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Design by Remy Rossi GWSP ANNUAL REPORT CONTENTS 2025 GWSP ANNUAL REPORT FOREWORD 6 A Message from our Global Director WELCOME 8 A Note from the Program Manager ABOUT GWSP 10 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 13 ABBREVIATIONS 21 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 23 World Bank Group’s Water Strategy 24 Global Collaboration 25 Four Reports, One Challenge: Rethinking Water for the Future 26 GWSP’s Role in What Lies Ahead 26 3 CHAPTER 2: KEY THEMES 29 Water for Prosperity 30 Water and Climate Resilience 33 Water Finance 37 Water and Social Inclusion 40 CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION 45 Water for People 46 Implementing Innovative Solutions for São Paulo’s Water Crisis from Combined Private and Government Interventions 48 Cooperating with Partners and Taking Proactive Measures to Fight Cholera Globally 50 Focusing on Inclusive Sanitation to Improve Services in Kiribati 52 Advancing Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in Rural Tanzania 56 Water for Planet 58 Tackling Drought with Community-Driven Water Management in Afghanistan 58 Cross-Sector Partnerships Powering Water Reforms in Central America’s Dry Corridor 61 Local Solutions Addressing Drought and Deforestation in Somalia 63 Net-Zero Initiatives Key in the Cleanup of the Ganga River in India 65 Water for Food 67 Using Regional Cooperation to Advance Climate-Resilient Irrigation in the Sahel 68 A Blueprint for Water-Wise Agriculture in Kosovo 71 Smarter, Shared Solutions for Central Asia’s Soaring Irrigation Needs 73 CHAPTER 4: ADVANCING RESULTS 77 The GWSP Results Framework 78 Knowledge and Technical Assistance Supported by GWSP (Block A) 82 GWSP’s Direct Influence on World Bank Water Lending 82 Reporting on Portfolio Shifts and Project Results (Block B) 86 Newly Approved Water Department Lending Projects 86 Active World Bank Lending Projects in the Water Sector 88 Combined Results of GWSP Technical Assistance and World Bank Lending in Nine Countries (Block C) 91 CHAPTER 5: FROM KNOWLEDGE SHARING TO ENGAGEMENT 93 Knowledge Management and Learning 94 Communications 98 Featured Publications 100 4 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT APPENDIX A 103 Financial Update APPENDIX B 111 Results Progress BOXES Box 2.1 Equal Aqua Platform Promotes Women’s Empowerment in Water Sector Jobs 41 Box 3.1 Knowledge Initiatives Offer Fresh Perspectives on Water Security and Desalination 47 Box 3.2 Malawi Shows How Cholera-Prevention Activities Can Succeed 51 Box 3.3 Small Pacific Utilities Join NewIBNET to Share Data 55 Box 4.1 GWSP Results Framework’s Three Components 78 Box 4.2 Block A: Examples of Results for FY25 83 Box 5.1 Thematic Areas of Learning Events 94 FIGURES Figure 4.1 GWSP’s Theory of Change 80 Figure 4.2 The Cross-Cutting Nature of Financing and Inclusion, as Percentage of Portfolio, FY25 82 Figure 4.3 Intermediate Outcomes Achieved Through Active Grants, FY25 83 Figure 4.4 GWSP-Influenced World Bank Lending, by Department 84 Figure 4.5 GWSP-Influenced World Bank Lending, by Financing Source Eligibility, FY25 85 Figure 4.6 Results Reported by World Bank Lending Operations, FY25 89 Figure A.1 Funding Status, FY26–FY30 105 Figure A.2 Disbursements by Activity, FY25 105 Figure A.3 Disbursements by Activities and by Region, FY25 106 Figure A.4 GWSP Annual Disbursements, FY18–25 107 Figure A.5 GWSP Disbursements by Region and by Fiscal Year, FY18–25 107 TABLES Table 4.1 Block B1 Indicators: Progress and Targets Summary 87 Table 5.1 Examples of Just-in-Time Support, FY25 98 Table A.1 GWSP Donor Contributions as of June 30, 2025 104 Table A.2 Top 10 Trust Fund Programs Disbursing Through the Water Department, FY18–25 108 Table B.1 Summary of Results Achieved as of June 30, 2025 112 Table B.2 Portfolio Influence Indicators 114 Table B.3 Sector Results Indicators 115 MAP Map 4.1 GWSP-Influenced Global Water-Related World Bank Lending by Region, FY25 85 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 5 FOREWORD A Message from our Global Director Water is life. It flows through every aspect of development, driving jobs, growth, and prosperity—and it is in crisis. Moreover, universal access to water and sanitation remains a distant goal. Addressing these global challenges is central to the World Bank Group’s efforts to end poverty on a livable planet. We are the largest multilateral investor in the water sector in developing countries, with an active portfolio of more than $29 billion. In fiscal year (FY) 2025, we reached more people with safely managed water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services, according to the WGB’s corporate scorecard, which captures results from our active portfolio. SAROJ KUMAR JHA We delivered basic WASH services to 75.5 million people Global Director and safely managed WASH services to 7.4 million people, a Water Global Department year-over-year increase from 66.7 million people with basic services and 3 million with safely managed services in FY24. The WBG also acted to ensure irrigation for crops and to The World Bank Group’s improve resilience to floods and droughts. Between FY23 Water Strategy 2025– and FY25, our projects supported initiatives that led 7.8 2030 employs our million farmers to adopt improved agricultural technology. Our projects also helped protect 25.8 million people against expertise, resources, water-related risks such as floods and droughts. and partnerships to Despite our efforts, current levels of global investment are ensure adequate and insufficient to address the water crisis and to achieve the sustainable water for Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The investment people, water for food, needed in water-related infrastructure has been estimated at $6.7 trillion by 2030 and $22.6 trillion by 2050. This and water for the financing gap requires more private capital to supplement planet. public and concessional financing in the water sector. Higher levels of financing for the water sector will pay economic dividends. Investments in water services and infrastructure—including water supply and sanitation, water resources management, and irrigation—support job creation across diverse economic sectors. Globally, water- intensive sectors, such as agriculture, energy, and mining, account for approximately 40 percent of the workforce, representing around 1.7 billion jobs. 6 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT The World Bank Group’s Water Strategy 2025–2030 employs This concerted effort to mobilize private capital yielded our expertise, resources, and partnerships to ensure measurable results in FY25: the Bank approved six water adequate and sustainable water for people, water for food, sector projects that together attracted private cofinancing and water for the planet. This strategy will help countries totaling $721 million. The percentage of new water projects maximize the impact from financing by providing a roadmap enabling private financing was 89 percent, higher than in to financial sustainability for the sector. It brings together the previous two years. Furthermore, the percentage of the best of three WBG institutions—the World Bank, the new projects with an explicit focus on mobilizing private International Finance Corporation, and the Multilateral financing was at an all-time high of 56 percent. While Investment Guarantee Agency—to create a supportive insufficient to meet all challenges, the increase in private environment and encourage investment, including private financing is a start, and it demonstrates that our goal of capital, in the water sector. scaling up both public and private investment in the water sector is attainable. The Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership (GWSP) provides support on multiple fronts to attract private Our collective global water challenges are huge, but capital for investments in the sector: creating knowledge, partnerships enable a substantial response. To achieve water providing training, and fostering policy dialogue. GWSP is security at scale, we must work closely with governments to an important instrument for implementing the WBG water advance their national priorities. And we must partner with strategy. For example, in FY25, GWSP developed the Water the private sector, multilateral development banks, donors, Sector Assessment Program (WaterSAP), a diagnostic tool philanthropies, and civil society organizations to support an for our client countries that assesses needs, funding gaps, enabling environment for lasting impact. In this way, we can and reform options and that identifies barriers to scaling up progress toward our vision of a world free of poverty on a financing and private sector involvement. WaterSAPs are livable planet. underway in 14 countries. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 7 WELCOME A Note from the Program Manager Water security lies at the heart of sustainable development, and the World Bank Group’s Water Strategy 2025–2030 provides an important framework for how to address global water challenges. The strategy aims to accelerate universal access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene; boost food production and farmer livelihoods through improved management of irrigation for crops; and reduce water- related risks such as floods, while sustainably shepherding our planet’s water resources. Achieving the water strategy’s goal of water security for hundreds of millions by 2030 depends on close collaboration with a range of actors. This ambition calls for strong SARAH NEDOLAST leadership in our client countries, effective coordination Program Manager among financing institutions, and active engagement with Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership the private sector. The Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership (GWSP) exemplifies this spirit of collaboration— combining knowledge, technical assistance, and financing to strengthen institutions, advance policy reforms, and We are on track to meet enhance the design and delivery of water services. the targets in the GWSP GWSP helps raise awareness and understanding of the Results Framework. centrality of water in issues involving climate resilience and These results were economic development. It equips decision-makers with scientific data and the latest global analytics to encourage possible because of the policy dialogue, which in turn helps governments, businesses, steady support of our and the public sustainably manage, conserve, share, and use water. This unique "knowledge-into-implementation" donors, the commitment model is the core of GWSP’s effectiveness. of our client governments, and the dedication of the This year’s annual report highlights the growing impact of GWSP’s work around the world in fiscal year (FY) 2025: Bank’s Water Department teams across the globe. Knowledge and analytics. Over the past year, GWSP supported 30 countries with knowledge products addressing resilience. In Somalia, water security diagnostics are helping the government identify and prioritize water-related risks in a country that is subject to recurrent droughts and that has lost hundreds of thousands of hectares of tree cover. In the Indian state of Gujarat, a private capital mobilization plan proposed reforms to improve utilities’ creditworthiness and the viability of projects. 8 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT Technical assistance. GWSP assisted 51 countries sharing on governance and water security planning for in strengthening the capacity of their water-related the Dominican Republic’s 10-year, $250 million Water institutions for managing water resources or service Sector Modernization Program. These activities illustrate delivery. In Uzbekistan, GWSP supported the integration how GWSP’s technical assistance and knowledge directly of digital technologies and remote sensing to monitor support the design and implementation of policy and irrigation performance and track water use. In the Sahel, investment operations. where only 3 percent of farmland is irrigated, GWSP is enhancing a Bank initiative to increase irrigated areas by The results shared in this report demonstrate that we are on mainstreaming improved irrigation practices into national track to meet the targets in the GWSP Results Framework. strategies. These results were possible because of the steady support of our donors, the commitment of our client governments, Financing. In one year, GWSP activities informed $12.5 and the dedication of Water Department teams across the billion in newly reported lending. For example, GWSP globe. Our collective efforts are impelling progress toward provided technical support for and facilitated knowledge a more water-secure and sustainable future for all. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 9 ABOUT GWSP The Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership GWSP-funded knowledge and technical assistance influence (GWSP) was launched in 2017 as an international partnership the design and implementation of government policies and to support countries to meet the targets related to water programs, as well as water sector investments and reforms and sanitation under the Sustainable Development Goals carried out by client countries with the support of the WBG (SDGs), particularly those of SDG 6. and other partners. GWSP expands the global knowledge base through broad dissemination of its knowledge and GWSP is a multidonor trust fund administered by the World analytical work. This work is open source and available Bank’s Water Department and is supported by the Australian globally to all development partners. