Dear all,

I would like to introduce to you a project that I am leading and which has funding by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (funding ongoing until December next year).

Title of grant: Improving consumer voices and accountability in the Swachh Bharat Mission * (SBM)

* Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) was previously known as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) till October 2, 2014, and the title of the project went by the latter at the time of signing of the MoU between BMGF and PAC. However, keeping in time with the current name of this national programme for rural sanitation, the project will assess and carry out activities for the SBM.

Subtitle: Address demand and supply issues through the use of social accountability tools to identify barriers to effective implementation, increase the voice of consumers in the SBM implementation, and propose ways to demand greater accountability from service providers to improve the performance of SBM

• Name of lead organization: Public Affairs Centre
• Primary contact at lead organization: Dr. Meena Nair
• Grantee location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
• Developing country where the project is being carried out: India (6 districts each in the states of Odisha and Tamil Nadu)
• Start and end date: August 23, 2013 to December 31, 2016
• Grant type: Program – Global Development; Issue – Global Policy and Advocacy
• Grant size in USD: $1,792,441 (as per BMGF grant database here )

Short description of the project:

The project aims to improve the governance of SBM and include citizen voices in its implementation and monitoring by addressing both demand and supply side issues. On the demand side, the project visualizes enhancement of the voice and participation of citizens in the SBM. On the supply side, it aims to increase the capacity of all stakeholders to efficiently utilize the resources available to them. The tools that would be used to achieve these objectives include:

1. National Policy Review (NPR) at the National and State (for Odisha and Tamil Nadu in particular) level to understand the implementation process of the SBM, funds allocated and spent, secondary data used therein
2. Citizen Report Cards (CRCs) in selected districts in Odisha and Tamil Nadu to assess the current construction and usage patterns through feedback from users and implementers (for more details about this tool, please visit www.citizenreportcard.com)
3. CRC+ exercises in selected Gram Panchayats in each district to assess fund flow and functional responsibilities handled by implementers
4. Community Score Cards (CSCs) in selected Gram Panchayats in each district to try and improve forums for communities to place their voices and demand accountability.

Goal(s):

To improve governance and accountability of the Swachh Bharat Mission/SBM (previously Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan) in India by including citizen voices

Objectives:

General objectives

• Increase the voice of consumers in SBM implementation and monitoring sanitation debate in 6 districts of Orissa and 6 districts of Tamil Nadu (demand side)
• Heighten the accountability of service providers to meet SBM targets and associated obligations in 6 districts each of Orissa and 6 districts of Tamil Nadu (supply side)

Specific objectives

• Raise awareness of the SBM in 6% and 2% respectively of study area population in each of the 2 states—Orissa and Tamil Nadu.
• Strengthen the responsiveness of the service providers by reducing time taken to release funds.

Research or implementation partners: PAC is working on this project with two partners:

1. Public Affairs Foundation (PAF) – A sister organization of PAC and a not-for-profit company, PAF has nearly perfected the art and science of carrying out Citizen Report Cards (CRCs) having implemented them in various countries across the globe. As PAC’s CRC implementing partner PAF will carry out two rounds of CRCs as benchmarking and monitoring exercises; the first one has already been completed.
2. WaterAid (WA) – WA is well known as a domain expert in water and sanitation. As PAC’s knowledge partner WA provides useful inputs at critical stages of the project.

Links, further readings – results to date:

1. Report of the findings from the first round of Citizen Report Card (CRC) exercises carried out in the states of Odisha and Tamil Nadu - www.pacindia.org/reports/benchmarking-ci...port-card-on-nba-sbm
2. Report of the National Policy Review that the PAC study team carried out on SBM - www.pacindia.org/reports/national-policy...wachh-bharat-mission
3. Points from the presentation made by PAC at the India WASH Summit in the Proceedings - www.indiawashsummit.org/wp-content/uploa...Proceedings-2015.pdf , Page 38. The presentation itself is available as an attachment at the end of the post.

Current state of affairs:

1. The PAC study team has completed case studies of selected Gram Panchayats in each of the 6 districts in Odisha and 6 in Tamil Nadu for an in-depth understanding of the process of implementation of the SBM from both the supply and perspective. This was also a preparatory step towards the implementation of the CRC+ exercises in both the states.
2. Case study reports are in the process of being prepared and once finalized will be uploaded in the PAC website – www.pacindia.org.
3. Checklists of aspects to be covered at various levels of the supply service delivery chain are in the process of being finalized.

Biggest successes so far:

1. Successful completion of the first round of Citizen Report Cards (CRCs) – PAC with its partner PAF was able to successfully carry out the benchmarking round of CRCs in the selected districts of Odisha (Angul, Balasore, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Sambalpur) and Tamil Nadu (Dharmapuri, Kanyakumari, Krishnagiri, Perambalur, Tirunelveli, Tiruchirappalli). A total sample size of 6053 interviews was covered, data analysed, and report prepared (link given earlier).
2. Dissemination of CRC findings at various forums – The findings from the CRC were presented/shared at various forums – the India Sanitation Summit; the India WASH Summit; the BMGF Partners Convening; high level officials of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India; SBM implementing state-level departments in Odisha; and potential NGO partners in Tamil Nadu for implementing the CSC exercises.
3. Successful completion of case studies – The PAC study team carried out extensive case studies in each of the selected districts of Odisha and Tamil Nadu with the twin objectives of understanding the supply-side programme implementing system, and in the process, developing good rapport with programme implementers at all levels to be able to carry out CRC+ exercises in the near future.

Main challenges / frustration:

The last one year witnessed political and environmental upheavals causing some delay in the completion of the benchmarking CRC. These included –

• National elections leading to change of Government at the Centre – During April-May 2014, national elections were held all over the country which ultimately led to a change in the government at the Centre in Delhi. During this entire period between April and June till the new government came into power, the CRC survey had to be put on hold as per government regulations and upon instructions from the Election Commission.
• Change of name and revision of guidelines of the rural sanitation programme – The new Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi announced a revision of the national rural sanitation programme and renamed the NBA as SBM or Swachh Bharat Mission, adding the component of cleanliness in addition to rural sanitation as the ultimate objective of the Programme. There were also some revisions in the guideline of the Programme which included additional human resources and an enhanced amount which included installation of water storage facilities adjacent to the toilets and had to be included into the questionnaires.
• Political upheaval in Tamil Nadu – One of the project states Tamil Nadu also witnessed state-wide political upheavals when the incumbent Chief Minister was arrested leading to political unrest in the State making it unsafe for the interviewers to travel and carry out field work in the selected Gram Panchayats.
• Cyclone Hudhud in Odisha – Odisha the other project state was hit by a tropical cyclone (named Hudhud) which led to complete inundation of villages along some of the coastal districts of the state that were part of the study. While human loss was minimal due to massive preparations that had been undertaken by the State government, houses and their toilets had been destroyed and people had to be given time to come back and rebuild their lives.
• Slow process of rapport-building – Any step in the process of improving governance is time consuming and requires patience and perseverance to build relationships with stakeholders. Now that this has been achieved to a good extent, it is hoped that advocacy exercises will be carried out smoothly in a positive environment through constructive engagement with all stakeholders.