Background and Purpose

Emerging Cooking Solutions (ECS) have been operational in Zambia since 2013. We offer the only widely available service converting rural and urban households away from firewood and charcoal use. Our product is a subscription model for stoves and fuel, whereby customers make a down-payment to receive a clean cook stove and one month’s supply of pellets, and must continue to make further payments to receive pellets and to complete payment of the stove. Failure to do so results in repossession of the stove.

Within this model, the cost of managing payment reminders, locating, repairing and as a last resort, repossessing the cookstove is significant. Cost is the primary limiting factor in increasing uptake of clean cookstoves which is absorbed by the provider or passed on to the customer.

ECS has about 3000 clients in our subscription service model and an extensive network of sales agents. In the last year we have invested heavily in customer service, driving distribution and sustained use; providing a toll-free short-code number for no-cost customer service through a six-person call-centre.

We are currently preparing to distribute one of the most advanced and affordable data-enabled clean cookstoves. With remote monitoring and control, user data will enable operational efficiencies to be identified and margins improved. By seamlessly combining user, system and payment information, the project enhances credit-risk profiles. This will improve affordability, reduce operational efficiencies and optimize default rates, resulting in sustained development impact.

Description of Consultancy

Emerging Cooking solutions would like to engage a Data Policy consultant to design an ECS data policy, and create a road map for its implementation.

The key output of this work will be a data policy, which will document best practice, both internationally and in Zambia; discuss what level of data protection ECS wants to achieve and in what stages; and create a road-map for implementing the policy.

To this end, the consultant will work closely with the software development team (Barcelona, Spain- based).

Scope of work

Working remotely with 1-2 trips to Lusaka, Zambia, the Consultant will be required to:

1. Consult widely with ECS Zambia senior management, finance, marketing and sales teams and software development teams to understand our operations.

2. Conduct necessary research. Note that ECS Zambia staff will help collect information from Zambian authorities and actors on regulatory requirements and best practises in Zambia.

3. Develop a draft policy with recommendations, including how to de-personalize almost all use of data.

4. Share this draft with ECS Zambia senior management, and software development team in presentation format, as a springboard for discussion.

5. Develop an implementation plan for rolling out the data policy.

6. Work closely with the software development team to discuss how to make software modifications to support policy implementation (for example: downloading any non-de-personalized data may require signature from an administrator)

7. Deliver final data policy and final report.

Deliverables

· A draft data policy (written and presentation format)

· Implementation plan for roll our of the policy (both with software development team and ECS staff)

· Final data policy (written document)

· Final report

Reporting

The consultant will report to ECS Zambia’s CEO Mattias Ohlson.

The duration of this assignment is from February 2020 to May 2021 (part-time work).