Assessing microfinance for water and sanitation: Exploring opportunities for sustainable scaling up

More than 2.4 million people die every year from diarrhea and other water-related illnesses because they don't have safe, sustainable water and sanitation. This crisis persists, in part, because the financial services that could help vulnerable populations pay for water and sanitation remain largely unavailable to the poor. Some NGOs have sought to overcome this barrier through micro-lending schemes. While preliminary evidence suggests that these approaches work, there is limited understanding about whether they present a long-term solution that could be scaled to benefit millions.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WS&H) initiative commissioned research into the potential market for expanding small-scale banking and credit services to increase access to sustainable water and sanitation services by the poor. "Assessing microfinance in water and sanitation: Exploring opportunities for sustainable scaling up", published in 2008, draws from global datasets and activities in 38 countries throughout Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as interviews with nearly 100 practitioners from the microfinance and WS&H sectors. The study estimates a potential market size of US$12 billion over the next 10 years, and offers examples of what is - and isn't - working from around the world to achieve sustainability and scale.

Go to the finance paper on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation website