Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

WASH

Sustainable WASH services within households and communities, healthcare facilities and schools are fundamental to a person’s dignity and safety as well as providing long-term health, social and economic benefits.

Why we want to help

  • Worldwide, over 2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water
  • More than half the global population does not have access to safe sanitation
  • Three billion people do not have access to handwashing facilities with soap
  • On any given day, more than 300 million women and girls are menstruating—but hundreds of millions still cannot manage their periods safely

People living in rural areas, urban slums, disaster prone areas, and low-income countries are the most vulnerable and the most affected, as are women and children because of their traditional household role in many cultures and the risk to their safety in the absence of a nearby safe water source or adequate toilet.

What we will support

Rural Water Services. Safe, reliable rural water services that serve hard-to-reach communities. Our funding intends to ensure the systems are in place for sustained and ongoing services.

Sanitation Services. Safe and affordable sanitation services in rural and low-income urban areas. Our funding aims to strengthen approaches that address the full sanitation chain, from containment through to safe disposal or reuse.

Menstrual Health and Hygiene. Safe, dignified menstrual health and hygiene, while challenging stigma and misinformation. Our funding aims to normalise menstruation so that no one is disadvantaged by it in their daily lives.

We are open to considering a wide range of approaches, such as:

  • Supporting innovative and scalable service delivery models that expand access in underserved areas
  • Generating and using evidence to address critical knowledge gaps and to inform policy, practice and investment decisions
  • Translating policy into practice to ensure durable and appropriate infrastructure
  • Strengthening regulation, accountability and service standards across the WASH sector
  • Catalysing innovative financing mechanisms, such as results-based approaches
  • Supporting progress towards public–private partnerships to deliver financially viable and scalable services
  • Challenging harmful social norms and stigma through community engagement, advocacy and behaviour change initiatives

Follow these links for examples of WASH projects supported under Main Grant and Small Grant funding strategy.

What we will not support

We are not able to offer funding for standalone infrastructure installation without robust, long-term operations and maintenance plans that extend beyond community-based management.

We will prioritise applications:

  • From agile organisations with demonstrated ability to deliver adaptive programming and with specialist skill sets and experience.
  • Seeking to work with hard-to-reach groups with a consideration for leaving no-one behind. 
  • Providing evidence of positive impact from previous work
  • Acknowledging and building on previous efforts;
  • Addressing a demonstrated local need and that are carefully tailored to the local context; 
  • Aligning with in-country government policy and priorities and incorporating the strengthening of local systems; 
  • Including a strong monitoring and evaluation component; 
  • Considering how impacts will be sustained and scaled in the longer-term

Applying for funding

Access to Main grants within the WASH Programme is limited to invited applicants, reflecting already established partnerships and a targeted approach to our funding. We are currently only accepting unsolicited WASH applications under our Small Grants programme.

We receive many more funding applications than we are able to support. We are therefore only able to consider support for applications that meet all four of these requirements:

  • Clearly fit with the descriptions of what we will, and what we will not support;
  • Clearly fit with our Geographical Priorities;
  • Use the flow chart below and meet the eligibility criteria for a Small Grant;
  • Follow the relevant Application Guidelines including the FAQ section.
Eligibility for a Small Grant
UK-based organisations only
Requesting under £10,000 in the field of WASH
Have an income of below £300,000
Deliver work at a local scale – for example supporting just one or a small number of communities, schools or groups
Tend to plan and deliver work over a one to two year time frame
Can demonstrate successful project delivery and the ability to monitor project outputs and outcomes
Have waited at least 24 months since last unsuccessful application
World Development Small Grant WASH Application Guidelines

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