Our Work: Learn. Connect. Invest.
"Clearly, a problem of this magnitude cannot be solved overnight, but simple, inexpensive measures, both individual and collective, are available that will provide clean water for millions and millions of people in developing countries — now, not in 10 or 20 years. We do not have the luxury of waiting around for large infrastructure investments to provide water supplies and basic sanitation services for all who need them. It makes no sense, and it is not acceptable, to ignore the immediate priorities of the most needy."— Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Director-General of World Health Organization
GWC Programs
We focus on two main areas: (1) Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene for Schools; and
(2) Innovative Community-Based Financing.
We invest in projects that yield results that are sustainable, replicable, and can be increased in scale.
Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene for Schools
In 2005, UNICEF estimated that more than half the world’s schools lacked clean toilets, drinking water, and hygiene lessons for school children. For young girls, this deprivation translates into life-long losses in education and economic opportunity. Among adolescent girls, school attendance drops dramatically when there are no clean and safe latrines in the school.
With clean water and latrines, illness declines and school attendance and performance improve. GWC believes that scaling up schools programs and widely sharing the results will generate greater support for water and sanitation interventions in schools.
GWC and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have provided the initial investment for water, sanitation, and hygiene education programs for 1,500 schools and communities in Kenya’s Nyanza Province. This project is being implemented by a coalition of partners led by CARE. Impacts on children’s health and growth, as well as adoption of sanitation practices in communities, are closely monitored. The objective of the program is to work with the Government of Kenya to identify and test innovative approaches to school and community-based water, implement sanitation and hygiene interventions that promote scalability and sustainability, and develop a model for community-based financing for water and sanitation.
Investment in schools serves as a springboard to reach the rest of the community. It not only generates awareness and demand in communities, but is also a natural way to engage parents in discussions on sanitation and health. GWC will work with NGOs who already have a deep engagement with communities to extend the program to schools.
For an update on the Nyanza Schools project please click here:
Nyanza Year 1 Summary
Innovative Financing: Supporting Communities and Entrepreneurs
Traditional public finance and philanthropy are not sufficient to meet the needs of millions of rural and peri-urban communities that lack safe and affordable water and sanitation. These communities need investments that are too large for micro financing and too small for multilateral finance institutions.
New approaches are needed to bridge the financing gap and meet community-level demands around the world. Innovative financing mechanisms have the potential to strengthen local communities and entrepreneurs by engaging those who have been excluded from mainstream financial institutions and encouraging sustainable investments. The key to success is to empower the poor who do pay for water to get a better product at a lower price from an investment they can own and control.
Working with entrepreneurs, financial institutions, governments, and community-based organizations, we will identify the barriers and opportunities for making community-based investments. We will fund scalable community-level projects using various market-based financing instruments, including loans, guarantees, or securitization. We will share our experiences widely, seeking to integrate these approaches into mainstream development and triggering a global movement to ensure universal access to safe water and sanitation.