Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership (SWS)

Introduction

Sustainable services remain a daunting challenge in the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector. National and local governments, service providers, and development organizations have traditionally focused on access and service expansion. Less emphasis has been placed on sustaining existing services and infrastructure. As a result, gaps in service coverage remain significant, and implementation challenges are growing with climate change, COVID-19, and conflict.

Research to fill evidence gaps are critical to inform how USAID and its partners can help underserved people and communities to work toward sustainable WASH service delivery. That is why USAID invests in research and learning geared toward assessing the effectiveness of emerging systems-based approaches to WASH service delivery.

Since 2016, a consortium of eight partners worked with USAID in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda to test new ideas, approaches, and tools to strengthen local WASH systems —comprised of actors, factors, and the dynamic interrelationships among them — and improve service sustainability. Lessons learned and findings from the partnership are captured in the SWS End of Project report.

Curated Resources

Technical areas of focus included professionalized maintenance for rural water services, collective action approaches and systems understanding and engagement. Learn more about these topics through a set of curated resources arranged by topic area below. The flagship resources in this collection include a key icon next to the title.

In September 2021, SWS hosted a Closeout Event and Learning Series to capture 5 years of research and evidence gathered through the partnership and share how to apply these tools and approaches to work in the WASH sector and beyond. Recordings of each of the five sessions and the corresponding breakout rooms are available to view here.