UNOPS

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is the operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world.  Mandated as a central resource of the United Nations, UNOPS provides sustainable project management, procurement and infrastructure services to a wide range of governments, donors and United Nations organizations.  With over 8,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, where they need it.  By implementing around 1,000 projects for our partners at any given time, UNOPS makes significant contributions to results on the ground, often in the most challenging environments.

Background Information – Project

The upgrade of Zanzibar educational infrastructure is part of Korea International Cooperation Agency
(KOICA) support to the Development Vision 2025 of the Government of Tanzania. As part of the development of a project to enhance the quality of secondary school education in Zanzibar, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) engaged the United Nations Office for Project Services’ (UNOPS), to carry out a scoping mission during November 2019 to review 30 sites (10 teacher training centres and 20 secondary schools) in Unguja and Pemba, with a view to upgrading or building new laboratories, libraries, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities at these sites. Following this coping assessment and submission of the report, KOICA and the Ministry of Education in Zanzibar decided against refurbishments and to prioritize a total of eleven (11) secondary school sites for new construction of lab facilities. In March 2020, UNOPS undertook a follow up assessment mission to review the suitability of these 11 sites to house new laboratories and WASH facilities only.

All the sites for the proposed construction works have been identified except for Wamba Secondary School in which the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training of Zanzibar needs to confirm the definitive location. Geotechnical studies and Topographical surveys will need to be undertaken at each site. Given the general instability of the water supply for all the schools, UNOPS recommends the installation of water storage tanks for all new construction sites to improve the reliability of supply and increase resilience. This includes the option of rainwater harvesting.

The Associate Construction Management Engineers will manage the contractor linking technical supervision of the works, quality, and timing with contract management to ensure correct and transparent payment processes linked to the fulfillment of their obligations.