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Indirect support is about creating and regulating the enabling environment for water, sanitation and hygiene services. It includes the costs for macro-level policy formulation, planning, regulation, sector-level monitoring, developing IT systems, maintaining frameworks and institutional arrangements, etc.
In comparison to [[Expenditure Direct Support (ExpDS)|direct support]], expenditure on indirect support is not particular to a programme or project.
===Examples===
'''Institutional arrangements''' <br>
Institutional arrangements for indirect support are assigned to national level entities (Smits et.al, 2011). Specific arrangements differ from country to country for examples see table 1 (below). If there is no independent regulator, government ministries and agencies are tasked with responsibilities such as planning and policy formulation or even regulation. Donors, NGOs, research institutes and other entities at a national level may also contribute.
'''Table 1. Institutional arrangements for indirect support for different countriesin 2011.'''{|style="color: white; background-color:#4682B4;" font size="3"; class="wikitable"
|Country
|Capacity support arrangements to service authorities
====Costs Example of expenditure on indirect support in India, Ghana and Mozambique====Based on [[#WASHCost project |WASHCost]] research, consolidated data on indirect support costs is are difficult to obtain (Smits et.al, 2012). Table 2 (see below) presents the average per person per year indirect support expenditure for Ghana, India and Mozambique as collected by WASHCost. The expenditure on indirect support in table 2 is based on real levels of expenditure found in these three countries. They are not minimum benchmarks that can be used for costing sustainable basic services in developing countries.
! scope="col" |Mozambique
|-
|style="background-color:DarkBlueLightGray;"|Expenditure on Indirect Support (ExpIDS)
|0.37
|0.5
Since exact data for indirect support expenditure in India is were absent, the costs (see table 2 above) were are estimated using some assumptions and expert opinion (Smits et.al, 2011). Mozambique included data from the Rural Water Department (Departamento de Água Rural, DAR) and the Sanitation Department (Departamento de Saneamento, DES). [[#WASHCost|WASHCost ]] Mozambique also analysed the costs of three other departments: the Division of Planning and Control (Gabinete de Planificação e Controlo, GPC), the Department of Administration and Finance (Departamento de Administração e Finanças, DAF) and the Directorate of Human Resources (Direcção de Recursos Humanos, DRH). Since these three departments do not only deal with rural and peri-urban areas, a coefficient was applied, taking into account the weight of the subsector population. Other weighting factors are still being considered and the result could be to lower the figure for indirect support expenditure in Mozambique.
===Key documents===* Smits, S. et al., 2011. [http://www.washcostircwash.infoorg/pageresources/1567 Arrangements arrangements-and -cost of -providing -support to -rural -water -service -providers]. (WASHCost working paper; 5). The Hague, The Netherlands: IRC International Water Arrangements and Sanitation Centre. <br>This working paper analyses existing literature on primary cost data from seven countries of providing direct and indirect support to rural water service provision. It provides an overview of the features such support entails, how those features can be organised, what they cost and how they can be financed. It also provides recommendations to countries for strengthening support. * Fonseca, C. et al., 2010a. [http://www.washcost.info/page/1557 Life-cycle costs approach: glossary and cost componentsproviders]. (WASHCost briefing noteworking paper; no. 15). The Hague, The Netherlands: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.
:This working paper analyses existing literature on primary cost data from seven countries of providing direct and indirect support to rural water service provision. It provides an overview of the features such support entails, how those features can be organised, what they cost and how they can be financed. It also provides recommendations to countries for strengthening support. * Fonseca, C. et al., 2010a. [http://www.ircwash.org/resources/life-cycle-costs-approach-glossary-and-cost-components Life-cycle costs approach: glossary and cost components]. (WASHCost briefing note; no. 1). The Hague, The Netherlands: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. ===Links===<div id="WASHCost">'''WASHCost'''</div>* WASHCost was five-year action research programme, running from 2008 to 2012. The WASHCost team gathered information related to the costs of providing water, sanitation, and hygiene services for an entire life-cycle of a service - from implementation all the way to post-construction. The WASHCost programme was led by IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre with several partners to collect data in the rural and peri-urban areas of Burkina Faso, Ghana, India, and Mozambique. For more information see [http://www.washcostircwash.info org/washcost.infoWASHCost] * The Costing Sustainable Services online course was developed to assist governments, NGOs, donors and individuals to plan and budget for sustainable and equitable WASH services, using a life-cycle cost approach. The Life-cycle cost approach is a methodology for costing sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene service delivery and comparing the costs to the level of service received by users. For more information see [http://www.washcostircwash.org/node/22800 WASHCost Online Training] * WASHCost data sets provide access to the validated life-cycle cost and service level information collected in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Andhra Pradesh (India), and Mozambique between 2009 2010. The data has been collated from a number of sources including infrastructure surveys, detailed household surveys and range of specific research undertaken with stakeholders in each country.infoThe data sets are available [http:/page/2448 washcostwww.ircwash.infoorg/pagenews/2448datasets-now-available-wash-expenditure-and-service-levels-four-countries-2009-2010 here] * Triple-S (Sustainable Services at Scale) is a six-year, multi-country learning initiative to improve water supply to the rural poor. It is led by IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. The initiative is currently operating in Ghana and Uganda. Lessons learned from work in countries feeds up to the international level where Triple-S is promoting a re-appraisal of how development assistance to the rural water supply sector is designed and implemented. For more information see [http://www.waterservicesthatlast.org/ waterservicesthatlast.orgWater Services That Last]