Launch of World Vision’s Global Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Business Plan (2026-2030) 

World Vision is launching our fourth business plan that will enable us to achieve our 2022—2030 goals to reach an additional 30 million people with clean water, upgrade 10,000 schools and upgrade 3,000 rural healthcare facilities. We will also finish the job of reaching everyone, everywhere we work with clean water in 49 areas of Honduras and 29 areas of Zambia.

First business plan (2011—2015)

Before our first business plan in 2011, World Vision reached about 200,000 people per year with clean water. Our strategic partnerships were primarily limited to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and P&G. That first business plan enabled us to expand into more countries in Africa, and we lowered the cost of reaching one person from above $100 in many instances, to an average of $50 per person which we’ve maintained since.

Second business plan (2016—2020)

Our second business plan required a leap of faith, stepping into the unknown, trusting God would go before us. We committed to becoming the global nongovernmental provider of clean water by reaching 1 new person every 10 seconds and 20 million people by 2020. We expanded globally to Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. Thanks to our donor partners, the hard work of our staff, and God’s providence, we achieved these goals.

Consistent with global standards, we expanded beyond community water access to bring clean water, handwashing, and improved sanitation into schools and health clinics. Through this work, World Vision became the global leader in upgrading rural health clinics, bringing improved healthcare to millions of people.

Third business plan (2021—2025)

Our third business plan enabled us to mature as an organization. Our partnerships have now expanded significantly. We have now completed this $1 billion global investment and will report results in early 2026. We are on track to achieve our goals. During this period, we demonstrated that for every $1 from U.S. private donors, we secure another $4 from foundations, corporations, governments, and child sponsorship — multiplying each $1 gift into $5 of life-changing impact. 

We also successfully executed on a disruptive idea — to finish the job and reach everyone, everywhere we work in an entire country. We picked Rwanda and successfully reached 1.2 million people with water access, finishing the job in 39 areas where we work. As part of this work, we negotiated with the Rwandan government to fund 40% of the effort and to certify that we had, in fact, finished the job in every area.

Fourth business plan (2026—2030): Mapping the Blue Thread

With your partnership, we are now launching our largest business plan to date — a $1.5 billion global effort. We encouraged each of the 42 country offices that are part of the business plan to take ownership of their individual business plans, and they responded with new innovations including a record amount of financial resources committed to be raised locally ($354 million or 23.6% of total). The fourth business plan is called ‘Mapping the Blue Thread’ because water is the blue thread of integration connecting people, places, and progress. It is essential to the well-being of children and communities and creates pathways out of poverty by driving economic growth, food security, environmental resilience, safer healthcare, and educational success. 

The graph below shows the pathway to 30 million people. This ambitious plan calls us to significantly expand our impact in the years ahead. We have to grow from reaching about 3.1 million people per year to 4.5 million people per year.

It’s hard to wrap your mind around 30 million people. If they stood hand in hand, 30 million people would stretch from Seattle to Manhattan — and back again! This is truly a God-sized goal.

In this plan, we are also being more intentional to integrate our water work with other sectors in many areas where we work, including the sector of Economic Empowerment. When we stop the long walk for water, we free up women’s time and energy so they can participate in our economic empowerment program called THRIVE, which includes savings groups and teaching business skills. The new income and agency is also improving family relationships.

There are two ways for you to dig deeper into our business plan: the Executive Summary document and the digital version.  Note the digital version includes a global map where you can navigate to individual countries and view their specific business plans with targets and budgets. 

We believe that with everyone doing their part, according to their own abilities, we will be able to achieve the goals of this plan. We also need God to go before us. We convened a group of donor partners on September 20 to pray over this business plan and we covet your prayers as well.

Thank you for being part of our journey.

Health Power BI dashboard

We now have a dashboard showing the impact of our Health sector work. The semi-annual results show we are on track for our 2030 commitment to upgrade 3,000 health clinics having now upgraded 954 clinics. 

Praise and prayer requests

Give thanks for God’s faithfulness in enabling World Vision to successfully complete our third five-year business plan.

Give thanks for the millions of people who now have improved healthcare because of upgraded health clinics. 

Pray that God continues to bless World Vision and goes before us to help us achieve our ambitious goals to help the most vulnerable in the name of Jesus.

Pray that our donor partners continue to trust and invest in World Vision.