Indonesia’s water, sanitation and hygiene sector is benefitting from an innovative financing scheme that has contributed to considerable gains for the country in access to both water and sanitation services. SWA’s ‘Building Blocks’ helped to set the context for Indonesia’s last two strategies for achieving universal access to water and sanitation services. The strategies focus on sector planning, capacity, coordination, and monitoring, as well as innovative approaches to sector financing. At the centre of Indonesia’s current strategy is a significant expansion of ‘NUWAS’, Indonesia’s

An innovative finance scheme has been developed as part of strengthening Cambodia’s water, sanitation and hygiene sector. The scheme includes incentive payments totaling nearly US$10 million to project implementers, if the country eliminates open defecation by 2025. It comes as part of Cambodia’s significant efforts to strengthen its sector, founded on a new National Action Plan. The national plan is built around key SWA principles, particularly on improving cross-sectoral cooperation and seeking new options for closing national sector finance gaps. It forges strong cross-sectoral links with

Niger’s ‘common financing mechanism’ has created a robust institutional arrangement, which has helped to increase confidence in WASH sector investment. The principles of SWA’s ‘Collaborative Behaviours’ are the conceptual foundation for the mechanism, which allows partners to reduce risk by pooling resources, as well as harmonizing sector financing procedures with national budgeting procedures. Niger’s experience with the SWA Collaborative Behaviours spans several years, as the country was involved in their design in 2014. Since then, the country has worked to integrate the SWA Collaborative

Mali’s goal to allocate 5% of the national budget for water and sanitation – in line with levels set out in the SWA Framework – is moving closer thanks to improved financial tracking coupled with focused, multi-stakeholder sector dialogue. These moves resulted in large increases in public funding for water, sanitation and hygiene; the budget allocation for the sector tripled from 2017 to 2019. Mali started this process by developing national sector accounts using the TrackFin methodology in 2015, with support from SWA country partners, UNICEF and WaterAid. TrackFin produces clear, accessible

Zimbabwe witnessed a significant increase in the 2021 national water and sanitation budget, following SWA’s Finance Ministers’ Meeting (FMM) in 2020. The sector had originally expected a budget of ZWL$300 million for 2021/2022, so the announcement that it would be increased by two-thirds, to ZWL$ 500 million, was hailed as a big step towards better access to water and sanitation for the country. The country’s Ministry of Finance is allocating the increased funds to develop a long-awaited information management system for the sector, to guide evidence-based planning and budgeting. The funds

SWA partner the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) provided short-term funding to selected SWA partner countries, targeted specifically to improve sector co-ordination and collaboration in those countries. The funding was agreed in 2019, through SWA’s Mutual Accountability Mechanism. The aims of the funding were to help countries engage their sectors beyond government, to encourage an increasingly multi-stakeholder approach to water, sanitation and hygiene. The funding helped WSSCC work with SWA to strengthen sector civil society networks in different ways in four

A 2018 ‘Global Review of National Accountability Mechanisms for SDG 6’ in Guinea identified poor consultation with civil society organizations and a general lack of co-ordination as a significant barrier to effective, multi-stakeholder participation in the sector. Since then, SWA partners in the country have pressed for the creation and development of effective accountability platforms and meaningful participation by civil society in the water and sanitation sector. Since the review, the Government of Guinea, UNICEF and civil society organizations have focused their efforts on strengthening

Conversations grounded in the SWA framework are moving the water, sanitation and hygiene sector forwards fast in Pakistan, one of the partnership’s founding members. Pakistan started using elements of the SWA framework in 2012, when a comprehensive multi-stakeholder approach was used to clarify sector responsibilities and commitments after water and sanitation mandates were devolved to the provinces. Those early conversations enabled SWA partners to engage the national water and sanitation ministry, helping them understand the gaps that existed in coordination and service delivery for the

The Democratic Republic of the Congo drafted and validated a national water, sanitation and hygiene framework programme (the ‘PNEHA’) in an impressive four months. The PNEHA development process involved high-level prioritization from decision makers, including all sector-related ministries and the advisor of the president. But a key element of its success was its focus on gathering inputs from a wide range of stakeholders. This multi-stakeholder engagement included outlining commitments to delivering the framework using SWA’s Mutual Accountability Mechanism. The mechanism was seen as

A clearer sense of a broader, sharper sector strategy has emerged in Paraguay, with its water, sanitation and hygiene sector moving forwards on several priority areas for action. A number of factors have generated momentum in recent years. Ministers in charge of water and sanitation have patiently lobbied the ministry of finance, with SWA support. They have succeeded in giving the sector increased prominence in national budgetary considerations. The SWA Secretariat has helped the sector capitalize on this increased visibility, working with country partners and sector actors in Paraguay to