Consultant to Validate Repairability Indices for Solar Appliances

CLASP serves as the epicenter of collaborative, ambitious efforts to mitigate climate change and in the global movement for clean energy access, through appliance efficiency.  We are an international non-profit, and together with the UK’s Energy Saving Trust, we jointly coordinate Efficiency for Access. Efficiency for Access is a global coalition working to promote high-performing appliances to boost incomes, reduce carbon emissions, improve quality of life and support sustainable development.

CLASP has worked in more than 100 countries since its inception in 1999. CLASP is headquartered in Washington, DC, with teams in Europe, Kenya, India and Indonesia. We’re mission-driven and committed to a culture of diversity, transparency, collaboration, and impactful work. See our Team Page to learn more about us.

Across many emerging markets, productive use appliances are playing a critical role in expanding access to energy for households, farmers, and small businesses. These technologies support livelihoods, improve productivity, and enable essential services in off- and weak-grid settings. However, when appliances are faulty or stop working, repair services are often difficult to access, leaving many products unused long before the end of their expected lifespan.

Research shows that nearly 75% of solar energy products that stop functioning are never repaired, highlighting a significant gap in the effectiveness and accessibility of repair systems across markets. According to the Off-Grid Appliance Repair Series, repair systems are often informal and uncoordinated, with limited access to spare parts, technical expertise, and reliable service networks. As a result, even minor faults can render appliances unusable, reducing their long-term value and impact.

This challenge has wide-reaching consequences. When appliances cannot be repaired, households and businesses lose income, productivity is disrupted, and investments in energy access fail to deliver sustained benefits. Over time, this weakens consumer trust, increases waste, and limits the growth of appliance markets. Strengthening repair systems is therefore essential to extending product lifespans, supporting circular economy approaches, and ensuring appliances continue delivering reliable value.

Towards addressing these challenges, EforA has developed repairability indices for productive use equipment (PUE), specifically solar water pumps, fans, and refrigerators.  These indices are intended to provide a structured framework for assessing how easily an appliance can be repaired across four core parameters: availability of spare parts and tools, ease of disassembly, the level of skill required to complete repairs, and access to repair documentation. It assigns weighted scores by appliance type, reflecting practical differences in failure modes and repair complexity across solar fans, refrigerators, and solar water pumps (SWPs).  These efforts will be complemented by an interactive Repair Index Calculator that promotes consistent assessment, benchmarking, and iterative improvement in appliance design.

The Solar Appliance Repairability Index is intended to serve as a foundational tool to inform appliance design interventions, business model decisions, and workforce and skills development, with the overarching objective of extending the useful lifespan of solar appliances.

The consultant is expected to conduct a validation and calibration exercise for newly developed Repairability Indices for solar water pumps (SWPs), refrigerators, and fans to inform their usability and applicability.  This activity will involve engaging relevant stakeholders across the appliance repair value chain, including productive use appliance manufacturer and distributor companies (“PUE Companies”), specialized repair service providers (e.g. refurbishes, recyclers, and resellers of refurbished products), appliance users, etc. specifically for SWPs, refrigerators, and fans.  The select stakeholder pool should reflect diversity across locations (i.e., urban, peri-urban, rural), company maturity, balanced sample across technologies in focus, etc.

The main objective of the assignment is to:

• Test the repairability indices in real appliance market conditions to inform them how usable and applicability
• Calibrate and refine the repairability indices to reflect the learnings from the test above
• Improve and update the repairability indices calculator based on the learnings from the test exercise
• Develop an operational manual for deploying refined repairability indices

Timeline

Contract Timeframe: June – Nov 2026

Deadline for Application: 8th May 2026 at 23:59 ET

Application includes registering as a Consulting Partner and submitting the technical and financial proposals per the instructions below.

Deadline for Questions: 30th April 2026 at 23:59 ET

All questions must be addressed in English globalleap@efficiencyforaccess.org

We request all inquiries be made to this e-mail address and not by phone.

The Consultant will be responsible for successfully executing the following work related to repairability indices for solar water pumps, refrigerators and fans. All activities and tasks must be conducted in close consultation with CLASP.

1. Review the newly developed repairability indices for solar water pumps, refrigerators and fans and draft Repair Index Calculator
2. Design and implement a validation methodology: share selection criteria, data collection tools, and engagement approach for stakeholders across the appliance repair value chain, etc.
3. Pilot scoring on real appliances across multiple geographies and service models (PAYGo, cash sales, distributor networks). Capture time‑on‑task, tool lists, and parts costs/lead times; attach evidence (price lists, SOPs, photos, manuals) to reduce scoring subjectivity. This will allow for confirmation of whether the scoring ranges applied to each parameter capture sufficient variation and reflect meaningful differences in repairability performance.
4. Calibrate thresholds/weights using pilot data, particularly affordability cut‑offs, repair time bands, and documentation sufficiency, for each appliance category. Adjustments may include calibrating score thresholds, refining weightings, or redefining certain metrics to more accurately reflect market realities. This adaptive iteration will strengthen the technical reliability of the index.
5. Update the Repair Index Calculator to reflect learnings from the pilot
6. Publish a validation memo outlining adjustments to criteria, examples of borderline cases, and guidance on conservative scoring when information is incomplete.
7. Draft an operational manual for deploying the repairability indices
8. Host a webinar and develop a set of slides to talk about the operational manual and how it will be applied.

