Civil Society, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Fund

The Civil Society, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Fund was a $32.6 million initiative to improve access to clean water and basic sanitation, and promote hygiene, in partner countries in targeted regions.

Applications for funding were sought from civil society organisations (CSOs) under the Fund’s eight-week single step competitive funding round, which closed on 12 February 2010. The Fund attracted 79 conforming activity applications from 27 CSOs requesting $74 million. Priority was given to proposals that scaled up or replicated existing effective activities.

The Fund selection panel assessed these applications against the five weighted criteria and other considerations specified in the fund guidelines. Eight Australian and three non-Australian CSOs were then funded to deliver 44 projects worth $31.3 million across Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Fund outcome details

NGO	Country/Countries	Value
Adventist Development and Relief Agency	Vanuatu	$336,165
Australian Red Cross	Vanuatu	$893,291
Care Australia	Ethiopia, Kenya, Lao PDR, Mozambique, Zimbabwe	$3,608,470
East Meets West Foundation (USA)	Vietnam	$1,507,240
Live & Learn Environmental Education Australia	Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu	$1,528,334
Oxfam Australia	Bangladesh, Cambodia, East Timor, Mozambique, PNG, Zambia	$4,798,186
Plan Australia	Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda	$4,790,600
SNV Netherlands	Bhutan, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Nepal, Vietnam	$2,744,177
Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (UK)	Bangladesh, Kenya, Zambia	$3,581,505
WaterAid Australia	Bangladesh, East Timor, Ethiopia, India, Malawi, Mozambique	$4,088,453
World Vision Australia	Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Zimbabwe	$3,438,458

Projects commenced on 1 June 2010 and continued until 31 December 2011, with completion reports due on 15 March 2012. The Fund expects to provide 330,000 people with access to safe water and an additional 560,000 people with access to basic sanitation facilities. An additional 474 schools are expected to receive access to clean water, basic sanitation or hand-washing facilities.

An Independent Progress Report was produced in February 2011 (see below) and a final evaluation is planned to take place over April and May 2012.

Independent Progress Report

A mid-term review of the Fund was undertaken by the three independent monitoring and evaluation specialists that comprise the Fund’s Monitoring Review Panel. The purpose of the review was to:

review the Fund’s structure, management and partnership between AusAID and CSOs, with a view to informing future potential funding arrangements; and
provide insight into how the Fund expects to contribute to AusAID WASH objectives and a structured analysis of WASH approaches used in the Fund.

The findings of the review are summarised in the Independent Progress Report.

Hot topic

A hot topic covering the work of the Fund was published on 19 November 2011 to coincide with World Toilet Day.

AusAID planning for new Civil Society WASH Fund

Work is currently underway on the design of a new Civil Society WASH Fund. It is intended that the new Fund will cover the 2012/13 to 2015/16 financial years with the call for proposals expected to be announced in May 2012. It is AusAID’s intention that the new Fund will support proposals from both accredited and non-accredited civil society organisations, including organisations that are not based in Australia. The regions of focus are likely to be Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

This proposal is currently unfunded and AusAID is unable to provide further information until internal design and funding approval processes have been completed. More information will be provided on this website as it becomes available.

General information on AusAID tenders and grants can be found on our Tenders and Grants page.

Last reviewed: 23 January, 2012