planning: Development of business and investment plans for the 10 selected utilities.5. Feasibility Study: Development of feasibility studies for key infrastructure projects identified in the business and investment plan for the 10 selected utilities.6. Mentoring and capacity building: As part of the WBP; utilities in the region will participate in training activities; cross-fertilization; networking; among other actions aimed at strengthening capacities and connecting utilities within the region. Objective of the Assignment The general objective of the consultancy service is to support the World Bank Task Team (UoF-CoE Team) in: A) the implementation of the Utility of the Future Program within a first group of up to 15 utilities to be part of the Western Balkans Project; B) the provision of technical advisory service to World Bank Task Team to support a first group of utilities during the 1-Year mentoring program; C) and the provision of assistance to the World Bank Task Team to provide in-depth support and capacity building to up to 5 selected utilities in the Western Balkans. Specific Tasks The main activities to be carried out by the consulting firm to support the World Bank Task entail: A. Utility Analysis and 100-Day Action Plan (15 utilities; to be defined)1. 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