IRC Associate
Richard Franceys, a Chartered Civil Engineer with an MBA, specialises in institutional development and finance for the water supply and sanitation sector to facilitate universal services with a particular focus on the needs of the poor. Areas of interest include commercialisation & tariff development, economic and financial analysis, institutional analysis, change management of water utilities and public private partnerships, customer involvement & economic regulation in addition to water and sanitation techniques for serving low-income urban settlements. He has investigated aspects of these issues with over 100 utilities in over 60 countries.
For ten years Dr Franceys directed the Global Water Policy and Management MSc programme, Cranfield University, UK, following his time at IHE, Delft and WEDC, Loughborough. Dr Franceys was for 17 years, a ‘Local Consumer Advocate/Regional Member’ with the Consumer Council for Water and its predecessor WaterVoice/CSC, the statutory customer representative in England and Wales, initially part of OFWAT, the water economic regulator. His particular support to CCWater focused upon the financing costs of the privatized utilities in England and Wales and the subsequent effect on consumer tariffs. He has been closely involved in the establishment of WSUP (Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor) and was co-initiator of the Change Management Forum and the ‘24x7’ movement in India.
Richard has worked with IRC on a number of projects, as international adviser on the WASHCost project, directing the Australian DFAT ’Community Water Plus’ research project in India, 2014-2016, and most recently supporting the India office in the ‘Technical Assistance to WATCO [Odisha] for implementation of DRINK TO TAP initiative’.
During 2018-2020 he has acted as Institutional Change Management specialist for MCCU through ASI, supporting Guma Valley Water Company, Freetown in their MCC Threshold Programme. In 2017-18 Dr Franceys acted as the Services Management to the Poor specialist with the Cowater Technical Assistance programme to Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company under the MCA Zambia compact for the Lusaka Water Supply, Sanitation and Drainage Project. He has recently completed three projects for different clients on aspects of ‘Regulating Faecal Sludge Management’, including the preparation of “Referee! - Responsibilities, regulations and regulating for urban sanitation’, for WSUP.
His major publications include:
Water and sanitation interventions should put special focus on strengthening systems of community participation as well as enabling the participation... Read more...
The majority of climate finance is provided as loans, which are not suitable for water and sanitation services as the full costs are hard to recover... Read more...
Restoring the functioning of aquatic ecosystems and addressing socio-economic inequalities are key to reducing the risks and impact of climate change... Read more...
The adoption of a systems strengthening approach is crucial to realising sustainable services and making communities more climate resilient, aligning... Read more...
WASH interventions can help reduce carbon emissions, especially by limiting methane gas emissions from sanitation. Systematic assessment of... Read more...
How do multi-stakeholder partnerships differ across thematic areas and how have they evolved over the last decade. Read more...
Targeted and affordable water tariffs, self-supply investments, microfinance and solar energy can help finance Ethiopia's water sector. Read more...
Behaviour change is not sufficient in itself to improve health and livelihoods, nor is construction, improving accountability, training, capacity... Read more...
Since not everyone can be served by sewerage systems in the near future, septage management is one of available options to achieve sanitation for all... Read more...
This concept note provides an action plan for cost recovery in the Indian water sector based on an analysis of the existing institutional... Read more...
This concept note proposes a phase-wise approach to cost recovery in the Indian water sector starting with a focus on blended finance through an... Read more...
Addressing the financing challenges that result from the adoption of the water Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Read more...
Key messages: communities manage!, communities will pay . . . . . . a little and communities require significant ongoing support, whilst recognising... Read more...
Key messages: communities manage!, communities will pay . . . a little, and communities need ongoing support. To sponsors: go big or go home!, if you... Read more...
In this document we capture the inputs that contributed in improving water supply to households and an assessment of cost approximation by the Water... Read more...
This document presents the experiences of the Himmotthan Water Supply and Sanitation initiative in developing community-managed rural water systems... Read more...