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:
Why is rural water is different for communities, schools, and healthcare facilities across characteristics of scale, institutions, demand, and... Read more...
The water sector in South Africa should focus more on the needs of HIV positive individuals and strengthen multi-sectoral initiatives. Read more...
Presentations from the WASH Learning theme 4 - Governments, politics and systems change session of the All Systems Connect International Symposium... Read more...
Presentations from the WASH Learning theme 1 - Delivering Safe WASH Services session of the All Systems Connect International Symposium 2023. Read more...
All the learning alliances continue functioning at generally healthy — albeit varying — levels of interaction, particularly when considering the... Read more...
Under which pathways can the 'utilitisation' of rural water supply take place, which factors drive these processes, what are the strengths and... Read more...
A guide to the planning, collecting, and disseminating data on costs of environmental health services (EHS) - water, sanitation, hygiene, health care... Read more...
This Research Review provides an overview of subsidy targeting strategies and the conditions under which they have proven successful or not, drawing... Read more...
Higher payments for rural water services in Kwale, Kenya, are associated with higher education and faster repair times. Household wealth, sex of... Read more...
Targeted and affordable water tariffs, self-supply investments, microfinance and solar energy can help finance Ethiopia's water sector. Read more...
This report presents a theoretical cost-to-serve by Safe Water Enterprises (SWEs) for the estimated 3.8 billion people without safely treated water. Read more...
This brief presents the lessons learnt and advocacy messages from this e-discussion for influencing sector discourse on this topic and ensuring that... Read more...
This case study describes barriers to sustainability and WaterAid's approaches to addressing them in Nicaragua.. Read more...
Strong dependencies were found between functionality and system type and administrative unit (e.g., district). Read more...
Based on 20 detailed successful case studies from across India, this book outlines future rural water supply approaches for all lower-income... Read more...
The report provides insights on the cost of providing water in emergency situations using two camps as case studies. The life-cycle costs approach... Read more...
Drawing on data on from 54 low- and middle-income countries on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in health care facilities, the report... Read more...