Country selection rationale: Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh (India) has been selected as one of the countries in which the WASHCost project will be implemented. The choice has been based on a number of criteria.

The main challenge for WASHCost in India is to maximise the project’s impact in this vast country with a population of more than 1.15 billion of whom 350-400 million are below the poverty line. Therefore it was decided to implement WASHCost in one state in India and that state is Andhra Pradesh with a population of 82 million people. This state provides strong linkages with national level actors (government, donors, INGOs, research institutions and national NGOs).

IRC and associates have a long history of working with government and other WASH sector partners in this state in areas that are fundamentally important to WASHCost (e.g. water governance, institutional support mechanisms, IWRM, transparency etc).

Diversity of WASH services

Andhra Pradesh provides a wide diversity of societal and biophysical contexts and WASH service delivery mechanisms and levels. During the last twenty-five years Andhra Pradesh has been at the forefront of developing and piloting innovative approaches to WASH service delivery and watershed development.

The organisations involved

CESS is a top-class organisation with an international reputation and, as a result of earlier research programmes CESS and IRC staff already know each other well. CESS is a quasi-governmental organisation and, as such, it has strong links with government and the wider development sector. CESS is also particularly strong in several core competencies required by WASHCost (e.g. economics, policy development and social sciences). The other two partners are the Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN) and the Livelihoods and Natural Resource Management Institute (LNRMI). The NGO WASSAN has worked on many internationally-funded water sector projects and, more importantly, WASSAN has particularly skills and experience in areas such as process documentation, communication and accountability. Although LNRMI is a relatively new organisation, staff are both experienced of and very active in the WASH sector in areas such as economics, financing, regulatory instruments and policy development.