The selected Consultant must have a strong track record of technical, operational, and analytical expertise relevant to the scope of work described above. The Consultant must demonstrate the capacity to design and implement the repairability indices validation activities and analysis in the context of off-grid energy systems in developing countries.

Technical Expertise

• Demonstrated expertise and knowledge of concepts in circular economy including repairability and especially in the context of productive use appliances
• Experience designing and implementing data collection methodologies for product users in rural and underserved areas, preferably in the off-grid or renewable energy sectors
• Competence developing fieldwork protocol and training resources for enumerators
• Proven track record developing and applying stakeholder survey tools, including mobile data collection platforms
• An advanced degree in social sciences or related discipline is preferred

Data Analysis & Reporting

• Proficiency processing and validating stakeholder survey data, ensuring data quality and consistency
• Demonstrated ability to analyze quantitative and qualitative data, synthesize findings, and present data visualization
• Proven capacity to prepare technical reports and analytical outputs, conveying technical content to non-specialist stakeholders

Project Management & Collaboration

• Demonstrated ability to design, plan, coordinate and execute field evaluation protocols in remote and underdeveloped settings
• Ability to successfully coordinate with partnering international organizations to collect field data for time-sensitive projects
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience working remotely with international organizations
• Experience training and managing a team of enumerators
• Demonstrated expertise applying cultural sensitivity to engagement with diverse stakeholders

Register as a Consulting Partner

Interested parties must register as a CLASP Consulting Partner

Submit Technical and Financial Proposals

Interested parties should submit separate technical and financial proposals electronically, in English, via this form link (preferably in PDF format). The files should be named as per the following example:

[CONTRACTOR_NAME] _Technical Proposal_ RFP YYYY-MM-DD

[CONTRACTOR_NAME] _Financial Proposal_ RFP YYYY-MM-DD

The length of the technical proposal should not exceed 20 pages and should include:

• Detailed approach and methodology for the design, implementation, and management of the project
• Detailed timeline for all project activities, tasks, milestones, and deliverables for the project within the timeframe indicated above
• Background and experience of conducting similar activities
• A summary of qualifications and experience of key personnel that will execute the project

The financial proposal (in USD) should include a detailed budget with all direct and indirect cost estimates for executing the project, including a breakdown (in days) of the level of effort and costs associated with each team member that will be engaged in the project.

CVs and related summaries of experience and qualifications of proposed project team staff should be included in an Annex and should not exceed 10 pages.

Optional At This Stage – Fill Out Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ)

All contractors must fill out the PQQ before working with CLASP. This can be voluntarily completed at the RFP stage but will be mandatory if a contract is awarded.

The PQQ is a thorough due diligence screening aimed at gathering legal and financial information on prospective partners/vendors. Contract awards are conditional upon passing the due diligence screening. Organizations that have already completed the PQQ do not need to complete it again unless the structure of the business has changed. If you are unsure, please email Andrea Testa (atesta@clasp.ngo) to determine next steps.

A committee appointed by CLASP will evaluate proposals received. Selection of qualified companies or organizations will be based upon the following criteria:

• Technical Evaluation Factors
• Financial Evaluation Factors

All bids will be evaluated and ranked using Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS), with 80 percent of the score according to the technical proposal, and 20 percent to the financial proposal. The detailed evaluation criteria can be found in Annex A.

Annex A: Evaluation Criteria

Technical Approach (35 points): The technical approach described in the proposals will be evaluated on:

• The demonstrated understanding of the overall project context (15).
• The detailed work plan and approach clearly define the target objectives and the strategy to achieve the objectives as outlined in the scope of work (20).

Management Structure and Staff Qualification (25 points): The proposed management structure and staff will be evaluated on the professional qualifications and the extent to which the requisite expertise and experience of the key personnel will directly contribute to the completion of the tasks (25).

Past Performance and Corporate Experience (20 points): The experience and capacities of the contractor will be evaluated based on:

• The past performance, familiarity, and experience in understanding policies and program related to standards and labelling (10).
• Extent of local expertise including experience, qualifications, and track record in implementation of similar programs (10).

Cost Evaluation Factors (20 points): While the overall Technical Evaluation is the key factor in reviewing the proposal, the cost evaluation will be an essential factor in determining the final contract award and ability to remain in the competitive range and will be evaluated for feasibility, completeness, and practicality.

CLASP looks forward to your responses and would like to thank you in advance for your participation in this Request for Proposals. CLASP will notify all respondents who submit proposals when a decision has been made.