The Laundry Transformation Challenge

Accessible Technologies to Reduce the Laundry Burden on Women and the Environment.

Why existing solutions are not enough:

 

Current solutions for washing and drying are often inaccessible or unaffordable or poorly suited to low-income, space-constrained, or resource-limited environments, and typically address only one part of the problem. Technologies are rarely combined with viable business models, user adoption strategies, and water or environmental management, limiting their ability to scale or deliver sustained impact.

Partnerships and team composition

 

Applicants may apply on their own or as part of a consortium. The project team should include a local partner who is familiar with the rules and regulations, government licensing regime and operating environment and social context of the country of implementation. Each partner should contribute a clear and complementary role to the pilot. Where partners are not yet confirmed at concept note stage, applicants should describe the type of partnerships they intend to establish before implementation.

Independent Evaluation Contractor

 

An independent evaluation firm is required and must be funded from the applicant's project budget. The applicant is responsible for contracting the evaluator, in close liaison with ADB. ADB will also provide input into the Terms of Reference for the contractor and remain engaged with the contractor as the aim would be to use the evaluation outcomes to inform the development community’s work on laundry transformation.

The evaluation firm must demonstrate substantial prior experience designing and conducting rigorous impact evaluations of international development programs, including evaluations using credible causal inference methods and conducted in accordance with internationally recognized standards or good practices for evaluation quality, independence, ethics, transparency, and methodological rigor.

Relevant standards or good practices may include, but are not limited to, the OECD DAC Quality Standards for Development Evaluation, UNEG Norms and Standards for Evaluation, World Bank Development Impact/DIME good practices, 3ie impact evaluation practices, or equivalent regional, national, or institutional standards that are appropriate to the country context and evaluation design.

The evaluation firm shall demonstrate such experience through prior assignments of comparable scope and complexity, including evidence of technically sound evaluation design, appropriate counterfactual or causal identification strategy where applicable, high-quality data collection and analysis, transparent reporting of limitations, ethical treatment of participants and data, and production of findings suitable for policy, operational, or investment decision-making.

The evaluation contractor must be engaged no later than the start of work on the pilot location, as they will need to assess the baseline situation before implementation begins. They will then carry out annual studies throughout the project and a final endline study at the close of the programme.

Financing and co-financing

 

ADB can fund up to $450,000 per project under this challenge. Applicants must co-finance at least 10% of the total project cost, from their own resources or from other funders. Co-financing may be cash or in-kind (for example, staff time and travel). Applicants can apply for a single pilot in one country, multiple pilots in the same country (for example, to test different contexts), or conduct pilots in more than one eligible country. ADB may select up to two solutions in total from this challenge, from one or two applicants, in one or two countries. Budgets should reflect the scope and scale of the proposed pilot(s) and will be benchmarked against comparators for value for money)./p>

Data and information that will be provided:

 

The challenge provides an opportunity to pilot technologies in low-income settings and assess value for money, including effectiveness, efficiency, and equity. ADB will provide selected the shortlisted applicants with access to impact metric methodologies aligned with its Corporate Results Framework but applicants should also identify their own metrics based on their own research and analysis.

References:

 

 

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