Discussion Paper: Strategic Directions for WASH Financing Thematic Area in the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2022-2025

Financial resources continue to be a bottleneck to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 for almost all low- and middle-income countries. Leveraging financial resources is one of the six programming approaches in UNICEF’s WASH Strategy 2016-2030. In the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2022- 2025, WASH financing is the focus of one results area on the enabling environment, with two indicators – one on WASH financing strategies and one on how much UNICEF’s actions and influence has managed to leverage from other financing sources. 

Drawing on a number of publications and consultations with the global WASH network within UNICEF as well as with external partners, a number of key current challenges are highlighted in this paper, and a range of important solutions and activities are proposed to be implemented in the UNICEF Strategic Plan in 2022-2025 and beyond.