Anand P K

P K Anand is a development professional with more than 10 years of experience in various thematic areas of WASH, market-based sanitation, designing, programmatic management, analysis, and capacity and institution building, in Bihar and Mozambique.

Anand did his postgraduation in social work (MSW) with a specialisation in rural and urban community development. He was part of the prestigious Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellowship offered by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, with academic mentoring support from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). As part of the fellowship, he worked as the nodal person for Jahanabad District in Bihar and later as a State Consultant to design and implement the Swachh Bharat Mission in Bihar. His work with the district administration on addressing the challenges of open defecation in Jahanabad, Bihar, was documented and recognised by the Ministry of Rural Development. His engagement at the state level focused on leveraging the women-led community institutions nurtured by Jeevika (State Rural Livelihood Mission of Bihar) to improve and sustain the sanitation status quo of rural Bihar.

Anand was part of the UNICEF WASH emergency response team deployed in Kerala in the aftermath of the floods and landslides in 2018. He took part in drafting the WASH chapter of the ‘Post-Disaster Needs Assessment’ report prepared by the United Nations for the Government of Kerala. He also developed and managed partnerships with community-based institutions, local self-governments and individuals at different levels. He has worked closely with the state governments of Bihar and Kerala and NGOs to develop, implement and review sanitation programmes. He was recently engaged as Sanitation Programme Support Officer (International Specialist, UNV) with the UNICEF Mozambique country office for the key task of developing an appropriate market-based sanitation roadmap for sustaining the ODF status and supporting communities climb the sanitation ladder by leveraging appropriate interventions. He was also engaged in the analysis of the sanitation and hygiene status of the country and the subsequent preparation of national and subnational sanitation profiling of Mozambique.

Anand, as the Senior Specialist for the IIHS-led TNUSSP, supports the project management, and governance and enabling framework components. His role involves: cultivating relationships with key state government departments to strengthen collaboration; offering technical assistance to the government of Tamil Nadu for developing state sanitation plans, with a focus on FSM enhancement in ULBs, support the uptake of IT enabled review and monitoring systems; firming up the project exit strategy factoring sustenance; development and management of project work plans and documentation for various key stakeholders including donors; institutional support for business development; facilitating various meetings, workshops, and consultations for effective project coordination and decision-making.