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Austria’s Federal Ministry of Finance; the Gates Foundation; Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Influence on World Bank Affairs; Spain’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business; the Group Lending Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency; Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs; the Swiss GWSP’s unique position within the Water Department Agency for Development and Cooperation; and the United enables it to influence, through knowledge and technical Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office. assistance, the design and implementation of water sector reforms and infrastructure projects financed by the World GWSP is a platform for collaboration and support, providing Bank. In FY25 alone, GWSP provided critical knowledge and client countries and development partners with global analytical support to teams that delivered $12.46 billion in knowledge, innovations, and country-level technical support Bank lending. while leveraging World Bank Group resources and financial instruments. GWSP Entry Points GWSP supports World Bank Group task teams and clients through three distinct entry points: Knowledge into Just-in-Time Long-Term Country Implementation Technical Assistance Engagement • Leverages the global reach of • Enhances project designs • Lays the framework for country the Water Department, sharing with highly specialized global strategies between lending lessons from one part of the world knowledge. operations or before lending with another. operations begin. • Offers rapid response to changing • Drives investments and innovation circumstances. • Strengthens institutions before through cutting-edge analyses. and during reforms. • Provides an unparalleled capacity- • Supports proof-of-concept building model based on peer-to- • Provides project implementation applications. peer learning. support to agencies with lower capacity, especially in fragile and • Shifts mindsets through advocacy conflict-affected situations. and outreach. 10 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT PRIMARY THEMES Sustainability Inclusion Financing Institutions Resilience GWSP Donors Clients Knowledge into Implementation GW P LEVERAGES SP LEAR S FROM How GWSP Influences World Bank PARTNERS N Group Lending and Works with Partners GWS Private Academia $12.46 Billion Sector FY2025 ENVIRONMENT, NATURAL RESOURCES, AND BLUE ECONOMY RESEARCH, KNOWLEDGE, HEALTH, NUTRITION, AND POPULATION AND OTHERS ANALYSIS, CONVENING, ADVOCACY LESSONS WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT LEARNED AND URBAN, RESILIENCE, AND LAND WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION CLIMATE RESILIENT IRRIGATION EMERGING TRENDS AGRICULTURE AND FOOD Impact EDUCATION GWSP provides client countries with policy advice, technical assistance, and capacity building to enhance the impact of water sector investments OTHER DEPARTMENTS WATER $6.08 BILLION $6.38 BILLION and achieve measurable results on the ground—demonstrating the added value of GWSP-funded activities in achieving results not possible with World Bank Group funding alone. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 11 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Chapter 1 there is an acute need for more investments in water resources management, irrigation, and water supply and Water not only sustains life but is also a critical input sanitation. for economies and, therefore, a powerful driver of job opportunities. Because water security is part of the The WBG’s Water Strategy 2025–2030, launched in foundational infrastructure for job growth, water is a key fiscal year (FY) 2025, aims to increase water security and ingredient for the World Bank Group’s approach of helping sanitation for hundreds of millions of people by replicating countries build economies that convert growth into local and scaling proven solutions and unlocking public and jobs. Globally, water-intensive sectors, such as agriculture, private investment. To boost water sector development, energy, and mining, account for approximately 40 percent the strategy integrates efforts by all WBG institutions—the of the workforce, representing around 1.7 billion jobs. With World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and water systems across the globe under growing pressure, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). The Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership (GWSP) GWSP underpins the underpins the overarching goal of the water strategy: increasing water security and sanitation for hundreds of overarching goal of the millions of people. Serving as the center of excellence, WBG’s new water strategy: it prepares diagnostics, designs programs, and provides increasing water security technical expertise that feeds a larger, faster lending pipeline and improves the quality of projects. GWSP also provides and sanitation for hundreds crucial support to help countries advance toward the water- of millions of people. related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), facilitating linkages between global initiatives and country-level support and thereby ensuring that solutions are context-specific and that lessons learned in one country are shared with others. 14 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Chapter 2 Key Themes Water for Prosperity In FY2025, GWSP supported the Bank’s water economics and analytics agenda to understand the impact of water investment pipelines and interventions on multiple economic and environmental outcomes and on climate resilience. Bank project teams used the CLimate and Economic Analysis for Resilience and the Water Security Diagnostics 2.0 tools to inform project design and benchmarking. New guidelines improved economic analyses of water projects, revealing significant benefits from interventions such as in Beirut, Lebanon, and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Additionally, GWSP developed guidance on the link between water investments and job creation. Furthermore, GWSP supported a major report highlighting an accelerating crisis of continental drying and its socioeconomic impacts, and it advanced practical guidance for sustainable water pricing through the Tariff Transformation Roadmap. Water and Climate Resilience To help address climate change risks, 81 percent of the Bank’s FY25 water sector lending was classified as climate finance—the highest ever for the water sector. Notable projects in Türkiye, Nigeria, and Guinea integrated climate adaptation and mitigation measures. GWSP played a key role in supporting technical assistance for project design and water analyses for Country Climate and Development Reports, which raise the profile of water in national climate strategies. In addition, GWSP-supported initiatives, such as financial tools for drought risk management and the Drought Risk and Resilience Assessment methodology, are helping countries build resilience to drought risks and guide priority investments in vulnerable regions. Water Finance The World Bank Water Department worked to attract private capital through blended finance, public-private partnerships, and credit enhancement, resulting in a notable increase in private cofinancing for water projects in FY25. To help countries identify viable opportunities and binding constraints to access commercial and private capital and private sector expertise and innovation, at national and subnational levels, GWSP conducted diagnostic GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 15 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY assessments, such as Water Sector Assessment Programs. of women as entrepreneurs, improved school facilities, and Additionally, it supported joint implementation plans with provided culturally relevant health education and products, the IFC and MIGA to mobilize future private investment, benefiting more than 125,000 girls and training more than including a program in Senegal under which the Bank will 71,000 people. provide viability gap funding that is expected to mobilize private equity and commercial loans for a wastewater Citizen engagement mechanisms were embedded in treatment plant. all new water operations, enabling real-time feedback and strengthening community ownership and project Water and Social Inclusion sustainability, especially in settings affected by fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV). Participatory governance tools In FY25, 74 percent of newly approved water projects supported by GWSP facilitated the inclusion of women, integrated social inclusion interventions beyond gender persons with disabilities, and other excluded groups and citizen engagement and introduced new tools to assess in water management committees and associations. and document innovative practices. Additionally, 22 of 23 Disability inclusion strategies improved access and new Bank water projects linked gaps between women and equity in projects across Ethiopia, Guinea, Indonesia, men to specific project actions and monitoring indicators, and Tanzania by integrating universal access design and 77 percent of projects under implementation met principles and by partnering with local nongovernmental gender-related indicator targets, up from the previous organizations. GWSP helped update national strategies to year. Menstrual health and hygiene were increasingly require disability-inclusive design in WASH infrastructure. prioritized in water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) In FY25, 62 percent of new WASH projects included operations. Projects in Bangladesh, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and specific activities to improve accessibility for people with the Democratic Republic of Congo have trained thousands disabilities. 16 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Chapter 3 coordinated stakeholders through the Afghanistan Water Platform, piloted private-led irrigation energy solutions, and assessed investment needs. In Latin America and the Knowledge into Action Caribbean, GWSP strengthened governance in El Salvador and Honduras and promoted regional cooperation on water Water for People management involving seven countries. In Somalia, GWSP supported water security diagnostics and urban sanitation In FY25, GWSP provided technical assistance in São Paulo to to prevent pollution of water resources. In India, GWSP improve service contracts and expand access for vulnerable supported the National Ganga Basin Project with analytics, households, supported safe sanitation foundations and workshops, and recommendations to expand net-zero cholera prevention in health facilities and schools globally, greenhouse gas wastewater efforts. and piloted water supply and sanitation solutions for coastal cities in Kiribati. In rural Tanzania, GWSP promoted disability- Water for Food inclusive infrastructure in health care and WASH services. In the Middle East and North Africa, GWSP helped establish GWSP supported the Sahel Irrigation Strategy, offering the New Water Community of Practice for Desalination and technical assistance to mainstream farmer-led irrigation and Reuse and funded a regional desalination strategy. the principles of performance and financial sustainability to break the region’s build-neglect-rebuild cycle. In Kosovo, Water for the Planet GWSP used the World Bank’s Irrigation Operator of the Future toolkit to help the Radoniqi-Dukagjini irrigation GWSP supported the water strategy with upstream analysis, company improve its performance and planning. In capacity building, and technical assistance. In Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, GWSP provided technical assistance for digital it laid analytical foundations for water resilience, monitoring and water accounting in irrigation, enhancing efficiency and climate resilience. Chapter 4 Advancing Results In FY25, GWSP informed $12.46 billion in newly reported lending and $47.89 billion cumulatively. GWSP informed $12.46 billion in newly reported lending and $47.89 billion cumulatively. Among the newly influenced lending projects, 13 were linked to 11 countries in FCV-affected situations (Burundi, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen). In FY25, three of five indicators for water supply and sanitation met or exceeded the yearly target range. Of the GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 17 indicators focused on water in agriculture and on water Chapter 5 resources management, five of eight performed within or above the target range. From Knowledge Sharing to In FY25 GWSP supported the following achievements: Engagement Inclusion GWSP’s knowledge management and communications teams positioned GWSP as a leading, solutions-oriented Seventy percent of new IDA-financed water operations voice on water security. External and internal communication included actions to create employment opportunities for aimed to inform policy choices, sustain partner engagement, women in medium- and high-skilled water sector jobs. Sixty- and expand awareness of GWSP’s role in securing water for two percent of new projects included disability-inclusive people, water for food, and water for the planet. approaches in water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (compared with a target of 60 percent by FY30). The Water Department delivered 40 learning events and webinars, engaging more than 2,800 participants from the Resilience Bank, IFC, MIGA, client institutions, academia, and other partners. Notable initiatives included the Defying Drought All new water projects incorporated resilience in the design Impact Program, which fostered policy dialogue and reform of water-related activities. Additionally, the percentage of in the Sahel, and the Utility Creditworthiness course, which commitments designated as climate financing increased GWSP delivered to hundreds of participants across multiple from 68 percent in FY24 to 81 percent in FY25. Newly countries. approved projects incorporating a resilience lens in their design supported 10 countries affected by FCV (Cameroon, Key data initiatives included the Funding a Water-Secure Comoros, Ethiopia, Kosovo, Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Future Dashboard, which provides the first public database Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan). of water sector spending. Additionally, the Global Water Informatics and Data Initiative delivered 23 tailored Financing dashboards at global, regional, and national levels, translating complex geospatial data into actionable insights GWSP helped 21 countries improve the financial viability for policymakers and Bank teams. and creditworthiness of their water sector institutions. The percentage of projects that supported reforms/actions Over the past year, GWSP provided technical expertise to improve financial viability increased from 77 percent in and convening power to shape the agenda and outcomes FY24 to 89 percent in FY25, and the percentage of projects of major global and regional events attended by the World focused on leveraging private finance increased from 41 Bank Group. By facilitating collaboration among ministers, percent to 56 percent. development partners, and private sector leaders, GWSP helped drive concrete commitments and innovative Institutions solutions to move conversations from awareness to action. In addition, to increase its external visibility, GWSP rolled GWSP helped 51 countries strengthen the capacity of out a social media editorial line that is authoritative yet their water-related institutions to manage water resources accessible, urgent but optimistic. It reinforced the line or deliver water services. All projects approved in FY25 with a website audit, content refresh, and new LinkedIn supported reforms/actions that strengthen institutional channel. capacity. Sustainability GWSP helped 46 countries develop policies and strategies that strengthen the sustainable management of water resources and build infrastructure assets. All 27 Water Department projects promoted sustainable and efficient water use, in line with FY24 performance. 