Kenya Integrated Water Sanitation and Hygiene Program (KIWASH)
The Kenya Integrated Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (KIWASH) Project is a $51 million five-year activity (October 2015 to September 2020) funded by USAID/Kenya and East Africa (USAID/KEA) and implemented by a consortium led by DAI. The goal of KIWASH is to improve lives and health through development and management of sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in Kenya. Its purpose is to institutionalize catalytic models of sustainable service delivery for accelerated water and sanitation access in target counties and to improve complementary hygiene behaviors. KIWASH is partnering with water and sanitation providers to develop bankable business plans, improve operations, and facilitate access to financing. In parallel, behavior-change communications linked to community-led total sanitation and hygiene are designed stimulate demand for improved household sanitation, hygiene, and nutrition. KIWASH activities are implemented in nine counties in two principal focus areas: Busia, Nyamira, Migori, Siaya, Kisumu and Kakamega counties in the Lake Victoria Focus Area, and Kitui, Makueni, and Nairobi counties in Tana/Athi Focus Area.
Activity Description
To improve water services, KIWASH will assist water service providers (WSPs) in expanding household connections and extending their networks to unserved communities. In rural areas, we will work with counties, WSPs, and private entrepreneurs to expand and improve operations and management of existing community drinking water systems. We will also work with Water Resource Users Association to improve catchment area protection and water access, and improve sanitation and multi-use services that reinforce KIWASH interventions in nutrition. To improve access to sanitation services and reduce open defecation, we will work with counties that make strong commitments to apply the community-led total sanitation (CLTS) approach and engage with private sector providers to make access to household latrines/toilets more affordable.
The identification of gaps, prioritization of needs, definition of strategic objectives, and the program’s technical approach were developed in a collaborative process led by the Millennium Water Alliance (MWA) in consultation with national and county governments, donors, non-governmental organizations and the private sector. The Kenya RAPID program rejects the “business-as-usual” approach to development. All five counties and every one of the partners is a co-investor: human capital, financial capital, software, equipment, and other organizational resources will be collectively employed to achieve impact.
KIWASH will work through public health clinics and local organizations already active in the agricultural and health/nutrition sectors (community savings groups, farmer groups, and community care groups), prioritizing locations with high percentages of malnourished or stunted children and where there are opportunities to link with related USAID activities. The KIWASH project is structured has seven main output areas (or program objectives):
- Market-based WASH service-delivery models scaled up
- Sustained access to finance/credit for WASH increased,
- Access to integrated WASH and Nutrition services improved,
- Production and consumption of nutrient-dense, diverse foods increased,
- Environmental sustainability of WASH services increased,
- WASH services and water-resource institutions strengthened and appropriately governed,
- Targeted policy reforms advanced to stimulate and support access improvements.
Expected Outcomes
The expected outcomes are to:
- Improve service delivery and business operations of water service providers (WSPs)
- Increase necessary access to financing
- Support Community-Led Total Sanitation targets
- Incubate private sector WASH enterprises
- Institutionalize WASH/nutrition best practices
Actual Outcomes
The actual outcomes were:
- More than 1,000,000 people will have gained access to improved WASH services.
- Access to improved water will have increased by 1.0 percent per year above current trend (1.9 percent overall increase).
- Access to improved sanitation will have increased by 1.0 percent per year above current trend (1.2 percent overall increase).
- 2.2 percent reduction in the population in target counties that practice open defecation.
- 5 percent increase over baseline in households with water and cleansing agent at a hand washing station.
- Improved access to nutrition services
- At least 50,000 households gaining access to irrigation and nutrition services.
- At least 100,000 children between six- and 23–months-old receiving minimal acceptable diet.
