At WaterAid, our mission is to transform the lives of the people who have been left furthest behind by improving access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene.

With our partners and supporters, we have made a huge difference over the last 40 years. But despite collective achievements, overall global progress has been shamefully slow. To fulfil the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals, progress needs to increase four-fold.

The scale of the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) challenge calls for a monumental shift in ambition and approach. We must work with greater urgency, and act as a catalyst for change. That is why this new strategy is bolder and more ambitious than our last.

Instead of measuring our success by the millions of people reached with our service delivery work, we will measure our collective success by the hundreds of millions of people we reach through systemic change.

And therefore, by 2032, we hope to see:

  • 400 million more people with sustainable and safe WASH
  • $15 billion more a year for WASH in low-and middle-income countries
Global Strategy aims and approaches infographic

Our aims

Over the coming decade, with communities, civil society, governments, the private sector and financial institutions, we will focus our efforts in four key areas where we will have the biggest impact.

  • Achieve universal, sustainable and safe access in focused geographic areas to influence wider change
  • Prioritise WASH across the health sector to improve public health
  • Strengthen the resilience of WASH to climate change
  • Increase the quantity and quality of financing

Our approach

To achieve these ambitious goals, our approach has four key aspects that detail the ways we will drive change and bring our strategy to life.

Policy priorities for accelerating progress

Water, sanitation and hygiene are vital to economic development, health, gender equality and climate resilience. Our policy paper sets out recommendations for countries working to accelerate progress towards sustainable and safe WASH services for all.

Image: WaterAid/ Basile Ouedraogo

Country Programme Strategies 2023-2028

Our country programmes and federation members have translated the Global Strategy 2022-2032 into their own context-specific Country Programme Strategies. These documents articulate the change they aspire to in their respective countries over the first five years.  

Top image: Devit washes his hands with soap and clean water outside a toilet block in Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia. February 2023.