Clean Water

World Vision is committed to serving the most vulnerable, especially in countries where extreme poverty and political instability have hampered investments in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. World Vision implements WASH programs in countries where we operate that identify WASH as a critical need to improve child well-being, and we invest resources where that need overlaps most with fragility. As evidence of this, World Vision’s global WASH business plan directs 89% of funding toward fragile contexts.

However, our call to serve the most vulnerable goes beyond fragile states and includes a deepened focus on the most vulnerable children in every country where we work. These children are those whose quality of life and ability to fulfil their potential are most affected by extreme deprivation and violation of their rights. They often live in traumatic situations with relationships characterized by violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation, exclusion, and discrimination. World Vision defines and identifies the most vulnerable according to the challenges and vulnerabilities of their local context, and then designs and implements programs to meaningfully impact their well-being.

Learn more about World Vision’s work in fragile contexts.

To uphold its core value of accountability, World Vision aligns its monitoring approach with guidelines and definitions set forth by the World Health Organization and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, supporting the global effort to track progress toward equitable WASH services. For example, when reporting the number of people reached with clean water, we include only those who walk 30 minutes or less roundtrip to access clean water. World Vision tracks the number of people benefiting from each of the three areas of WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) in communities, schools, and healthcare facilities. Participant numbers for WASH services provided at households and schools are the people who use these services daily. For healthcare facilities, the people reached is the population each facility exists to serve. When reporting aggregate numbers, World Vision seeks to avoid double-counting people served in multiple settings.

Monitoring doesn’t end when a WASH project is complete. We utilize a vast network of government staff, community leaders, engineers, maintenance technicians, and World Vision staff who provide ongoing monitoring. Further, World Vision is committed to increasing our use of advanced technology to build evidence of sustainability. We continue working with leading research institutions to evaluate and measure long-term program impact, including our 14-country World Vision WASH evaluation conducted in 2017 by the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina. Read more about this study here.

World Vision integrates behavior-change programming into its WASH work in communities, schools, and healthcare facilities to alter social perceptions and norms that can transform communities and achieve sustained impact. We also create physical environments with associated operation and maintenance approaches that support and sustain new behaviors. Behavior-change approaches are guided by the local context and focus on adoption of essential WASH behaviors, such as handwashing with soap and running water at critical times; safe construction and proper use of latrines; and safe treatment, handling, and storage of drinking water. One way we deliver behavior-change messages is by engaging and mobilizing community leaders and influencers, including faith leaders, educators, mothers in leadership positions, and community health workers.

Behavior-change programming is especially important during disease outbreaks, such as COVID-19 and Ebola. For example, integrating behavior-change programming with WASH response efforts in schools and healthcare facilities helps ensure disinfection of facilities and promotes sustainable healthy handwashing behaviors. This is essential for containing outbreaks and reducing disease transmission, improving education and healthcare quality, and saving lives. In addition, when people are healthy, they have more time to engage in economic activities, which is important as communities recover economically from the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about our behavior-change approach here.

Our WASH in schools programming integrates WASH interventions together with approaches from the education sector to jointly support both SDG 6 (safe water and sanitation for all) and 4 (quality education for all). World Vision strives to meet or exceed criteria for basic WASH coverage in schools, including the presence of improved water that is piped on-site, equitable and accessible sanitation facilities sufficient for the school population, accessible handwashing stations with soap, and facilities to manage menstrual hygiene in privacy and with dignity. World Vision’s WASH in schools work often is delivered through school WASH clubs, as well as the Sesame WASH UP! program. WASH UP! teaches children how to practice and share healthy WASH habits through play by engaging with child-friendly learning materials featuring the Sesame characters Raya and Elmo. We also work with communities and local government to enhance management and financing for school WASH sustainability.

World Vision’s focus on WASH in healthcare facilities helps prevent and control infections and outbreaks, improve healthcare quality, promote healthcare best practices, and save lives. Our work aligns with the universal health coverage targets of SDG 3 (good health and well-being)—particularly the goals of increasing rates of safe childbirth and decreasing neonatal mortality. World Vision’s WASH in healthcare facilities work is often delivered through BabyWASH, an initiative that integrates WASH with maternal, newborn, and child health; nutrition; and early childhood development interventions to achieve greater impact for mothers and children to improve health outcomes and survival in the first 1,000 days of life.

Since most healthcare facilities are part of the government healthcare system, we advocate with local government officials to build the capacity of healthcare providers, monitor services for accountability, plan for catastrophic events, and set aside sufficient budget for long-term sustainability of quality health systems. Read more about World Vison’s WASH in healthcare facilities work here.