Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs are essential to human life, yet chronically underfunded. An estimated $114 billion annual financing gap—three times current investment levels—is preventing countries from achieving universal access to water and sanitation.
To address this finance gap, USAID’s WASH Finance (WASH-FIN) technical assistance program is designed to mobilize public and private financial resources for WASH investments in target countries in Africa and Asia. “The demand for WASH services far exceeds the capacity of governments to finance on their own,” said WASH-FIN Chief of Party Sam Huston in the webinar.
In the past, USAID has supported financing facilities that aggregate, leverage, and blend sources and uses of finance as a means to crowd-in other sources of finance, including private sources. To better understand the use of these facilities for WASH and other sectors, WASH-FIN reviewed the landscape of relevant facilities and produced a working paper. To share the findings more broadly, USAID held the webinar, “How WASH Financing Facilities Can Close the Finance Gap for Universal Access.” The webinar summarized the key findings on financing facilities and methods to successfully leverage public and private funds in the WASH sector; the presenters also highlighted the Philippines Water Revolving Fund (PWRF), which received USAID support in the past, as an example.
Listen to the full webinar below, click here for the Financing Facility Landscape Assessment Report | WASH-FIN Working Paper No. 1. and see here for further information, including the webinar handouts and related resources in the sidebar on the PWRF and other USAID interventions in financing facilities for WASH.