18 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Five Improved Results, FY24 to FY25 FY24 FY25 1 People with access to improved water sources/ 17.24 million 19.06 million sanitation 4.13 million 12.09 million 2 New World Bank lending informed by GWSP $9.3 billion $12.46 billion 3 Private capital mobilized $90 million $721 million (4 projects) (6 projects) 4 CO2 Net greenhouse gas emissions reduced -540,959 -1,878,158 tCO2eq/year tCO2eq/year 5 Fragile and conflict-affected states supported with a 5 10 resilience lens Results Reported by World Bank Lending Operations GWSP’s knowledge, analytics, and technical assistance influenced how policies and projects were designed and implemented, contributing to better project outcomes. 19.06 million people 12.09 million people with access to an improved water with access to improved sanitation source 2.46 million farmers 7.16 million people have adopted improved agricultural covered by risk mitigation measures technology (flood/drought) 5.8 million hectares 23 institutions under sustainable land/water with water resources management management practices monitoring systems GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 19 ABBREVIATIONS CCDR Country Climate and Development Report CLEAR CLimate and Economic Analysis for Resilience (tool) CRG community representative group DRRA Drought Risk and Resilience Assessment (methodology) FCV fragility, conflict, and violence GDP gross domestic product NewIBNET International Benchmarking Network for Water and Sanitation IDA International Development Association IFC International Finance Corporation iOF Irrigation Operator of the Future (toolkit) JIP joint implementation plan MDB multilateral development bank MHH menstrual health and hygiene MIGA Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency NGO nongovernmental organization SDG Sustainable Development Goal WASH water supply, sanitation, and hygiene WaterSAP Water Sector Assessment Program WICER Water In Circular Economy and Resilience WSS water supply and sanitation All dollar amounts are United States dollars unless otherwise noted. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 21 INTRODUCTION Chapter CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Water sustains life, enables food production, and supports ecosystems. Water is also a critical input for industry World Bank Group’s Water and economies, and therefore, a powerful driver of job Strategy opportunities. Economic growth can be stifled by too much, too little, or polluted water. Climate shocks—more frequent The WBG Water Strategy 2025–2030, launched in fiscal floods and droughts and more unpredictable rainfall— year (FY) 2025, aims to increase water security for hundreds further constrain growth and contribute to social tension of millions by 2030 by replicating and scaling proven and political instability. solutions and by unlocking public and private investment. The strategy outlines the institution’s ambitions to achieve Because water security is part of the foundational greater impact on a larger scale through its coordinated infrastructure for job growth, water is a key ingredient for initiatives, measured through concrete improvements in the World Bank Group’s approach of helping countries build people’s lives. The strategy tackles the challenges at the economies that convert growth into local jobs. Specifically, heart of resilience: accelerating universal access to water and water security is critical to create jobs through water- sanitation, enhancing the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, related infrastructure design, construction, operations, and and reducing water-related risks through sustainable water maintenance; to enable jobs by boosting the productivity of management. More simply put, these challenges can be the workforce; and to protect jobs by preventing diseases framed as water for people, water for food, and water for and mitigating the impacts of floods and droughts. the planet. Globally, water-intensive sectors, such as agriculture, The strategy aims to bring scalable solutions to deliver energy, and mining, account for approximately 40 percent results through the efficient deployment of WBG resources, of the workforce, representing around 1.7 billion jobs. The long-term multiphase programmatic approaches for manufacturing sector alone accounts for 16 percent of global streamlined preparation and delivery of WBG initiatives, water demand, a share expected to rise to 22 percent by and coordinated public and private sector investments 2030. Water-intensive industries, such as textiles and apparel, and expertise. To increase investments in the water sector, steel, and metals, are major sources of global employment, the strategy integrates efforts by the WBG institutions— providing approximately 100 million jobs worldwide.1 the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. With water systems across the globe under growing pressure, there is an acute need for more investment in Moreover, the WBG is committed to working with partners water resources management, climate-resilient irrigation, to collectively deliver water security, sanitation, and water and water supply and sanitation. access to many millions more people each year. 24 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT Global Collaboration World Bank Group Results for Water Security, FY25 The world’s multilateral development banks (MDBs) are building on their complementary strengths to accelerate water security—combining a regional focus, technical 75.5 million people expertise, and financial instruments to tackle shared provided with water, sanitation, challenges more effectively. At the One Water Summit in and/or hygiene,* of which 7.4 million Riyadh (December 2024), the heads of nine of the MDBs issued are provided with safely managed a joint communique committing to significantly increasing water and/or sanitation; 36.9 million their collective support for global water security by 2030.2 In are female; and 14.3 million are July 2025, the MDBs released their first joint water security located in countries affected by financing report during the Financing for Development fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV). Conference in Seville, Spain. Building on commitments made at the 28th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Climate Change Conference and the One Water 208.8 million people Summit, the report set a baseline for tracking investments with strengthened food and and collaboration across the water sector. Global water nutrition security, of which 151 sector investments approved by 10 MDBs in 2024 totaled million are female and 86.3 million $19.6 billion.3 are in FCV-affected countries. One example of how collaboration among the MDBs is improving lives is in Egypt’s Nile Delta, where the 136 million WBG and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank are beneficiaries working to bring sanitation services to rural communities with enhanced resilience to climate that formerly endured flooding from raw sewage. This risks, of which 67.2 million are female Sustainable Rural Sanitation Services Program is investing and 47 million are in FCV-affected in the construction and rehabilitation of sanitation systems, countries. as well as strengthening local institutional capacity and policies related to sanitation. GWSP resources have augmented that program, focusing on two goals: (1) 92.7 million hectares increasing the number of rural households that are of terrestrial and aquatic areas connected to working sanitation systems and (2) building under enhanced conservation/ the capacity of water and sanitation companies to improve management, of which 15.3 million their operational performance and deliver sustainable are in FCV-affected countries. services. For example, to help the project team connect rural households to sanitation systems, GWSP funded * The number 75.5 million was calculated using the training in procurement and construction management World Bank Group scorecard indicator methodology and supported the development of a tracking system for adopted in FY24. The number includes the total all contracts, which was used for monthly follow-up and number of results (cumulative) reported by the monitoring. To date, more than 1 million people have Bank’s active portfolio as of the end of FY25. The gained access to improved sanitation services, and the cumulative results reported in the scorecard differ performance of six water and sanitation companies has from the results reported under the GWSP results improved, benefiting 34 million people. The WBG and the indicators on number of people with access to Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank are each contributing improved water or to improved sanitation. The $300 million to the second phase of the program. GWSP numbers reflect the net results delivered by the Bank’s active portfolio in FY25, and reports these separately for water and sanitation, whereas the corporate scorecard indicator consolidates all water supply, sanitation, and hygiene subsectors into a single number, adopting a conservative approach by counting the highest result from either access to water or access to sanitation under each project. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Four Reports, One Challenge: GWSP’s Role in What Lies Rethinking Water for the Ahead Future GWSP underpins the overarching goal of the WBG Water Strategy 2025–2030: increasing water security and sanitation Global knowledge helps decision-makers understand how for hundreds of millions of people. GWSP’s role is preparing water scarcity is reshaping our world and is a key ingredient diagnostics, designing programs, and providing technical in effective reforms and long-term impact. GWSP supported expertise that feeds a larger, faster lending pipeline and four seminal reports, completed in FY25 and to be improves the quality of projects. GWSP serves as the center disseminated in FY26, that connect water, climate change, of excellence, providing analytical and knowledge support food, health, and jobs challenges. The reports highlight that that connects country operations with scalable, climate- meeting these challenges requires a coordinated response resilient solutions for people, food, and the planet. that strengthens the systems people rely on most—from water supply and sanitation to agricultural food production The water strategy emphasizes inclusion, climate resilience, to water resources management. Each report brings new and strong institutions. GWSP systematically integrates these evidence and practical guidance to help decision-makers act cross-cutting themes into operations through diagnostics, with clarity and purpose. policy advice, and implementation support, including in settings affected by fragility, conflict, and violence. Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future combines satellite data with economic and land use Crucial for this work is the support provided by GWSP’s information to offer new insights into where and why partners to help countries advance toward the water-related freshwater is disappearing and what can be done.  Sustainable Development Goals. GWSP’s global voice and advocacy amplify the importance of water security and Global Sanitation Crisis: Pathways for Urgent Action sanitation, raising awareness and mobilizing resources examines the risks poor sanitation poses to people, at the highest levels. GWSP uses its diverse expertise economic growth, and the environment, and offers practical and networks, drawing on national knowledge and best steps for cities and countries to accelerate progress toward practices to strengthen local capacity and foster innovation. universal, climate-resilient sanitation. Importantly, GWSP facilitates critical linkages between global initiatives and country-level support, ensuring that Nourish and Flourish: How to Transform Agricultural Water solutions are context-specific and that lessons learned in Management to Feed 10 Billion People on a Livable Planet one country are shared across borders. explains that as rainfall becomes more erratic, smart water management is essential for agriculture, the largest user of freshwater. The report presents tailored strategies to help Endnotes countries more effectively manage water in agriculture. 