Progress report for
Making Water Count
Achievement at a glance
Our efforts have had a significant impact on improving access to water and sanitation services. Including leveraged funds, we've reached a total of 2,645,670 people with safely managed drinking water. This figure is almost evenly split between females (1,322,406) and males (1,323,264), demonstrating our commitment to gender equity in our interventions.In terms of sanitation, we've provided 843,902 people with access to safely managed sanitation facilities. Of these, 494,268 are female and 349,634 are male.
We're particularly proud of our impact on schools. We've improved drinking water facilities for 56,300 students and pupils, and enhanced sanitary facilities for 57,246 students. This focus on schools not only improves health and hygiene for children but also supports better educational outcomes.
It's important to note that these figures represent the total impact achieved by our projects, including co-funding from various partners. The direct impact attributable to DGIS funding is also substantial, with 688,181 people gaining access to safe drinking water and 171,081 to improved sanitation.
We successfully contracted the full €40 million entrusted to us by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the first five-year phase of our Making Water Count programme. Our total contracted portfolio grew to an impressive €131.17 million, surpassing our leverage target with a ratio exceeding 4 to 1.
Since 2019, we've supported 172 market development projects, including 40 initiatives helping WASH enterprises navigate COVID-19 challenges. In 2023 alone, we initiated 22 new incubation and acceleration partnerships and 19 scaling partnerships, further expanding our impact.
Our focus on impact finance yielded significant results, with 28 contracted initiatives totaling €83.9 million. A major milestone was the launch of the Water Access Acceleration Fund (W2AF) with Incofin and Danone Communities, which reached its first close at €36 million and made its inaugural investment in India.
We developed a new Theory of Change and climate and gender strategy, better positioning our work to address critical global challenges. Our commitment to knowledge-sharing was evident in our "Climate Change and the WASH Sector" course, which attracted over 100 financial sector professionals in East Africa.
To enhance our dual approach of market development and capital mobilization, we restructured our organization. The effectiveness of our unique model combining market-based and financial sector activities was validated by a Mid-term Review of our Making Water Count Programme.
We continued to lead the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) WASH Action Group, raising awareness and interest in water and sanitation investing. Our presence at major international events, including the UN Water Conference and Clinton Global Initiative meeting, further solidified our position as thought leaders in the sector.
We're particularly proud of our partnership with Jibu, which aims to empower more female franchisees across several African countries, addressing gender equity in the WASH sector.
As we approach mid-2024, we're on track to exceed our target portfolio of €120 million, demonstrating our commitment to mobilizing finance and developing sustainable WASH markets. These achievements reflect our dedication to making water count and bringing us closer to achieving SDG 6.
Challenges faced in implementation
Our achievements of Making Water Count was not without challenges. One key challenge was balancing our innovative finance approach with directly reaching the lowest-income populations. As highlighted in our Mid-term Review, there can be trade-offs between strengthening the private WASH sector and serving those in rural areas or informal urban settlements. We are working to address this by carefully structuring deals and verifying that our interventions reach low-income groups effectively.Another challenge has been measuring and reporting comprehensive outcomes and impacts, which was noted as an area for improvement in our review. We have made this a top priority and are enhancing our Impact & Knowledge team to better capture and communicate our results.
The ongoing effects of climate change posed difficulties for many of our projects and partners. Increasing water scarcity and extreme weather events threatened the sustainability of some water and sanitation solutions. We responded by mainstreaming climate considerations into all our interventions and focusing more on climate-resilient approaches.
Gender inequalities continue to be a challenge in the WASH sector. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by poor water and sanitation access but often excluded from decision-making roles. We are striving to involve more women in our projects and integrate gender intentionality throughout our work.
Finally, the complex nature of blended finance deals and market development initiatives means progress can be slower than traditional grant-based approaches. Building the capacity of local financial institutions and enterprises to engage in the WASH sector takes time. However, we believe this approach will lead to more sustainable, scalable solutions in the long run.
Next Steps
Prateesh PrasadBeneficiaries
Our ultimate beneficiaries are low-income populations in Africa and Asia who lack access to safe water and sanitation services. This includes both rural communities and those living in urban and peri-urban informal settlements. We particularly focus on reaching women and girls, who often bear the greatest burden of water collection and are most affected by poor sanitation.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the WASH sector are also key beneficiaries of our work. Through our market development activities, we provide these enterprises with funding, technical assistance, and connections to investors. This helps them scale up their operations and reach more customers with affordable WASH solutions.
Local financial institutions benefit from our capacity building and de-risking support, enabling them to develop dedicated WASH portfolios. This not only helps them tap into a new market but also contributes to expanding finance for the sector as a whole.
Impact investors and asset managers are beneficiaries in the sense that we help them identify and structure viable investment opportunities in the WASH sector. By demonstrating the potential for both social impact and financial returns, we're opening up new avenues for mission-aligned capital deployment.
Government agencies and policymakers indirectly benefit from our work as we help demonstrate effective market-based approaches to achieving universal WASH access. Our initiatives often complement public sector efforts and can inform policy decisions.
Lastly, the broader WASH sector benefits from the knowledge and innovations we generate. By testing new financing mechanisms and business models, we're contributing to the global body of evidence on what works in accelerating progress towards SDG 6.
Actions
We've taken numerous actions to positively impact our beneficiaries in 2023. For low-income populations, we've supported the expansion of affordable WASH services through our partnerships with enterprises like Jibu, whose franchise model is bringing safe drinking water to multiple African countries. Our results-based financing incentives ensure these services reach underserved communities.For WASH SMEs, we initiated 22 new incubation and acceleration partnerships, providing funding and knowledge sharing to develop innovative solutions. For example, we supported AKYAS Sanitation in Bangladesh to pilot its container-based sanitation solution, and helped CityTaps achieve proof of concept for its non-revenue water reduction model in Kenya.
We've taken significant steps to mobilize more finance for the sector. The launch of the Water Access Acceleration Fund with Incofin and Danone Communities will invest in safe drinking water enterprises across Africa and Asia. Our partnership with the African Guarantee Fund is helping de-risk local banks' WASH financing, expanding access to credit for WASH businesses and consumers.
To address climate challenges, we've integrated climate risk assessment into our project screening and investor support. We've also provided additional funding for climate adaptation in our accelerator programs in countries like Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Uganda.
For women and girls, we've implemented gender-intentional approaches across our portfolio. With Jibu, for instance, we're specifically incentivizing the empowerment of more female franchisees to address the gender gap in business ownership.
To benefit the wider sector, we've actively shared our learnings through participation in major events like the UN Water Conference and European Microfinance Week. We've also led the European Microfinance Platform's WASH action group, generating awareness and guidance on WASH investing.
Lastly, we've enhanced our organizational structure to better serve all our beneficiaries. Our new Impact & Knowledge team is improving our ability to measure and communicate outcomes, while our restructured Market Development and Impact Finance teams are better positioned to provide targeted support to enterprises and investors respectively.