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Globally, around 2.2 billion people still lack safe drinking water, and nearly half of the world’s population lacks access to safely managed sanitation facilities. While UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) underscores the need for universal access to safe water and sanitation by 2030, the SDG Target 6.2 pays special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.Women around the world remain primarily responsible for water collection in 7/10 households and collectively spend 200 million hours each day collecting water, highlighting the need for gender-focused programs.
Water.org – a global nonprofit organization that has empowered more than 60 million people in 17 countries with access to safe water or sanitation – recognizes that one of the major barriers to safe water and sanitation is affordable financing. Their initiative, WaterCredit addresses this by leveraging micro-finance to enable access to water and sanitation (WSS) solutions.
With support from the Reckitt grant, Water.org's Accelerating Access to Safe Water and Sanitation in India and Indonesia program mobilized USD 138 million, disbursing 449,062 WaterCredit loans and benefiting 1.76 million people.
The program aimed to expand affordable financing and enable women in low-income families to invest in water and sanitation.
Athena Infonomics partnered with Water.org and Reckitt to evaluate this program with the help of detailed Program Monitoring Visit (PMV) data in both countries. This endline impact assessment was special for us, as we piloted the “WASH4Work Benefit Accounting Framework” through our measurement process.
WASH4Work is a multi-stakeholder initiative that has made an ambitious attempt at providing a standardized reporting method for WASH outcomes. As our evaluation pilots the WASH4Work Benefit Accounting Framework, we also provide recommendations that enhance this standardized framework for future WASH programs. With growing needs to not just measure volumetric water targets, but also the wider co-benefits of WASH projects, our evaluation incorporates indicators along an impact pathway, distinguishing between outputs, outcomes, and impacts across socio-economic, environmental, and institutional domains.
Customizing the broad guidelines provided under the framework, Athena mapped Water.org inputs and strategies under the Reckitt grant to the resulting impacts on economic welfare, health and safety, and gender equity. This evaluation was conducted through Program Monitoring Visits (PMV) which consisted of surveys undertaken with borrowers to verify if the loan was used for a WSS purpose. The data from the PMV surveys covered over 300 questions, which were mapped to 64 indicators, to gain a grassroots perspective of the project's impact. This provided insights into the program's broader benefits, including women's decision-making roles, mental well-being, open defecation rates, and perceived safety levels in accessing facilities.
The PMV data lacked a control group for counter factual evidence - this impacted the accuracy and reliability of the findings. However, using the impact pathway framework helped ensure that our analysis was more robust by enabling linking between different output and outcome parameters. We were able to quantify our findings through a Social Returns on Investment analysis, which indicated considerable social and health benefits and tangible economic benefits as a result of significant time savings.
In India, people saved 35 minutes daily using home sanitation facilities and 33 minutes collecting water, while inIndonesia, they saved 17 minutes accessing sanitation and 11 minutes accessing water. Health improvements were notable, with 88% of Indian families reporting better health and 74% experiencing fewer illnesses, with 35% attributing this to increased handwashing. The program also empowered women, with over 90% of female borrowers making financial decisions regarding the loan.
The evaluation of the program by Water.org and Reckitt revealed transformative impacts beyond infrastructure improvements. It enhanced water and sanitation access, delivered substantial economic and social benefits, and improved overall health and well-being. Our assessment, using the WASH4Work Benefit Accounting Framework, effectively mapped these co-benefits for families and identified crucial program gaps, emphasizing the importance of WASH and financial literacy programs.
Anusha Ganapathi leads Data Analytics at Athena Infonomics.
