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A Conversation with Our Grantees

Water, Sanitation & Hygiene InitiativeBill & Melinda Gates Foundation

5th World Water Forum Istanbul, Turkey March 2009

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Our goals and approach

Goal: Catalyze the adoption of WS&H solutions that meet 3 criteria –» Impact on the health, economic and social well being of the poor» Sustainable in terms of long-term operations and funding» Scalable to reach tens to hundreds of millions of people(Just counting new taps and toilets isn’t enough)

Principles:» Listen, listen, listen (we haven’t invented any of this)» Add value – find a role that takes advantage of our capabilities and complements,

leverages the strengths of other players in the sector» Build partnerships

Approach:» Learning, not just doing» ‘Economic’ perspective – motivations and incentives» Take risks to drive innovation» Insist on rigorous evaluation of impacts, not inputs or outputs» Work with all sectors – public, private, NGO» Focus on cross-cutting approaches that work across different countries and contexts,

albeit with adaptation to local situation

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Lessons learned on what it takes to succeed

Core Elements Success Factors

Service Delivery

There needs to be a stronger focus on triggering demand and sustaining use

Marketstructure

It doesn’t matter if a service provider is public or private, but rather whether they are held accountable to service standards, whether through appropriate regulation and/or market forces

Financing

Better evidence of the financial viability of pro-poor investments is needed to increase access to market-based finance

Better evidence of the health, economic and social impacts on the poor is needed, in order to justify more and better-targeted public funding

Leadership Leaders must support solutions that achieve long-term sustainability and impact

as well as scale

Learning WS&H solutions should include learning components that build on past practice

and encourage innovation to improve future practice

Short version: It’s not just about supplying hardware!

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Our role depends on where we can catalyze change

Our main role is to find and test effective, sustainable models that can be replicated to achieve scale

Two types of models to achieve impact, sustainability, scalability: Solutions deliver high impact, sustainable W S or H services to the poor

» For example, stopping open defecation or purifying water in the household Levers affect key decisions in the WS&H system, which in turn improve service

delivery to the poor» For example, more accurate costing data or facilitation of key parties to serve the poor But in practice good ‘solutions’ and good ‘levers’ must both consider three components

for success: (i) user motivations;(ii) appropriate hardware; and, (iii) policy context

We will intervene only at the stage(s) where we’re needed:

PilotTry them out

Test at ScaleSee if they really work

R&DFind better solutions

Catalyze For widespread use

Advocate

Most models will need to be tested at scale in order to be ready for sustainable,

widespread use

# people affected:1,000,000s

We will only play a catalytic role to support the widespread

use of solutions or levers(i.e., we will primarily leverage

other people’s money)

# people affected:10,000,000s-100,000,000s

We aim to pilot in neglected areas and

support rigorous evaluation of others’ piloting activities

# people affected: 10,000s-100,000s

R&D will be limited to neglected areas such as

sanitation and development of products

targeted for the poor

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Focal areas for our grantsHow can we have the biggest impact on the lives of the poor?

Bringing sustainable solutions to scaleTake user-focused W, S or H solutions that havesucceeded at the pilot level and bring them to scale

Leveraging large-scale players Work with governments and big donors to make traditional large-scale projects much more effective and sustainable

Testing market-based solutionsTest new business models and financing tools to deliveraffordable, user-oriented services through the private sector

R&D for pro-poor goods and servicesSupport R&D in critical but neglected areas and developproducts targeted for the poor

Policy and advocacyShape sector policies to improve decision-making andadvocate to champion proven approaches

Opportunities to catalyze impact for tens to hundreds of millions of the poor in the medium term

Innovations that could change the way the game is played over the longer run

Convincing others to implement and fund solutions that really work

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Examples of grants

Bringing sustainable solutions to scale» WSP Total sanitation and sanitation marketing» WSP Scaling up hand-washing behavior change

Leveraging large-scale players» CARE Schools-based WS&H interventions» WSUP Catalyzing water and sanitation services for the urban poor» IRC WASHCost Developing accurate costing data and embedding it in local decision-making» IRC Rural water sustainability» CEPT University Benchmarking performance of urban water and sanitation services

Testing market-based solutions» Acumen Fee-based water and sanitation services» PATH Commercializing household water treatment» Acumen/IDEO Water storage and transportation for the very poor» Enterprise Works/VITA Commercializing domestic rainwater harvesting

R&D for pro-poor goods and services» Univ. of Bristol Low-cost water quality test» UC Berkeley Study on comparative rural water interventions

Policy and advocacy» International Year of Sanitation communication materials