Richard Franceys

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:

• Community Management of Rural Water Supply - India, Earthscan, Routledge, 2017;
• Regulating Water and Sanitation for the Poor – economic regulation for public and private partnerships, Earthscan, 2008;
• Serving All Urban Consumers: a marketing approach to water services in low- and middle-income countries, WEDC, Loughborough University, 2004;
• Tapping the Market – The Challenge of Institutional Reform in the Urban Water Sector, Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2003;
• Contracting out water and sanitation services, Vol I&II, WEDC, Loughborough University, 2003; 
• Beyond Boundaries: extending services to the urban poor, Asian Development Bank, 2002;
• A guide to the development of on-site sanitation, Franceys, J A Pickford & R A Reed, World Health Organization, Geneva, 1992.