1 World Steel. “World Steel in Figures 2024.” World Steel, Scaling Water Reuse: A Tipping Point for Municipal and Brussels. https://worldsteel.org/data/world-steel-in-figures/ Industrial Use argues for unlocking a sustainable, largely world-steel-in-figures-2024/. untapped source of new water. It makes a compelling case for investing in the treatment and reuse of treated 2 These nine banks are the African Development Bank wastewater and other alternative water sources to create Group, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure fit-for-purpose supplies for municipal and industrial needs. Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank Group, Islamic Development Bank, New Development Bank, and World Bank Group. Their joint communique is available at: https://www.eib.org/files/ press/CommitmenttoWaterSecuritywithlogos.pdf. 3 The 10 MDBs are the 9 original MDBs plus the Council of Europe Development Bank. 26 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This Year’s Annual Report Chapter 2 This chapter provides an in-depth look at pressing issues that KEY THEMES GWSP actively addressed. This year, it explains how GWSP supported the World Bank’s water economics and analytics agenda to understand the impact of water investment pipelines and interventions on multiple economic and environmental outcomes. The chapter describes how GWSP enabled greater integration of climate considerations into water sector lending through technical assistance for project design and helped the Bank mobilize private sector financing for water investments. As in past years, this chapter also examines GWSP’s social inclusion initiatives. Chapter 3 This chapter offers highlights of GWSP’s support to Bank activities at the country, regional, and global levels, and it KNOWLEDGE INTO shows how GWSP contributed to progress and results in the ACTION Bank’s client countries. The chapter’s organization reflects GWSP’s three pillars—water supply and sanitation, water resources management, and climate-resilient irrigation. Chapter 4 This chapter presents an overview of GWSP’s FY25 ADVANCING RESULTS accomplishments, which capture the added value of its “knowledge-into-implementation” model. In total, GWSP informed $12.46 billion in newly reported Bank lending projects and $47.89 billion in all lending projects (including previously reported projects). Chapter 5 The report concludes by detailing GWSP’s support for knowledge and learning activities and products and their FROM KNOWLEDGE dissemination. It describes communications content that SHARING TO positioned GWSP as a leading, solutions-oriented voice on water security. ENGAGEMENT The appendixes include the financial update and results APPENDIXES framework. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 27 KEY THEMES Chapter CHAPTER 2: KEY THEMES Water for Prosperity Water is not only essential for life and the environment In fiscal year (FY) 2025, GWSP supported both operational but is also a powerful driver of economic activities and initiatives and knowledge products to emphasize the job opportunities.  Water contributes to all fundamental message that sustainable water resources management and building blocks of prosperity: health and education, jobs and service delivery are crucial for shared prosperity on a livable income, productivity and economic growth, social stability planet. and cohesion, and the environment. When water resources, infrastructure, and services are not adequately managed, developed, and delivered, water-related challenges— Core Water Sector issues with too much, too little, or too polluted water—can Diagnostics exacerbate inequalities and fragility. GWSP is supporting the World Bank’s water economics and analytics agenda With GWSP support, World Bank project teams used the to understand the impact of water investment pipelines CLimate and Economic Analysis for Resilience (CLEAR) and interventions on multiple economic and environmental water diagnostic tool to inform the design of initiatives outcomes and on climate resilience. in various countries. A curated set of approximately 30 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 330 water and climate-related indicators across 214 countries, the CLEAR tool facilitates rapid cross-country benchmarking. Analyses based on CLEAR diagnostics have been used to support Water Security Diagnostics 2.0, water-related public expenditure reviews, project design, and the development of regional water strategies and country engagements. Project teams used the CLEAR tool with the Water Security Diagnostics 2.0 tool to inform the design of six water projects in FY25. Like the CLEAR tool, the Water Security Diagnostics 2.0 tool provides an indicator-driven overview highlighting major gaps and entry points for policy dialogue to inform project design, Country Climate and Development Reports, and other country engagements. For example, the Water and Sanitation in Peri-Urban Areas and Small Towns Project in Bolivia used the tools to plan water and sanitation systems that are more resilient to floods and droughts. The Wastewater Management and Circular Economy project in Peru used the tools to help plan the rehabilitation and expansion of water treatment plants to boost their climate resilience. Project Economic Cost and Benefit Analysis GWSP helped create guidelines for analyzing the economic impact of various World Bank water projects, supporting task teams in designing, evaluating, and implementing stronger lending projects. In FY25, 10 projects around the globe used the guidelines. The Second Greater Beirut Water  Supply Project used them to clarify population growth, water demand, and financial condition inputs; to highlight major consumer benefits from reducing reliance on private water tankers, which is as much as 10 times more expensive than municipal water delivery; and to facilitate a qualitative review of the economics of the project’s health benefits, such as reduced health care costs. The $85 million Ulaanbaatar Flood Risk Reduction and Sewer Rehabilitation Project used the guidelines to examine its potential to reduce the costs of floods in Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar, where flood risks are an escalating threat to lives, infrastructure, and economic stability and where rapid urbanization and climate variability are intensifying these risks. The analysis showed that even at half its expected effectiveness, the project would garner an internal rate of return exceeding 12 percent.  GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 31 CHAPTER 2: KEY THEMES In addition, GWSP supported the creation of guidance uncovers new empirical links between continental drying materials on the interdependence of water and jobs. World and unsustainable water and land use, as well as impacts Bank task teams used the materials to increase job creation of continental drying on jobs, incomes, wildfires, and through project design. The main reports—Assessing biodiversity. The report highlights how local water stress Employment Impacts of Investing in Water and  Job and mismanagement can reverberate globally through Employment Multipliers: Water and Sanitation Projects— interconnected trade and supply chains. The WBG will use show how to use economic analysis during project design the report to shape lending and reform programs by linking and appraisal to estimate lending operations’ jobs impacts. water security with economic and social development outcomes.  Knowledge Development  In FY25, GWSP also supported a strategic plan to address worldwide challenges to effective water pricing. The Tariff GWSP supported a seminal report that touches on the jobs Transformation Roadmap: Building Cost-Reflective and and growth aspects of the water sector,  Continental Drying: Sustainable Water Pricing System provides clients with A Threat to Our Common Future. Based on new evidence practical guidance to strengthen water tariff systems and from satellite data, the report, which was finalized in FY25 the overall economic regulation of water services. Ongoing and expected to be launched in fall 2025, presents the first work will include guidance on how to account for efficiency global assessment of declines in freshwater reserves over in service delivery costs and how to translate those costs the past two decades. It reveals that continental drying is into user tariffs and subsidies. Forthcoming are regulatory an accelerating crisis that is largely unknown to the public. governance principles to ensure that regulations operate By integrating satellite and socioeconomic data, the report within an enabling institutional framework. 32 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 2: KEY THEMES Water and Climate Resilience Rising temperatures and increased climate variability can and agricultural jobs that are highly susceptible to climate dampen economic growth, with estimates suggesting shocks. Developing economies also face greater challenges that climate change could reduce gross domestic product in financing resilience because current adaptation funding growth in some developing countries by as much as 6 falls far short of needs. Climate change risks widen global percent annually by 2050. The bottom 40 percent of inequalities and undermine development gains, making it households in poorer countries are projected to experience essential for developing economies to pursue climate-smart impacts as much as 70 percent greater than the average growth strategies and to receive increased international population. Women’s economic advancement is particularly support for adaptation and mitigation. at risk because women are overrepresented in informal GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 33 CHAPTER 2: KEY THEMES stress testing was performed on key dams supported by the Operational Support project to assess how floods and droughts in future climate scenarios might impact inflows, operations, and safety. In FY25, 81 percent of World Bank water sector lending was classified as climate finance ($3.3 billion of a total The Guinea Water and Sanitation Project allocates  commitment of $4.1 billion)—13 percent more than in 84 percent of its total World Bank financing as climate FY24. This level was the highest ever for the water sector finance. The project is investing in piped water services and and was the second-highest among World Bank sectors in latrines in schools to help build flood and drought resilience FY25, behind only the energy sector. Forty percent of FY25 and better manage groundwater as well as in reservoirs to water-related climate financing was classified as climate improve water resources management. The project will also adaptation and 41 percent as climate mitigation. GWSP invest in gravity-fed and solar-powered systems for water support enabled the annual increase in integrating climate service delivery. considerations in water sector lending through technical assistance for project design. Knowledge Development  In FY25, GWSP developed water economic analyses to In FY25, 81% of World support 21 Country Climate and Development Reports Bank water sector (CCDRs), highlighting the importance of improving water lending was classified resources management and water services delivery. The analyses in the CCDRs helped raise the profile of water as climate finance in country development strategies, and they identified ($3.3 billion of a total priorities for public and private interventions and investments in the water sector. commitment of $4.1 billion)—13% more GWSP supported Water Security and Climate Change: than in FY24. Insights from Country Climate and Development Reports, which was launched in advance of Water Day at the 28th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Climate Change Conference. The report examines the vital role of water in climate and development strategies. The study, which analyzed more than 3,900 pages from 52 CCDRs Several projects exemplify this operational support. (2022–2024) using advanced text-mining techniques, underscores that water is a critical issue for economic Water projects in Türkiye continued to be climate finance development, human well-being, and environmental leaders, with two projects in FY25 achieving 100 percent sustainability. It highlights the importance of reforms in climate finance: the Türkiye Second Irrigation Modernization the water sector as part of global climate adaptation and and Water Efficiency Project and the Türkiye Irrigation mitigation efforts. Accompanying the report was a blog Modernization Project. In an earlier project in Türkiye, 100 co-authored by Water Global Director Saroj Kumar Jha and percent of commitments pertaining to flood control and United Nations Special Envoy for Water Retno Marsudi that wastewater reuse/circularity were designated as climate was published in The Jakarta Post. financing. For one water project in Nigeria, 85 percent of the financing Drought Risk Mitigation is designated as climate finance. The Sustainable Power and Irrigation for Nigeria project will improve irrigation service Analysis of data from the Emergency Events Database delivery for farmers and will enhance dam management and (https://www.emdat.be/) reveals that droughts caused dam safety protocols, resulting in greater flood and drought 68 percent of all reported disaster-related casualties on resilience. Investments in gravity-based systems, solar the African continent from 1970 to 2022. Direct impacts pumping, and improved irrigation efficiency will contribute often occur in the agricultural, hydropower, and industrial to mitigation outcomes. With GWSP support, hydroclimatic sectors, but cascading effects of droughts include health 34 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 35 CHAPTER 2: KEY THEMES issues due to lack of sanitation, child stunting, human meso-level needs, including risk pools, contingent financing, displacements, loss of social ties, and migration to unsafe and new operational tools. The paper concludes that settlements.   