Water for Women Fund commences

The Water for Women Fund commenced on Wednesday 13 December 2017 with an announcement of successful proposals for civil society organisation (CSO) projects. 

The Water for Women Fund was announced by the Prime Minister of Australia in September 2016 at the High-Level Panel on Water and builds upon the work of the current Civil Society Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) Fund. As DFAT’s largest single investment in the sector, it will invest $110.6 million over five years to improve the health, gender equality and wellbeing of Asian and Pacific communities through socially inclusive and sustainable WASH projects.

Basic sanitation is out of reach for 2.3 billion people around the world with nearly 900 million of the world’s poorest people still practising open defecation. It is a particular problem for women and girls, undermines education and healthcare and diminishes the dignity of those already disadvantaged and vulnerable. The Water for Women Fund responds to these challenges.

GHD Australia Pty Ltd has been selected as the Fund Coordinator and will partner with DFAT, CSOs and research organisations to deliver the program in the Pacific, South Asia and South-East Asia.

A large number of high quality proposals from CSOs was received and following a rigorous selection process, 10 were selected to implement 19 projects across 16 countries. The selected CSOs are expected to enter into inception grant agreements from December 2017 and finalise their project designs within 3 to 6 months.

The Fund will also support WASH Research activities and a call for proposals for research grants is expected to be released in December 2017.

Original source: DFAT
Published on 14 December 2017