Direct support to service providers

Kwabena Nyarko - direct
support costs for water

This is a structured system of direct (post-construction) support provided to back up and monitor community management entities and other service providers.

Direct support often includes:

• Performance monitoring
• Technical advice and information
• Administrative support (e.g. help with tariff setting)
• Organisational support (e.g. to achieve legal status) and conflict resolution
• Identifying capital maintenance needs (including advice on financing)
• Training and refresher courses

Why is it important for sustainable services at scale?

Community-based service providers often need regular, structured support to help them fulfill administration, operation, asset management and maintenance functions. This has been shown to improve the likely sustainability of water services and to help reduce major breakdowns and faults.

Costs and financing

The costs of providing support are included as part of overall recurrent expenditure (Expenditure on Direct Support(ExpDS).

Recent research findings from a range of countries indicate expenditure of between US$ 2 - US$ 3 per person per year on direct support results in reasonable levels of functionality.

Such expenditure levels appear to be the minimum required to fund these kinds of support interventions.

The same research found that in a number of African countries where less than US$1per person per year is spent on direct support, it is unlikely that such interventions are sufficient to make a significant improvement in service levels.

Recommendations

Obtain a clear mandate for support: an essential first step for providing direct support is to identify who should undertake this role and the limits of their mandate with respect to service providers.

Provide sufficient (financial) resources:having identified who is going to provide what sort of support, it is essential to ensure sufficient resources for them to fulfill their mandate. This starts with the human and material capacity, but ultimately requires adequate and reliable annual budgeting;

Identify financial sources:the source of financing is a question that has to be answered at a country level. Governments may need to provide the bulk of the costs of direct support as tariffs rarely are high enough to meet these kind of expenditures.

Ensure cost-effectiveness:support mechanisms to improve cost-effectiveness, for example through experimentation with different institutional arrangements, area based support contracts, use of benchmarking and involvement of the private sector.

Selected references, tools and templates

• Direct support to rural water service providers building block summary sheet

Field experiences

RSR Project 464 Dutch WASH Alliance in Hararghe & Dire Dawa	RSR Project 490 Integrated WASH project for Acholi Sub region

Other links

• Methods for assessing impact and costs: presentation

• An experimental approach to post-construction support: presentation

• SANAA: Institutional arrangements for rural communities: The SANAA technician in operation and maintenance program in Honduras

• World Bank: Post-construction support and sustainability in community-managed rural water supply

• WSP: Business development services for community managed small water enterprises: from Post-construction support to business development services in Kenya

• UNICEF: Sustainability of water supply infrastructures: A good practice from Guro district in central Mozambique

• WEDC Conference: Post-construction support and the sustainability of rural water projects in Ghana

• WAVE: Capacity building for water service providers in Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia

• WAVE: The effect of post-construction support on the sustainability of rural water systems

• WHO/IRC: Operation and maintenance of rural water supply and sanitation systems: Training package for managers and planners

• RWSN: Operation and maintenance of rural water supplies

Acknowledgements

• Support to service providers. Water Services That Last. IRC.