We believe a great way to celebrate the love that Valentine’s Day represents is to share the impact World Vision’s water and health efforts are having. Fiscal year 2022 was a great year of impact—transforming and saving lives. What’s not to love about that?!
Global water, sanitation, and hygiene impact
In fiscal year 2022, we met or exceeded our targets by helping establish lasting access to clean water for more than 3 million people, which was 111% of our target (Table 1). We also improved sanitation for 2.7 million people, which was 107% of our target, and equipped 3.4 million people with access to handwashing facilities, which was 95% of our target.
Thanks to the support of our donor partners, this means that we continue to reach one new person every 10 seconds with clean water. Since 2015, we've reached 25.5 million people with access to clean water, which is over halfway toward our commitment of reaching 50 million people by 2030!
To put this in perspective, 25.5 million people is more than the entire population of Florida, the third most populous state in the U.S. But we didn't do this in places with good infrastructure and lots of available water, but instead in the most fragile areas of the planet, including places like the deserts of Niger and Mali, war-torn areas of Sudan and Ethiopia, and the high hills of Honduras.
Nearly 91% of these people live in fragile or very fragile contexts, many of which are faced with dire humanitarian situations like civil war. In those places we reached 786,678 people with emergency water and 345,637 people with emergency hygiene supplies.
To help ensure the sustainability of water points, we worked with communities to establish and train 5,519 water committees (123% of our target). We also trained 11,820 faith leaders on healthy hygiene and sanitation behaviors—more than twice our target.
Consistent with our business plan goals to increase the level of water service, only 3% of new water points were hand pumps, while 26% were community taps and 70% were household water connections (Figure 1). This transition from pumps to taps and household connections helps drive sustainability of water points as well as improves water quality at the household level.
We provided 514 health centers with clean water on premises, and we reached 1,534 schools with water (Table 2). In addition, we provided handwashing stations in 927 health facilities and 3,616 schools.
Lack of access to clean water disproportionately impacts women and girls, and when we provide clean water access, women and girls have choices and opportunities they didn't have before. In addition to reaching nearly 2 million women and girls with permanent or emergency water sources during fiscal year 2022, 1,967 women became active in businesses related to the provision of water, sanitation, and hygiene in their communities. This includes businesses such as soap-making or shops selling toilet supplies. You can read the full global report here.
Finish the Job: Rwanda
In 2018, we committed to reach everyone, everywhere we work in Rwanda with clean water by 2023. The below animation shows our progress toward finishing the job by reaching 1 million people across the country with clean water. The color coding shows reach region's coverage of clean water. Red is less than 50% of households having access to clean water, yellow is some progress but still not everyone. Green signifies full coverage. You can see that when we started, there was great need for clean water in all the areas we work in Rwanda and now we’re on track to finish the job later this year. Based on fiscal year 2022 results, we are at 91% of our goal.
People in 20 of the 39 areas where we work in Rwanda have complete water access. In the remaining 19 areas, we're on track to reach 100% of our goal by the end of this fiscal year.
For fiscal year 2022, 300,000 more people in Rwanda received clean water access—above our target goal (Table 3). We also were above target for sanitation by reaching more than 210,000 people and just a little below target for handwashing facilities by reaching more than 300,000 people. You can read the full Rwanda report here.
Finish the Job: Zambia
Building off of the success in Rwanda, we plan to reach everyone, everywhere we work in Zambia with clean water by 2025. Finishing the job in Zambia will be more difficult than Rwanda because Zambia is much larger and much more rural. Our team had to inspect more than 50,000 water points to develop these maps. That’s why in this case we don’t have a baseline, but we can show you our results for 2022 and forecast for 2023 to 2025.
Of course, these projections depend on obtaining the funding needed to finish the job. We’re thankful for the tremendous support that we’ve had for this effort and have investments or multi-year commitments of about $27 million to date. We have a remaining need of $23 million to fully fund this effort and make these map projections become a reality by 2025.
In 2022, we reached 230,629 people with clean water, the highest number of people in the history of our Zambia water program, surpassing our annual target at 154% (Table 4). This success can be attributed to the construction of 111 solar or electrical grid-powered systems, which is more than twice what we constructed the previous year. We also significantly exceeded our target for household sanitation by reaching more than 266,000 people and more than 240,000 people with handwashing facilities.
The momentum that we’re seeing in Zambia is just what we saw in Rwanda. A plan to finish the job is a game-changer. We’re so thankful for our donor partners who make this work possible. You can read the full report here.
