Arghyam’s vision is “Enough Water, Safe Water… Always & for All...” Arghyam supports initiatives that fit into this vision. We have a four-pronged approach- Field Projects, Water Portal, Government Partnerships and Networking & Advocacy- for realizing our vision.

Arghyam funds projects in various sub-sectors such as:

The projects may be either addressing issues in a rural area or in an urban set up. Institutional, environmental, technical and financial sustainability are the characteristics that are closely looked into in any project that Arghyam funds. In addition to this, the cost per beneficiary, last mile reach, sustainability of outcome over time, institutionalization of successful efforts are some of the parameter for assessing the strength of a project.

We support projects which build capacities of communities to understand and respond to their local water and sanitation needs. Innovative projects that have potential for scale and scope for good learning have an edge over other projects. We look favourably upon projects which have the potential to leverage public funding. We also support for critical gap-filling in larger, existing donor/Govt projects. Since urban water mgmt is becoming a key issue, we have a special interest in looking at such projects with an emphasis on urban poor.

We believe in last-mile reach, enabling universalization of a service even if in a smaller universe, leveraging Govt./ other donor funding, transferring ownership to beneficiaries.

In rare cases, Arghyam may consider part-funding Workshops/Conferences, Training Programmes, Awareness Creation Campaigns etc. if such activities contribute to improving the access to water for the poor households. We generally discourage grants for corpus or for solely covering administrative costs of an Organization.

As of now, we do not focus on any specific states. Arghyam will fund projects all across India. The amount of funds available per year for grant making is around Rs.6 Crores (Rs.60 million), which will be optimally spread across 20-25 small, medium & large projects.

Arghyam believes in transparency and accountability in all its transactions and expects its partners also to abide by these values. We do not necessarily endorse the viewpoints/positions of all organizations that we support on issues external to the project.

Project Selection Process:

• The Organization will submit a Concept Note briefly explaining the issue, suggested interventions, beneficiary population, location, project duration, intended impacts, post-project management mechanism to ensure sustainability and approx. Grants required.
• Arghyam discusses such Concept Notes within its core team once in every two months and examines whether the Concept fits well within its purview (sub-sectors, geographical location, small/large grants etc.). The decision is conveyed to the concerned organization
• Arghyam gets a detailed proposal (in the prescribed format) from the Organization whose Concept has been accepted
• Wherever required, a visit is made to the Organization & Project location for understanding the situation better
• The detailed proposal is examined in the bi-monthly meeting and a decision arrived at.
• A draft MoU is drawn and sent to the Grantee Organization for comments
• After necessary modifications, the MoU is signedBoth Arghyam & the partner Organization will go ahead as per the MoU
  

The entire process- from receiving the Concept Note till signing the MoU- will not take more than four months. Arghyam accepts unsolicited proposals, but may also solicit specific projects from specific organizations.

Project Implementation Process:

The MoU is the guiding document that explains the responsibilities & deliverables of the partner as well as Arghyam. Both the parties have to abide by the MoU.

• Arghyam believes that timely release of funds is important for ensuring smooth implementation of the project. Hence, first installment is released soon after signing the MoU. Subsequent releases will be made as agreed in the MoU. Generally these releases will be tied to the status reports to be received from the partner.
• The implementing Organization is responsible for submitting quarterly/ half-yearly reports documenting the activities carried out during the reporting period along with budget realization. Such reports should ideally contain, in addition to explaining the project status, specific case studies of success/failure and the process involved in achieving the success/ possible reasons for failure. These Case Studies would feed into our learning and could be disseminated through our portal.
• After the Project has taken off in the field a trip to the project location is made to analyze the situation and find out whether the project is moving in the right direction as envisaged. The partner Organization will facilitate such a visit. Based on the field visit, a report is sent back to the partner with our feedback and suggestions for improvement. The visit can happen after 3 months in smaller projects and after six months in larger projects.
• A detailed Project Completion Report and audited statement of accounts is submitted by the partner at the end of the project. Arghyam would explore the possibilities of scaling up successful projects/project components by interacting with the partner and the concerned Govt. agencies. The partners with large area of operation will be encouraged to adopt successful approaches/components in similar projects implemented by them and funded by other agencies.

Post-Project Evaluation: