What Does Climate-Resilient Inclusive WASH Look Like?
Water for Women (WfW) is an implementation and research fund uniquely positioned to contribute to local, regional, and global understanding of best practices in climate-resilient, inclusive water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) development. Under Water for Women’s collaborative Learning Agenda 2023-24, drawing on learnings from the implementation of climate-resilient and inclusive WASH projects and research programs in the Asia–Pacific region, WfW partners sought to explore a fundamental learning question: What does climate-resilient inclusive WASH development look like?
The understanding and definition of climate-resilient WASH has been evolving in recent years as policymakers and practitioners endeavor to prioritize inclusion and climate resilience. The Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) Climate Task Team launched the following definition of climate-resilient WASH at COP29 in November 2024:
Climate-Resilient Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services anticipate, respond to, cope with, recover from, adapt to or transform based on climate-related events, trends and disturbances, all while striving to achieve and maintain universal and equitable access to safely managed services, even in the face of an unstable and uncertain climate, where possible and appropriate, minimising emissions, and paying special attention to the most exposed vulnerable groups.
To operationalize climate-resilient WASH, it is crucial that we not only come to an agreed definition, as SWA has done, but also find practical examples that demonstrate this definition and share them with practitioners and policymakers. Our understanding of global commitments at the policy level needs to be complemented with real-world practices that can be scaled up. Accordingly, WfW partners share the following learnings from Asia and the Pacific to contribute to wider sectoral learning and evolving practical actions in the face of increased climate challenges.
In exploring the learning question, WfW partners undertook dedicated learning initiatives to improve their understanding of how WASH programs consider climate risk and resilience, how WASH governance systems integrate these considerations, and the importance of gender equality, disability, and social inclusion (GEDSI) to climate-resilient WASH. For further information on WfW’s learning approach and methodology, see Annex A. WfW acknowledges the inherent complexity and scale of global WASH needs and multi-faceted inclusion and climate resilience aspects. No one-size-fits-all approach exists, but the collective experience of our partners offers guidance toward achieving climate-resilient inclusive WASH for all.
Water for Women partners recognize that WASH is an important issue that underpins all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Figure 1 illustrates the structure of the 17 SDGs, representing SDG 6 (water and sanitation), SDG 13 (climate action), and SDGs 14 and 15 (life below water and on land) as foundational goals. Without water and sanitation in climate action, other social and economic goals cannot be reached. This message is also emphasized in the Global Commission on the Economics of Water’s report, launched in October 2024 (Figure 2.13), demonstrating how both blue and green water are embedded within the SDGs.
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