During this reporting period and because of incredible donor partner support, we celebrated meeting World Vision’s commitment to reach 20 million people with clean water. We thank you for your part in this historic accomplishment and on behalf of the people whose lives have been transformed.
But we haven’t rested on our laurels, as there are tens of millions still needing clean water in the areas where World Vision works. This is the first annual report reflecting achievements of our new Five-Year Business Plan, which will enable us to transform the lives of millions of people through four strategic goals: accelerating access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services for all; deepening our focus on the most vulnerable people; demonstrating sustainable impact; and leveraging business plan investments to raise additional funds. Through this business plan, we commit to reaching a cumulative 35 million people with clean water between 2016 and 2025, and, we are on track to do this.
WASH in Communities
In the first half of fiscal year 2021—despite the challenges of the pandemic—our efforts have had strong impact, where we met or slightly exceeded our targets by reaching 3.0 million people with clean water, 2.4 million people with improved sanitation, and 3.6 million people with handwashing facilities. In line with our business plan commitment to deepen our focus on the most vulnerable, more than 84% of these participants live in fragile or extremely fragile contexts. Because of several humanitarian situations that included civil war, we exceeded our targets by providing emergency water to more than 430,000 people and emergency hygiene supplies to more than 800,000 people. Thanks to the support of our donor partners, World Vision continues to reach one new person with clean water every 10 seconds.
Because of the important role of faith leaders as influencers in their communities, we stepped up efforts to partner with them in promoting healthy WASH behaviors. In the process, we trained 8,763 faith leaders (164% of target).
As part of our 5-year business plan, we forecast a large increase to 70% of water points being household taps and only 3% handpumps. During the first year of our business plan, this trend was realized by having 78% of community water points accessed through piped water to the household vs only 2% of community water points were accessed by a handpump. This will result in significant time-savings particularly for women and children.
In our efforts to improve gender equity, we supported 1,624 women that became active in WASH businesses including business centers selling hygiene supplies, water filters, soap, handwashing stations, and latrines. We also track the number of women who are trained in advocacy to ensure that their needs are met related to WASH services. More than 4,000 women completed the training during this reporting period, and this will help ensure long-term sustainability of our work.
WASH in Schools and Healthcare Facilities
There was only one area where we did not meet or exceed our targets, and this was the number of children reached with safer drinking water at schools (77% of target) which was missed primarily due to underachievement in Ethiopia due to a delay in funding from our largest partner in Ethiopia. The work in Ethiopia is now moving forward.
A silver lining in the global COVID-19 pandemic has been the accelerated effort to improve hygiene to prevent the spread of the virus. Thanks to years of donor partner support, World Vision is well-positioned to take advantage of this opportunity. We reached nearly double our target for hand-washing facilities in schools (5,770) and in healthcare facilities (1,533). We also completed our three year commitment (2019-2021) to reach 800 rural healthcare facilities with water on premises and comprehensive WASH services by reaching 1,460 clinics with water, 1,117 with sanitation, and 4,559 with handwashing facilities. Based on this remarkable success, we are now committing to reach a cumulative 2,000 health care facilities with clean water between FY19 and FY23 serving an approximate 18 million people. We’ve updated our video that shows our work in health care centers that includes this new commitment. Please watch:
Finishing the Job Progress
Rwanda. During this period, we launched plans to Finish the Job of providing basic clean water access to everyone, everywhere we work in Honduras and Zambia, building on our success in Rwanda. In Rwanda, we have reached a cumulative 613,601 people with access to clean water towards our goal of 1 million people and we are on track to finish the job in FY2023.
Zambia. Thanks to donor support and a big influx of funds from other sources including UNICEF and child sponsorship funds, Zambia reached 213,274 people with clean water – 27% of our 5 year goal to finish the job by reaching 800,000 people with clean water. We’ll need to increase funding from U.S. donors to Zambia to maintain this level of impact.
Honduras. In Honduras, we are building the team needed to reach 650,000 people with clean water and finish the job by 2027. This will mean reaching more than half of Hondurans without clean water in the rural areas of the entire country. We achieved our goal for clean water and handwashing facilities this fiscal year but were below targets for sanitation because of a priority on rebuilding other infrastructure damaged by the back-to-back category 5 hurricanes.
We are very grateful to our donor partners for being part of this impact.
2022 Global WASH Forum
Please join us virtually on February 24th and 25th from 9-11am PST each day to hear the latest from our team as well as some special guests. We’ll show you an innovative new dashboard so you can view our impact globally and across countries and make the dashboard available to donors who sign-up for the Forum at the conclusion of our gathering.Learn more and Register at www.worldvision.org/2022WASHForum
World Water Day Event
This World Water Day we aren’t just bringing awareness to the need for clean water, we’re going to do something about it—with you! Be part of an effort to empower everyone, everywhere World Vision works in Zambia—about 800,000 people—with access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene behavior-change promotion. During the hour-long event you will:
Learn about the water situation in Zambia and how World Vision is partnering to address those challenges
Celebrate the remarkable progress that’s already happening in Zambia
Learn how communities, schools, and healthcare facilities are getting lasting access to clean water
Join other like-minded people across the country to raise money and partner together in making this goal a reality. www.worldvision.org/WorldWaterDayEvent
Prayer Requests
Give thanks to God for the favor he continues to show World Vision enabling us to meet and exceed extraordinary commitments to bring clean water and living water to millions.
Help us deliver the resources needed to both fund the 41 countries in our business plan as well as the incremental funds needed to Finish the Job in Zambia ($27 million remaining need) and Honduras ($49.4 million remaining need).
Give wisdom and strength to our teams as we prepare for big events to share our plans and progress during the coming months.
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 2020, 88% of World Vision's total operating expenses were used for programs that benefit children, families, and communities in need. Learn More.
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