Despite the existence of advanced drought meso-level drought risk finance must be co-designed with risk monitoring and forecasting systems, most countries are stakeholders, ensuring clear risk ownership, transparent ill-prepared for droughts.  However, households, farmers, data models, and alignment with local regulatory and and businesses with early warnings do not necessarily have operational contexts. It proposes adaptations to existing financial tools to mitigate drought risks. tools and introduces potential new instruments tailored to the needs of meso-level stakeholders.  Droughts caused 68% GWSP also supported the Drought Risk and Resilience of all reported disaster- Assessment (DRRA) methodology, which helps task teams related casualties on the and sector specialists work collaboratively on programs for drought resilience. The DRRA emphasizes the importance African continent from of interdisciplinary and intersectoral approaches. It was 1970 to 2022. officially launched at the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in December 2024. The DRRA methodology has been applied in six countries In FY25, GWSP supported the delivery of Financial Tools for across three regions.  In Central Asia, it was used to assess the Water Sector to Support Drought  Risk Management. regional drought vulnerability, risk, information, institutional The paper focuses on meso-level stakeholders such as water capacity, and preparedness. The results will help identify utilities, irrigation associations, and reservoir operators. opportunities for priority investments, with an emphasis on It proposes adaptations and new mechanisms tailored to integrated storage.  36 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 2: KEY THEMES Water Finance Reversing decades of underinvestment will require coordinated actions and substantial flows of public, concessional, and private capital. However, private capital and private sector involvement in the water sector remain isufficient: in 2017, global water sector spending was $164.6 billion, with less than 2 percent from private sources. To meet the water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and address escalating risks of water supply and demand gaps, global investment in water infrastructure must rise dramatically—from an estimated $6.7 trillion by 2030 to $22.6 trillion by 2050. The World Bank Water Department, with support from GWSP, helps clients attract private capital to the water sector by supporting the adoption of improved financing frameworks, promoting good governance, and mobilizing investment through blended finance, public- private partnerships, and credit enhancement. In FY25, six water sector projects mobilized $721 million in private co-financing—a significant increase from the 2018–2023 average of fewer than two projects and $182 million annually. However, scaling private financing faces challenges such as regulatory complexity, fragmented frameworks, undervaluation of water, political interference, and underdeveloped local financial markets and local currency financing capacity. These challenges undermine the creditworthiness of utilities, weaken the sector’s financial sustainability, and increase risks for private investors. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 37 The Water Department devotes major efforts to helping clients create enabling environments and  improve conditions for private sector involvement within a reasonable line of sight from project implementation. Through a robust learning and capacity-building agenda, GWSP helps teams mainstream financial sustainability and creditworthiness in project design. Projects may not directly mobilize private capital as co-financing, but they do lay the requisite ground-work for  investment by removing barriers and  implementing sound policies. In FY25, nine private capital- enabling water projects were approved and are expected to attract some $252 million in future private investment.  In FY25, nine private capital-enabling water projects were approved and are expected to attract some $252 million in future private investment. Operational Support In FY25, Water Sector Assessment Programs (WaterSAPs) served as a flagship diagnostic tool, assessing needs, funding gaps, and reform options and identifying barriers to scaling finance and private sector involvement. GWSP funded three pilot WaterSAPs in Bangladesh, Jordan, and Uzbekistan. As a result of the Jordan WaterSAP, the World Bank developed a policy note about sector reform for the government. Findings and conclusions from the Bangladesh and Uzbekistan WaterSAPs have informed two new multi-phased programs: the Metro Dhaka Water Security and Resilience Program in Bangladesh, under advanced preparation in FY25, and the Water Efficiency and Conservation program in Uzbekistan. Joint implementation plans (JIPs) provide a structured approach to drawing on the strengths and resources of the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency to address client countries’ water sector challenges. GWSP supports diagnostics that help identify constraints and opportunities 38 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT for private investment in JIPs. By the end of FY25, eight new JIPs were finalized or in advanced development in Angola, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Jordan, the Philippines, Senegal, and Uzbekistan. In Senegal, the Bank and IFC jointly engaged the government to prepare the Integrated Water Security and Sanitation Program for Senegal, which aims to benefit 7 million residents with improved water supply and sanitation. The Bank will provide $50 million in viability gap funding that is expected to mobilize $60 million in private equity and commercial loans for a wastewater treatment plant in Eastern Dakar, with the IFC serving as transaction advisor. Additionally, Senegal is progressing toward a $740 million seawater desalination plant with $555 million in potential private capital. With co-financing from the Private Infrastructure Development Group and the Stone Family Fund, GWSP supported systematic technical assistance to encourage private capital mobilization for 15 activities in four countries in Africa and six in Asia: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, the Philippines, Senegal, the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, and Uganda. In India’s Gujarat state, a private capital mobilization roadmap for urban water supply and sanitation services was developed. The roadmap included assessing the financial performance of utilities across 13 cities, engaging with municipal and state officials, and proposing reforms to improve utilities’ creditworthiness and projects’ viability. Knowledge Development An emerging area with great potential to mobilize private investment and close the financing gap for the water- related SDGs (including water quality improvement) is water and wastewater reuse. However, further knowledge and capacity-building efforts are needed for World Bank teams and clients to advance this agenda. In FY25, the Bank published a GWSP-supported flagship report, Scaling Water Reuse: A Tipping Point for Municipal and Industrial Use, highlighting the need for investment in reuse technologies. Supported by the Scaling ReWater initiative, the report outlines five key transitions: valuing clean water, prioritizing high-value uses, normalizing new water, advancing programmatic approaches, and mobilizing private innovation and finance. Scaling water reuse, which requires larger investments and regulatory support, could unlock as much as $340 billion—including private capital— by 2040. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 39 CHAPTER 2: KEY THEMES Water and Social Inclusion Societal norms that are known to exclude people may client countries to enable World Bank project teams compromise water security for many around the world. and clients to effectively prioritize social inclusion in To achieve a water-secure world for all, water must be water operations. GWSP supported these interventions equitably and sustainably shared. Social inclusion in in all new water lending operations in FY25, while also this context covers gender and other characteristics supporting active projects on an as-needed basis. of marginalized people, including disability, poverty, Seventy-four percent of newly approved water projects geographic remoteness, indigeneity, and age. This integrated social inclusion interventions beyond gender. inclusion is advanced through citizen engagement mechanisms that give disadvantaged groups access, In FY25, the World Bank Water Department introduced agency, and power in their own water management, use, new social inclusion tools and methods. A streamlined and planning. review process assessed how projects addressed social inclusion risks. Case notes documented innovative GWSP supports upstream interventions, capacity practices, covering groups such as Indigenous peoples, building, and implementation of technical advice by refugees, and agro-pastoral communities. 40 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 2: KEY THEMES Box 2.1 Gender Equal Aqua Platform Promotes Women’s In FY25, 22 of 23 approved World Bank water projects Empowerment in Water Sector Jobs demonstrated a results chain that links gender gaps to specific actions tracked in the results framework. Sixteen new projects (70 percent of 23 projects) included actions to create employment opportunities for women in medium- The Equal Aqua Platform  is a GWSP-supported and high-skilled jobs and generated or refined policies or World Bank initiative that partners with water strategies to enhance women’s inclusion in access to jobs, institutions to create an environment and services, or decision-making processes in water institutions. workplace policies that are more favorable for women’s employment. A roundtable workshop in The new Mali Water Security Project will enhance women’s FY25 convened water institutions from across Sub- safety and time use with consultations guiding water point Saharan Africa, co-organized by the Cooperation locations and indicators tracking water collection time. In Lebanon, the new Greater Beirut Water Supply Project in International Waters Africa trust fund. Also includes an apprenticeship and certification program with attending the workshop were Bank project teams a 50 percent female participation target, alongside gender and government partners. Training materials and reviews of workplace policies. In addition to these actions, briefs were translated into Spanish and French. integrating inclusive citizen engagement mechanisms French-language Equal Aqua materials were used will contribute to strengthening women’s voices and in Madagascar by four water agencies to develop participation in the local utility. gender diversity action plans, and in Senegal, the An FY25 review of World Bank water projects’ result targets resources were used by eight institutions to assess related to gender showed year-over-year improvement. their citizen engagement and gender inclusion Specifically, the analysis showed that 77 percent of these work. targets were met in FY25—up from 73 percent in FY24. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 41 CHAPTER 2: KEY THEMES female entrepreneurship in MHH products. In FY25, five World Bank water newly approved Bank water projects had integrated MHH projects’ result targets into their activities and monitoring. related to gender For example, in Bangladesh, a project trained and financed showed year-over-year more than 350 women as menstrual health entrepreneurs. improvement. Most households prefer to buy MHH products from women. These women entrepreneurs now deliver products and lead awareness sessions in 78 upazilas (counties). In Tanzania, more than 1,800 schools now have separate toilets and menstrual hygiene management rooms. Ethiopia improved Menstrual Health and MHH infrastructure in more than 1,740 schools, while in the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 125,000 girls Hygiene benefit from inclusive WASH facilities, culturally relevant health education, and distribution of reusable pads. Menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) is increasingly prioritized in water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) Overall, more than 71,000 people—mostly women—have operations, with integration into infrastructure, education, received MHH and WASH training, and more than 5,400 and entrepreneurship. World Bank projects that address have gained improved household sanitation in FY25. The MHH can create job opportunities by partnering with training and improved sanitation enhance dignity, inclusion, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and by supporting and educational outcomes for women and girls. 