Structural Engineer - Dar Es Salaam

The Financial Institution Group (“FIG”) at IFC has three main objectives: 1) financial inclusion 2) servicing the real economy and 3) mobilizing third-party resources. Through the financial inclusion initiatives, IFC helps to increase the availability and affordability of financial services both for corporate entities and individuals. Our priorities are, inter alia, to strengthen bank and non-bank financial institutions, develop financial infrastructure, and improve the legal as well as regulatory framework.One the of IFC’s global initiatives associated with increasing financial inclusion is focused on improving access to housing finance for low-income people. Housing is a basic human need. Adequate shelter is central to improving the lives of people and is positively correlated with wealth creation, higher educational attainment, and overall social stability. And yet, lack of adequate housing is one of the biggest challenges facing Africa today.According to the World Bank the vast majority (an estimated 70 percent) of Tanzanians work in the informal sector and build their houses incrementally over an average time span of 8–15 years, using savings and microcredit loans diverted to housing. Also, availability of housing microfinance in Tanzania is limited and there is a need to develop a product to facilitate affordable, faster, and more efficient housing construction (incremental home construction, improvement, expansion, and completion) within a reasonable timeframe.In Tanzania, IFC aims to improve access for housing for low-income Tanzanians. For that purpose, IFC intends to pilot in Tanzania an innovative Housing Microfinance (HMF) lending product.The product will be catering to the needs of the majority of low-income residents of Tanzania who live in single-family houses. These houses are in poor condition, but people cannot afford to purchase new houses due to their limited income. Therefore, they improve existing ones (change or mend roofs, floors, doors, etc.), extend houses, adding new rooms, or incrementally step-by-step build new houses. In most cases low-income Tanzanians either build houses themselves and/or hire minimally qualified labor in local markets. Having no savings, low-income Tanzanians borrow for that purpose from local Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), including SACCOs, Community banks, Non-deposit-taking institutions, Microfinance Banks, and from Commercial Banks, etc.
Given that most of the low-income homeowners in Tanzania are not experts in construction, they need to get not only money to improve, extend or incrementally build their houses but also to get construction technical assistance (CTA) enabling them to do it properly. Such CTA may include preparation of Bills of Quantities (BOQs) and drawings, getting advice on technology, on selection of good quality construction materials and on implementation of works.
To assist the low-income households with the above, IFC is considering building in Tanzania a HMF lending product under which loans for home improvement/extension/construction (HMF loans) will be accompanied by non-financial services providing low-income borrowers with the CTA.
IFC has piloted such a HMF product in Kyrgyzstan. Under the Kyrgyzstan pilot the non-financial services were provided by loan officers who used CTA tools pre-developed for that purpose by IFC. The CTA tools enabled loan officers who are not experts in construction to provide valuable advice to clients.One of the key tools is a software application enabling low-income people to prepare drawings and bill of quantities for their housing projects. The tools are currently under adaptation for the specifics of Tanzania.
The Project is procuring services of a consultant to provide structural engineering advise related to the drawings prepared by the software application.
This Terms of Reference (ToR) describes the proposed scope of work for this assignment.
To achieve the Project’s objective, IFC is seeking to obtain the services of a licensed Tanzanian Structural Engineer to review the structural solutions that are prepared by the software and if necessary to propose amendments and improvements.The Consultant is expected to review the structures of the construction elements of all variations of the building plans that can be prepared by the software. These should include all types of materials available in the software, and all dimensions of the building (height, width, length, etc.) that can be implemented under the software, as well as all varieties of elements of all sections of the building, (walls, beams, columns, foundations, roof frame, etc) available under the software.The consultant should provide recommendations about amending the models (for example changing the size and number of posts in the truss for specific truss length and height, number of rebars in a concrete beam, structure of the frame, thickness of foundations, etc.).The consultant should provide drawings outlying his/her recommendations including the sketches of the details clarifying the recommendations and communicate with software specialists while his/her recommendations are implemented.