8.3.6 Participatory and human-centered design services for the V-PULL project

8.3.6 Participatory and human-centered design services for the V-PULL project in Visakhapatnam, India

BACKGROUND    

The Visakhapatnam project aims to embed participatory community co-design as a permanent function of city government, enabling approximately 225,000 vulnerable residents in a low-lying, cyclone-exposed coastal city to continuously identify their most pressing climate risks and generate the solutions, the city then backs, funds, and scales.

Visakhapatnam faces compounding climate hazards: seasonal flooding, intense cyclones, and worsening urban heat, with the communities in informal settlements and coastal zones carrying the greatest exposure and the least protection.

Conventional responses, centrally planned drainage, seawalls, and early warning systems leave these communities as passive recipients of interventions designed without them. The result is a persistent mismatch between what the city provides and what residents actually need.

 Led by the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), the project will institutionalize community-driven climate action by:

1.       Establishing the V-PULL municipal platform as a permanent co-design function supported by a dedicated Programme Management Unit (PMU), so the model survives beyond the project implementation period and can respond to new climate challenges.

2.       Scaling a portfolio of community-developed solutions to reach 225,000 vulnerable residents, including coastal plantation buffers to reduce storm surge, circular eco-livelihood enterprises that address flooding drivers while creating income for women, and peer-led behavior change programs.

3.       Operating a city-backed Innovation Fund that finances community solutions emerging from V-PULL cycles, with co-funding secured from state government and corporate social responsibility sources.

4.       Positioning V-PULL for state-level institutionalization with a long-term target of reaching approximately 2.2 million beneficiaries across the state.

The participatory and human-centered design approach is therefore a core component of the V-PULL model. The project requires practical methodologies, tools and governance arrangements that enable GVMC and participating communities to jointly identify needs, co-design solutions, test approaches, incorporate feedback and progressively strengthen community ownership throughout implementation.

OBJECTIVE OF THE SERVICE            

The objective of this engagement is to strengthen the participatory and governance mechanisms of the V-PULL project through the practical application of human-centered design (HCD), behavioral science and participatory approaches.

SCOPE OF WORK

The service provider shall develop, test, refine and finalize two practical and complementary tools:

·    V-PULL Participatory Process Playbook: a practical and replicable guide for the application of participatory and human-centered design approaches throughout V-PULL, including methodologies and tools for co-creation, prototyping, testing, community feedback, behavioral insights and qualitative monitoring and learning.

·         V-PULL Governance Playbook: a practical toolkit to operationalize the V-PULL governance structure, including roles and working arrangements, decision-making protocols, accountability and feedback mechanisms, community participation and ownership approaches, and mechanisms to support the progressive handover and institutionalization of the model.

The service provider shall accompany the application and testing of both playbooks during the V-PULL pilot implementation, document implementation experience and stakeholder feedback, incorporate lessons learned into successive versions of the tools, and build the capacity of the V-PULL project team to apply and adapt the methodologies beyond the duration of the contract.

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