42 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 2: KEY THEMES Citizen Engagement All 23 new Bank water operations in FY25 included citizen engagement mechanisms and at least one beneficiary feedback indicator to monitor implementation. Approaches such as community monitoring, consultations, and grievance redress enabled ongoing dialogue and real-time feedback, allowing timely adjustments to initiatives. In settings affected by fragility, conflict, and violence, these mechanisms have strengthened community ownership and sustainability of projects, particularly through improved operation and maintenance of infrastructure. GWSP supported the development of innovative participatory water governance tools used in projects such as Chile’s Water Transition Program, the Nigeria Sustainable Power and Irrigation project, and the Regional Climate Resilience program for Eastern and Southern Africa. The tools facilitated the participation of women, persons with disabilities, and other excluded communities in river basin governance institutions, irrigation committees, and water user associations. Disability Inclusion Targeted disability inclusion strategies in WASH projects have improved access, participation, and equity in active projects in Ethiopia, Guinea, Indonesia, and Tanzania. Early integration of universal access design, capacity building, partnerships with local NGOs, and meaningful participation by beneficiaries with disabilities has been central to achieving sustainable and scalable outcomes. In FY25, GWSP supported Ethiopia, Indonesia, El Salvador, and Tanzania through training and awareness raising to update national strategies to require universal, disability- inclusive design in WASH infrastructure, thereby improving access for millions at a lower cost than by retrofitting. Involving people with disabilities in project planning and monitoring has enhanced accessibility, accountability, and community ownership, making inclusive WASH services more sustainable. In FY25, 8 of 13 new WASH projects (62 percent) included specific activities to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. Three of these projects will develop disability- inclusive policies to facilitate access to jobs, markets, and services for people with disabilities, while also enhancing their decision-making roles in water resources management. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 43 KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION Chapter CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION Water for People Access to safe water and sanitation is vital for public health and economic growth, yet more than 2 billion people still potential—transforming sanitation from a source of risk to a lack safely managed drinking water, and nearly 3.4 billion driver of resilience and prosperity. live without safely managed sanitation. Each year, more than 300,000 children under the age of 5 die from unsafe water The Bank’s Water Department assists client countries in supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). In urban areas in providing inclusive water services, with a strong focus low- and middle-income countries, people face a triple on reaching vulnerable populations and embedding burden of poor sanitation, climate risks, and poverty. This sustainability, social inclusion, and climate resilience in every crisis undermines public health, accelerates environmental initiative. This support includes enhancing the performance degradation, and stifles economic growth. The World of urban water and sanitation providers; advancing Bank Group calls for urgent action to prioritize sanitation investments in wastewater management, reuse, and in governance and financing, redesign urban systems to be desalination; and promoting decentralized solutions for rural climate-resilient and inclusive, and invest in innovation and water and sanitation (box 3.1). The WBG further reinforces skilled workers. By doing so, countries can protect human policy, institutional, and regulatory frameworks; facilitates dignity, reduce climate vulnerability, and unlock economic access to new sources of financing, including private 46 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION Box 3.1 Knowledge Initiatives Offer Fresh Perspectives on Water Security and Desalination Desalination and wastewater reuse are becoming increasingly vital to strengthening water security, particularly in middle- and lower-income countries. However, these technologies require significant investment and circular-economy approaches to maximize the value of water. These needs can present challenges, particularly when water prices do not reflect the higher costs of desalinated water, exacerbating fiscal risks for countries and threatening the financial sustainability of desalination and reuse projects. GWSP advanced strategic initiatives on this issue in fiscal year (FY) 2025. The report Scaling Water Reuse: A Tipping Point for Municipal and Industrial Use, developed with Water Resources Group 2030, highlights the need for policy and regulatory frameworks, management, and financing to make new water technologies accessible and sustainable in middle- and lower-income countries. Also published in FY25 was a GWSP- supported global analysis of the enabling environment, Governance and Economics of Desalination and Reuse. Furthermore, GWSP supported a paper on the desalination challenge in one region. Fresh Perspectives: Emerging Issues and Opportunities for Desalination in the Middle East and North Africa articulates the importance of desalination for the region, particularly its middle- and low-income countries. The paper provides guidance to policymakers and practitioners by assessing technological innovations, outlining pathways to greater energy efficiency and renewable energy integration, emphasizing effective environmental and social management, identifying the pillars of strong sector governance, and examining ways to ensure financial sustainability while mobilizing private investment. By integrating desalination within broader water-sector strategies and balancing these critical dimensions, the paper seeks to advance water security and resilience against mounting climate and development pressures across the region. sector participation; and encourages the development of accountable utilities and state-owned enterprises through effective tariffs, governance, and regulations. By working collaboratively, the WBG institutions—the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)—leverage private- sector expertise and expand the range of available financial instruments, mobilizing resources and strengthening climate resilience. In fiscal year (FY) 2025, GWSP provided technical assistance in São Paulo to improve service contracts and expand access for vulnerable households, supported safe sanitation foundations and cholera prevention in health facilities and schools globally, and piloted water supply and sanitation solutions for coastal cities in Kiribati. In rural Tanzania, GWSP promoted disability-inclusive infrastructure in health care and WASH services. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 47 CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION sewerage connections to legitimate connections that will Implementing Innovative provide better-quality water and safely managed sanitation Solutions for São Paulo’s services. In FY25, similar performance-based contracts in other areas of São Paulo reduced water losses and Water Crisis from Combined rehabilitated aging networks, saving as much as 56 million Private and Government cubic meters of water per year. Interventions The project also aimed to reduce household and commercial water demand by integrating behavioral and technological Results Indicators approaches. IFC’s Utilities4Climate platform trained Sabesp BLOCK B to use a model to calculate the economic impact of its water losses and to enhance its asset management. The model People with access to improved water sources; people with access to improved sanitation helps Sabesp better prioritize investments to reduce losses as well as to adjust its tariffs. Once the model is scaled up to the 375 municipalities where Sabesp operates, it is Challenge expected to save as much as 410,000 cubic meters of water per day (equivalent to the demand of 2.7 million people). As São Paulo, Brazil’s largest metropolitan region, faces of June 2025, the project interventions had improved water significant water challenges due to rapid population growth, access for more than 700,000 people, improved sanitation climate change, and urbanization. The Metropolitan Region services for 157,000 people, and annually diverted more of São Paulo and the main utility provider serving São Paulo than 1.8 million cubic meters of wastewater for treatment. State, Sabesp, urgently needed to improve services. A major issue is that the Upper Tietê River Basin is responsible for 88 percent of the average water supply to the region, yet the Tietê River is heavily polluted from untreated household sewage. While 95.6 percent of São Paulo State’s households were connected to the water supply network in 2017, only 62 percent were connected to the sewerage system.1 Despite a legal obligation to connect to the sewerage network, many households experienced challenges related to land ownership, affordability, and a lack of knowledge about how to connect. Approach The Bank’s Improving Water Service Access and Security in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo Project is supporting Sabesp in scaling up the implementation of performance- based contracts to provide water services to the most vulnerable population, rehabilitate the water supply network to reduce losses, and increase sewerage system access to reduce pollution. Through the project, Sabesp subsidized household connections. Project contractors hired and trained local women in water and sanitation services, communication, and business development. These women spearheaded community engagement to achieve a high level of new household connections to the sewerage system (97 percent of low-income households now have connections). The project used this grassroots approach to transition water users with unauthorized water and 48 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION In 2023, to attract private capital for improvements, the from performance-based contracts into the utility’s next Government of São Paulo retained IFC as lead advisor on phase of contracts. an effort to structure Sabesp’s privatization model. This effort included a new concession for 371 municipalities, an Sabesp operates seven water production systems with investment plan, a regulatory framework, and a governance more than 20 dams to serve the metropolitan region’s water structure to expand services, especially to vulnerable supply. GWSP provided expertise to analyze Sabesp’s people in rural and informal areas. IFC addressed initial dams portfolio and to prioritize rehabilitation investments. concerns about potential tariff increases associated with the ambitious capital expenditure program by designing To improve the efficiency of its wastewater treatment, a subsidy mechanism that used privatization proceeds to Sabesp implemented findings from the GWSP-funded keep water fees at sustainable levels, alongside extensive approach Water in Circular Economy and Resilience. stakeholder engagement with the 371 municipalities and government entities. Completed in 2024, privatization The Water Department disseminated the World Bank-IFC’s mobilized $2.7 billion in equity capital, and it is expected to good practices to universalize services, improve service enable $48 billion in private investments by 2060. quality, generate environmental and social benefits, and reduce water fees for vulnerable populations. Continuing this IFC lending is also financing 27 subprojects of Sabesp’s collaboration, the Bank, IFC, and MIGA teams are working Integra Tietê program, which is improving the environmental together to develop, by 2026, a Water Sector Assessment quality of the Tietê River by connecting households to Program for Brazil. This diagnostic tool will assess needs, wastewater collection and treatment systems, thereby funding gaps, and reform options and will identify barriers avoiding discharge of untreated sewage into the river. The to scaling finance and private sector involvement. Integra Tietê program is expected to conclude by 2029. It will contribute to Sabesp’s goal of universal water and sanitation services by 2033. Additionality GWSP provided support on several fronts to help Sabesp with its water and sanitation challenges. Its technical assistance to the utility included helping incorporate lessons GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 49 CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION Results Indicators Cooperating with Partners BLOCK A and Taking Proactive Inclusion: Initiatives that develop approaches, including integrated Measures to Fight Cholera cross-sectoral approaches where relevant to address water, sanitation, and nutrition issues Globally Results Indicators Challenge BLOCK B A lack of safe water supply, sanitation, and hygiene Number of schools and health centers with access to contributes to the growing number of cases of water-borne improved water and sanitation services diseases such as cholera. According to 2025 World Health Biochemical oxygen demand pollution loads removed by Organization (WHO) data, some 800,000 cases of cholera and treatment plants (tons/year) acute watery diarrhea and nearly 6,000 associated deaths were reported globally in 2024.2 Conflict, displacement, and climate-related impacts from floods, droughts, and cyclones have driven a resurgence of cholera. Sustainable cholera prevention is impeded by fragmented collaboration, particularly among sectors and among government, humanitarian, and development actors. Operational timelines often differ for emergency responses versus long-term prevention. Weak coordination of government agencies prevents the joint identification of priority areas and effective targeting of interventions. Funding has reinforced a narrow, often reactive, health- sector lens without sustained investment in WASH services in high-risk areas. Approach The first element of the Bank’s approach to cholera prevention is collaboration between the Bank’s water and health teams and the Bank’s cooperation with local, national, and international stakeholders and partners. Worsening climate-related impacts and increasing conflict and fragility make this cooperation more urgent. The second element of the Bank’s approach to cholera prevention entails moving from costly emergency response, such as trucking clean water to cholera hot spots rather than using local utility networks, to a proactive approach, such as improving local water supply, sanitation, and wastewater treatment. In FY25, the Bank’s water and health teams collaborated on several Bank-funded projects to stem the increase in cases of cholera and to reduce the likelihood of fecal-oral disease transmission in water supplies (box 3.2). 