Finish the Job: Honduras
Our most recent country where we’ve committed to finish the job and provide clean water to everyone, everywhere we work is Honduras. This will have a tremendous impact on 650,000 people—more than half of all the people living in rural areas who lack clean water access. During the fiscal year, we built the team needed to finish the job in Honduras. We recently hired a new WASH director, Tupac Mejia, to replace the late Javier Mayorga. We’re confident we’ll be on track for finishing the job by our target of 2027.
We did not meet our targets this year in Honduras as we rebuilt the team and experienced construction delays (Table 5). To address this, we’ve made a significant purchase of PVC pipes, fittings, and steel rods for upcoming water projects. In the first half of this year, we plan to purchase additional construction materials for building sanitation facilities in schools, health centers, and households.
This is our first year of work fundraising for and building in Honduras. We’ve been blessed that we’ve already received $10 million of the $60 million needed to finish the job. You can read the full Honduras report here.
Health impact
In the areas where World Vision works, half the health clinics don’t have clean water and 5 out of 6 do not have basic handwashing facilities. Many mothers are required to bring their own water to wash themselves and their newborns after giving birth and, not surprisingly, infections spread under these conditions. While the miracle of birth should be a joyous occasion, too often it becomes a death sentence for mother or baby. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that we could save the lives of 1 million mothers and babies every year simply by improving hygiene in these health centers.
Because of this need, a primary focus of World Vision’s work in the health sector is to upgrade rural health clinics with clean water on premises, handwashing facilities at all points of care, showers, and toilets. We address the spread of infections not only with the handwashing facilities but also by equipping and training health personnel on infection prevention and providing a way for them to manage waste, including hazardous waste. Frequently this includes providing an incinerator. And we train and equip community health workers, who go from home to home and share health prevention and nutrition messages, support women during pregnancy, and encourage people to visit health centers. Globally, World Vision has trained more than 184,000 community health workers.
World Vision upgrades more health centers than any other nongovernmental organization (NGO). We were asked to join a task force with the WHO and UNICEF to highlight the issue of poorly equipped health facilities and to seek specific commitments to address this. These commitments were shared at a large event in 2019 and there were more than 100 of them. World Vision committed to reaching 800 health centers serving 7.2 million people, by far the largest commitment of any NGO. We've exceeded our commitment by reaching 1,460 centers. We updated our goal to reach a cumulative 2,000 centers by 2023, serving an estimated 18 million people.
At the end of fiscal year 2022, we had reached a cumulative 1,974 clinics. In the first three months of the current fiscal year, we have reached more than 30 clinics, so we've fulfilled this commitment as well! We’re currently discussing our next focus to improve health globally.
Improved health in Zambia and Niger
In addition to our global targets, we plan to upgrade all the health centers in all the areas that we work in two countries with great need for improved health: Zambia and Niger. Both countries have high rates of maternal and newborn deaths, and we're well-equipped to respond, with over a decade of strong community partnerships. In the areas where World Vision works we aim to reach 125 Zambian health centers and 150 Nigerien health centers, equipping and upgrading the facilities to improve the health of approximately 2.4 million people by 2025.
We recently mapped out exactly what it will take to finish the job of upgrading health centers in Zambia. The below map shows the areas where we work, and the + symbol shows each of the health centers in those areas. Red indicates less than 50% of the health centers in that area have clean water, yellow is above 50% but not yet reaching all the centers, and green indicates that we’ve reached all the facilities. We’ll keep this map updated as we equip all the health centers everywhere we work in Zambia.
See the breakdown of each country's progress in our annual health sector report here.
Below is the cumulative health impact for both countries (Table 6). We upgraded a total of 75 clinics, trained 139 nurses and midwives, and empowered 1,156 community health workers. Also, through our efforts, 190 faith leaders are actively teaching their communities about mother and child healthcare.
Community health workers handled cases of malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea in fiscal year 2022, treating children right in their own communities. They also identified 6,731 malnourished children and referred them to the nearest health center. And because of life-saving work like this, over the last 10 years, 89% of the severely malnourished children we treated made a full recovery.
We’re very pleased with these results and look forward to another year of health impact.
Prayer requests
Give praise for the millions of people who have been equipped with clean water access and improved health—work that wouldn't have been possible without the generous donors who funded it.
Pray for discernment for World Vision leaders as they prepare to make new commitments in both the water and health sectors.
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. Motivated by our faith in Jesus Christ, we serve alongside the poor and oppressed as a demonstration of God’s unconditional love for all people. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.
In 2022, 89% of World Vision's total operating expenses were used for programs that benefit children, families, and communities in need. Learn More.
World Vision, P.O. Box 9716, Federal Way, WA 98063