Discover our WASH Strategy for 2021 to 2025

Action Against Hunger is a globally recognised Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) actor in the field of humanitarian emergencies and the fight against undernutrition.

We deliver assistance in the sectors of Nutrition, Health, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL), Disaster Risk Reducti on (DRR) and Mental Health and Care Practices.

In 2020, Action Against Hunger reached over 25 million individuals across 46 countries, more than
in any previous year. Our WASH activiti es supported more than 9.6 million people (International
Annual Report 20201). Action Against Hunger has a long-standing track record of supporting the implementation of WASH programs in resource-poor environments in collaboration with local partners. Country strategies aim at progressively realizing the human right to water and sanitation and reaching the water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ulti mately:

• Reduce WASH-related morbidity and mortality among people affected by crisis.
• Achieve the “basic” level of WASH services for all and progressively and sustainably
  move towards safely managed WASH facilities at the level of households, communities
  and institutions.

We engage in humanitarian WASH coordination by contributing to several platforms such as the national and global WASH clusters, the WASH Humanitarian Roadmap and the Global Task Force on Cholera Control.

We generate WASH evidence by collaborating with world-renowned research institutes such as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Tuft s University and the University of Avignon.

We push the frontiers of WASH technical and social engineering with partners such as Aquassistance, Waterpreneurs and Renewgies.

We share our WASH expertise and knowledge at annual conferences such as the World Water
Week, the UNC Water and Health Conference and the Emergency Environmental Health Forum,
and by organizing WASH humanitarian Master courses in collaboration with universities in
Burkina Faso, Jordan and Spain.

This strategy sets out the direction for the WASH department of the Action Against Hunger International Network from 2021 to 2025. Acti on Against Hunger’s WASH strategy follows our International Strategic Plan 2021-2025 (Figure 1). It is built on fi ve overarching programmatic principles that govern our way of working. It is further composed of (i) Core programmatic approaches, which cut across all our activities and are mandatory for our programs, as well as (ii) Programmatic priorities, which are the areas of intervention where ACF can have the greatest
added value to meet today’s challenges of the WASH sector.

The strategy is designed to cover all phases of the humanitarian-development nexus, to strengthen WASH systems while ensuring the continuity, coverage and aff ordability of essential WASH goods and services. All the priorities, particularly the ones listed under pillar 1 “Save and Protect lives” and pillar 2 “Build Resilience”, are therefore complementary.

This strategy has been primarily writt en for Action Against Hunger country offices and local partners, but also for other WASH actors, national or local authorities, emergency response coordinating bodies, contingency planners, program evaluators, donors and any individuals or organisations involved in providing WASH services.