50 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION Box 3.2 Malawi Shows How Cholera-Prevention Activities Can Succeed A World Bank project in the capital city of Lilongwe contributed to a dramatic decrease in cholera-associated deaths there, from 500 deaths in 2023 to only 5 in 2024. As part of the Lilongwe Water and Sanitation Project, water and health teams mapped cholera hot spots, contamination routes, and key interventions in peri-urban areas. The teams worked with a local sanitation task force, comprising the ministries of health and water, the city council, and Lilongwe’s water utility and chaired by the national director of water supply and sanitation. This task force prioritized sanitation interventions in at-risk neighborhoods, introduced sewerage fees, and compared financial costs with health benefits across a range of water and sanitation interventions. As a result, the project built 34,052 household toilets, 20 public toilets with handwashing facilities, and 56 water kiosks in priority areas, providing safely managed sanitation to more than 250,000 people and improved water supply to nearly 400,000 people. The project, approved in fiscal year (FY) 2018, closed at the end of FY25. A similar approach is underway in Blantyre, Malawi’s second-largest city, through the Malawi Water and Sanitation Project, approved in FY23. The city council identified cholera hot spots, and Bank teams followed the same approach as in Lilongwe, rehabilitating and building 15 new public sanitation facilities (in schools, health facilities, and marketplaces) and 30 water kiosks. By the end of FY25, most anti-cholera activities were completed, and a decline in waterborne diseases was expected in the next rainy season. The project aims to benefit about half the metropolitan population: 330,000 with improved water services, 100,000 with improved sanitation, and 480,000 with better solid waste management. It is scheduled to close in March 2029. Additionality calls for embedding cholera prevention in water and health strategies, with an emphasis on preventive measures that GWSP provides support to improve cross-sectoral aim to build resilience and lower outbreak risk. The paper cooperation for WASH services. With GWSP support, the proposes a menu of cholera prevention project components Bank launched a new WASH in Schools and Healthcare and activities adaptable to country contexts. Facilities community of practice in FY25. This platform fosters knowledge exchange, skills development, and To advance this agenda and maintain alignment with innovation globally. Through this platform, GWSP supported global initiatives, the Bank’s water and health teams held Education Department projects in Angola, Comoros, and coordination meetings with WHO’s Global Task Force on São Tomé and Príncipe; Health Department projects in Cape Cholera Control, UNICEF, the International Federation of Verde and the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Water Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and WaterAid. GSWP Department projects in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of contributed to these Bank-led meetings, providing technical Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, and the Philippines. assistance to Bank country teams and supporting planning for both internal and external engagement, including In FY25, GWSP supported Bank water and health experts workshops in countries with a high disease burden. GWSP to prepare a paper describing a more systematic approach and the Health Emergency Prevention, Preparedness, and to Bank engagement on cholera prevention. The paper Response Trust Fund jointly funded these efforts. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 51 CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION Focusing on Inclusive Sanitation to Improve Services in Kiribati Results Indicators BLOCK A Resilience: Water-related institutions supported to build resilience in water resource management or service delivery Diagnostics conducted or implementation undertaken to promote principles of freshwater-resilience building Inclusion: Policies/strategies generated or refined to enhance social inclusion of persons with disabilities in accessing jobs, markets, services, or decision-making roles in the management of water resources or in water supply and sanitation or other water-related service delivery I am truly impressed by the remarkable improvement in Public Utilities Board water quality, now as pure and refreshing as bottled water. –T. Boota, resident of South Tarawa Challenge Kiribati’s 130,000 residents live on 21 central Pacific atolls and face major water and sanitation challenges due to climate change, saltwater intrusion, drought, and pollution. According to WHO/UNICEF, only 64 percent have access to basic water services, and even fewer have access to sanitation; women are especially affected because they are mainly responsible for water collection and household care. In Kiribati’s capital of South Tarawa, home to nearly 70,000 people, most households have historically relied on unsafe, shallow wells or have harvested rainwater, often 52 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 53 CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION contaminated due to poor sanitation and overcrowding. Under the South Tarawa Water Supply Project, the new Piped water is typically available for only two hours every McKenzie Desalination Plant began operations in April two days. Only 20 percent of people are served by a sewer 2025, using reverse osmosis to produce up to 2.5 megaliters system; the rest use pit latrines or practice open defecation. of safe drinking water daily—doubling freshwater output Twenty-five percent report not using any sanitation facilities, and serving nearly 5,000 households. and about 60 percent occasionally practice open defecation. The Public Utilities Board and a few private operators Upgrades to the water network, expected by 2028, will manage waste collection. enable 24/7 water access. A second desalination plant is under construction; once both plants and the network are Approach complete, 95 percent of South Tarawa’s population will have access to safe, climate-resilient water. A solar array is being Kiribati’s urgent need for effective water management, built to power both plants, eliminating reliance on diesel driven by climate change and institutional fragility, has and ensuring a low-carbon system. led to two Bank-supported projects in the capital. The $66.22 million cofinanced South Tarawa Water Supply Strong local political commitment to the sanitation project Project and the $19.49 million Bank-financed South Tarawa resulted in four memorandums of agreement, signed in Sanitation Project both focus on modernizing services and April 2025, aligning ministries and local councils. More than improving utility operations. 1,700 residents (the majority of them women) participated in community engagement activities, including consultations and focus groups, to inform project design and support behavioral change. Additionality GWSP began analytical work in Kiribati in 2017, building an evidence base to improve water security and helping local decision-makers understand links among water, sanitation, health, environment, and economic opportunities. Using the Bank’s citywide inclusive sanitation approach, GWSP helped the government lay the foundations for safe sanitation in South Tarawa.3 Support included technical assistance to integrate household sanitation data into the Public Utility Board’s geographic information system. GWSP is helping pilot sanitation options that assess affordability and compare communal versus household toilets, and it advises on groundwater protection, seawater toilet flushing, and disability access. Because these desalination and sanitation projects are the first of their kind in Kiribati, GWSP is providing hands-on technical support through programs such as the Bank’s International Benchmarking Network for Water and Sanitation (IBNET) tool for utility benchmarking (box 3.3). An FY25 GWSP-funded study helped the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Energy review water and sanitation policies, leading to a cabinet proposal for an integrated policy. GWSP also funded an institutional analysis using the World Bank’s Policy, Institutional, and Regulatory tool, informing the new integrated water policy. 54 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION Box 3.3 Small Pacific Utilities Join NewIBNET to Share Data Since 2009, Pacific Islands’ utilities have used the World Bank’s International Benchmarking Network for Water and Sanitation (NewIBNET) tool to track their performance, benchmark their progress against other utilities globally or regionally, and learn from them about new approaches and methodologies. The resulting information can support and inform funding proposals, operational decisions, and service improvements. In FY25, GWSP supported a NewIBNET benchmarking training workshop in Fiji. Eighteen Pacific Island water utility and government professionals received technical training on linking benchmarking indicators to Sustainable Development Goal 6. Notably, they established a community of practice, which will maintain the workshop’s momentum and provide opportunities for regional utilities to share knowledge and expertise to help small atoll utilities. Globally, NewIBNET contained more than 300 complete utility datasets as of the end of FY25. Eight new associations representing more than 180 utilities joined this year. The global community of practice associated with NewIBNET gained momentum, producing webinars, news briefs, and peer exchanges that connect more than 600 professionals worldwide. George Odero, plant manager at Kisumu Water and Sanitation Company in Kenya, commented: “Areas where we thought we were alone, we could now see where we stand compared to others, and learn from them. This data helps us think differently about what we can do better.” GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 55 CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION rates. Poor sanitation is linked to problems such as Advancing Water, Sanitation, chronic malnutrition and stunting. Along with outdated and Hygiene in Rural Tanzania policies and physical limitations such as infrastructure, cultural and social barriers restrict access to essential WASH services, disproportionately affecting women Results Indicators and people with disabilities. As of 2022, only about 49 BLOCK A percent of rural Tanzanians had access to basic drinking Sustainability: water, and slightly more than 21 percent had access to basic sanitation—both below the Sub-Saharan African Water-related institutions supported to sustain water resources, built infrastructure assets, or both average and far from Tanzania’s Vision 2025 access goals Inclusion: of 85 percent for water and 95 percent for sanitation. Policies/strategies generated or refined to enhance social inclusion of persons with disabilities in accessing Approach jobs, markets, services, or decision-making roles in the management of water resources or in water supply and sanitation or other water-related service delivery Launched in 2017, the World Bank’s Tanzania Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program (SRWSSP) targets 137 districts across 25 regions to improve rural Results Indicators access to safe water and sanitation while strengthening the institutions that sustain these services. The program’s BLOCK B comprehensive approach goes beyond infrastructure % of rural WSS lending projects that measure functionality by ensuring that schools and health centers have of water point; % of water projects with disability-inclusive approaches in WASH adequate sanitation and by building the capacity of local organizations for long-term management. The Number of schools and health centers with access to improved water and sanitation services program invests in data management and strengthens People with access to improved water sources/improved the technical and financial know-how of community-based sanitation water supply organizations. It also supports Tanzania’s Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency to help keep improvements sustainable. Challenge Inclusivity is front and center. SRWSSP provides training to ensure people with disabilities and marginalized Tanzania is known for its rich culture and biodiversity, but groups can avail themselves of services. In addition, it many rural communities still struggle with access to safe addresses hygiene and menstrual health by giving girls water and sanitation. For the 64 percent of the population access to menstrual counselors and by piloting affordable living in rural areas, inadequacies in WASH services lead reusable antimicrobial sanitary pads, thus reducing school to health issues, slow economic growth, and high poverty absenteeism. 56 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT SRWSSP has helped more than 200 community-based inclusive approach is fostering collaboration across water supply organizations become more sustainable, sectors and building institutional capacity for sustainable, both technically and financially, and it encourages private equitable development in Tanzania. sector involvement by piloting innovations such as solar- powered pumps and mobile-money-enabled prepaid water meters. These efforts sparked interest in public- private partnerships for the program's next phase. The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency developed new guidelines to facilitate private sector engagement. A new regional WASH multiphased program, in development, is expected to continue supporting 137 district councils across 25 regions of mainland Tanzania (a second phase is intended to support the region of Zanzibar). The program has delivered improved water supply to more than 10 million people and better sanitation facilities to more than 12 million people, enabling 1,511 villages to achieve community-wide inclusive sanitation (1,104 of these villages maintained that status at the end of the project). Improved school sanitation in 1,830 primary schools has boosted attendance, especially by girls, while improved WASH services have reached 2,593 health care facilities. Additionality GWSP has strengthened SRWSSP by providing technical assistance and financial support. Improving the safety of sanitation workers and developing climate-resilient infrastructure in rural areas have been two areas of focus. Notable achievements include the development and national launch of Sanitation Worker Safety Guidelines, which have improved occupational health and safety standards and informed national sanitation policies, particularly for fecal sludge management. GWSP’s support has enabled SRWSSP to expand its reach and effectiveness by strengthening data management, which is critical for results-based financing. Promoting disability-inclusive infrastructure in health care and WASH services is another focus of GWSP, which has supported safety and accessibility audits and participatory site visits to identify and address barriers faced by people with disabilities. By involving people with disabilities in decision-making and improving facility design, the program aims to ensure that everyone can access water and sanitation services with dignity. This GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 57 CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION Water for Planet The goal of the WBG’s water resources management initiatives is to ensure that water acts as a catalyst for Tackling Drought with development, does not instigate conflict, and is not wasted Community-Driven Water because of mismanagement. Efforts target reducing hydroclimatic risks from floods and droughts, building Management in Afghanistan capacity to handle variable water flows, and improving Results Indicators sustainable water management at local, national, and transboundary levels. BLOCK A Institutions: The World Bank’s specific areas of focus include dams and Fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV)-affected states reservoirs, droughts, environmental management, floods, supported to develop and implement a water sector groundwater, hydro-informatics, institutions and planning, transition strategy nature-based solutions, river restoration, transboundary Financing: waters, water security diagnostics, and water storage. All Knowledge products generated on financing are aligned with the WBG Water Strategy 2025–2030. In fiscal year (FY) 2025, GWSP supported efforts with Results Indicators upstream analysis, capacity building, and technical BLOCK B assistance. In Afghanistan, it laid analytical foundations % of projects that promote sustainable and efficient for water resilience, coordinated stakeholders through the water use Afghanistan Water Platform, piloted private-led irrigation % of projects incorporating resilience in design of water- energy solutions, and assessed investment needs. In related initiatives Latin America and the Caribbean, GWSP strengthened Number of FCV-affected states supported with a governance in El Salvador and Honduras and promoted resilience lens regional cooperation on water management involving seven countries. In Somalia, GWSP supported water security diagnostics and urban sanitation to prevent Challenge pollution of water resources. In India, GWSP supported the National Ganga Basin Project with analytics, workshops, Afghanistan faces a severe water crisis, exacerbated by and recommendations to expand net-zero greenhouse gas droughts and climate change, leading to dry water points wastewater efforts. and reduced annual snow melt. The result is inadequate 58 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION safe drinking water, particularly in rural areas, where water adoption of solar energy for various rural services, further quality is poor and waterborne diseases are prevalent, and amplifying climate benefits. an insufficient water supply for agriculture. The drinking water crisis disproportionately affects women and girls, WERP supports community representative groups who bear the primary responsibility for water collection, (CRGs), which are elected management bodies with men impacting their education, safety, and livelihoods. The and women representatives. CRGs play a central role irrigation water crisis limits productivity and negatively in identifying community sub-projects and in making impacts the rural economy. Lack of access to electricity for decisions about priorities (such as the location of solar water pumps and fragmented institutions compound this pumped wells), ultimately taking ownership of asset crisis, hindering effective central management and service operation and maintenance. This approach draws on delivery. lessons demonstrating that community participation leads to lower transaction costs and greater sustainability.  To Approach ensure inclusive participation, WERP applies entry criteria for access: it operates only in areas where CRGs are The World Bank’s Water Emergency Relief Project (WERP) functioning and women are involved, gives communities addresses Afghanistan’s water crises by enhancing climate three weeks from project introduction to meet these resilience, promoting gender equality, and supporting criteria, and monitors compliance quarterly through an community-led water management. The project strengthens agent supported by the Bank’s Afghanistan Resilience infrastructure and provides training to help communities Trust Fund. adapt to climate change. Solar-powered pumps replace diesel systems, reducing emissions and catalyzing the The project’s innovative implementation model uses development of a private renewable energy market partnerships with both Aga Khan Foundation USA (AKF- in Afghanistan. Market expansion can lead to broader USA) and the United Nations Office for Project Services GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 59 (UNOPS). AKF-USA leads emergency water supply and technical training/public awareness components, leveraging its institutional arrangements with local CRGs and nongovernmental organizations. UNOPS leads the solar- powered irrigation component, engaging private energy service companies as subgrantees. In addition, WERP encourages private sector involvement in irrigation and supports complementary activities such as technical advice, agricultural support services, and capacity building to increase farm productivity and incomes. The Energy-as-a-Service private sector pilot is supporting improved surface water irrigation services that are expected to catalyze private companies to expand off-grid renewable energy services for productive purposes and income generation in rural areas. Seven companies, two of which are fully women-owned, have signed grant agreements. The pilot is expected to expand to 12 companies at 25 sites across 7 provinces, totaling $10.7 million in contracts, including contracts with at least 3 women-owned service providers. Additionality A GWSP grant is strengthening Afghanistan’s water sector by providing a critical analysis to enhance the performance of water services and resilience against drought. This analysis identifies and informs the design of future interventions, including site selection to prevent groundwater depletion and to prioritize drinking water and sanitation services. GWSP enabled the private Energy-as-a-Service business model pilot. The GWSP-funded Afghanistan Water Platform, co- chaired by the World Bank and United Nations Mission to Afghanistan, brings together all active water sector partners. In FY25, the platform hosted workshops on implementation coordination, groundwater management, remote-sensing tools for water resources, and the Kabul water crisis. Outputs include a water sector synthesis report and three technical deep dives: groundwater management options, a remote-sensing irrigation performance assessment, and a water data dashboard. In FY26, GWSP will support a water sector investment needs assessment, including analysis to inform private sector participation in water services provision (co-financed by the Public–Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility). This assessment will build on previous groundwater studies to identify investments needed for emergency water response and sustainable groundwater use in key urban centers. 60 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION Cross-Sector Partnerships Approach  Powering Water Reforms The entirety of El Salvador lies within the Dry Corridor; in Central America’s Dry roughly three-quarters of the country’s districts are in high-drought zones that intersect with areas of higher Corridor poverty. Here, the resilience of smallholders and water systems is a central policy concern. The El Salvador Water Results Indicators Sector Resilience Project provides an entry point for a BLOCK A broader country dialogue with the country’s National Water Authority on water resources management. Sustainability: Specifically, the project reduces water losses and Policies/strategies/regulatory frameworks informed to stabilizes supply in the Torogoz water supply system strengthen sustainable management of water resources, built infrastructure assets, or both Tools and monitoring systems supported to strengthen the sustainable management of water resources (at the national, basin, and aquifer levels) built infrastructure assets, or both Resilience: Water-related institutions supported to build resilience in water resource management or service delivery Results Indicators BLOCK B % of projects that support reforms/actions that strengthen institutional capacity % of projects incorporating resilience in design of water- related initiatives Challenge The Central American Dry Corridor stretches along the Pacific Ocean, from southern Mexico into parts of Costa Rica and Panama. It features dry tropical forests and semi- arid land with high levels of rainfall variability. Recurrent droughts, often linked to the El Niño climate pattern, can reduce precipitation by 30 percent to 40 percent and can lengthen rainless periods, thereby stressing water supplies, crops, and ecosystems. Droughts in the corridor are frequent and increasingly severe, damaging maize and bean crops, degrading soils, and straining rural water systems. They affect large rural populations that are dependent on rainfed agriculture. Over the past three decades, drought- related losses have totaled around $10 billion, highlighting the region’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.  GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 61 CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION that feeds the capital of San Salvador, modernizes utility Finance, environment, and planning ministries in the two planning, and mainstreams climate risk management. countries actively participated in these efforts to build local These efforts lower abstraction pressures and outage political support. risks in a key transboundary basin, and they strengthen the capacity of local water service providers, creating a One goal of the projects in the Dry Corridor was to model for neighboring cities and utilities. Furthermore, share lessons and take a regional approach to building they increase regional water security.   capacity, strengthening governance, and planning water security strategies. Therefore, GWSP supported technical In Honduras, the Water Security in the Dry Corridor of assistance and convened knowledge-sharing events Honduras Project covers five basins (Choluteca, Goascorán, to bring lessons to the Dominican Republic’s new 10- Lempa, Nacaome, and Sampile) where El Niño-driven year, $250 million Water Sector Modernization Program. rainfall deficits of 30 percent to 40 percent are common in A GWSP-supported March 2025 water governance drought years, and the quality of water supply services can workshop in Panama City fostered regional peer learning be extremely low in the dry season. The project strengthens and the development of concrete country-level action water resources governance at national and watershed plans. The workshop facilitated knowledge exchange with levels and improves water services delivery to 105,000 senior experts from Brazil, Peru, and Spain, alongside people. The initiative will finance water storage systems for counterparts from the projects in the Dominican Republic, irrigation and water supply services in four municipalities of El Salvador, and Honduras.  the Dry Corridor as well as the rehabilitation of four water treatment plants located downstream of the Jose Cecilio del Complementing this workshop was a study tour to Spain, Valle Dam. Key goals for water governance include updating cofinanced by GWSP and the Spanish Fund for Latin America water resources management policy and groundwater and the Caribbean. Project teams from Argentina, Bolivia, regulations through extensive participatory processes with Brazil, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, key stakeholders and strengthening institutional capacity and Peru gained insights on integrated water resources through a series of dam safety technical trainings for management, social inclusion, and digital solutions to operators of the Jose Cecilio del Valle Dam.  advance inclusive governance frameworks and improve water security.  The teams visited Spanish institutions, Additionality  including the Ministry for Ecological Transition, the General Directorate for Water, the Hydrographic Studies Center, To complement these governance and water management the State Meteorological Agency, three hydrographic efforts, GWSP provided support for developing regulations confederations, a water users association, and the regional and for strategic planning in Honduras and El Salvador. Catalan Water Agency. 62 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION To date, Biyoole has improved water access for more than Local Solutions Addressing 500,000 people, introduced climate-resilient farming, and Drought and Deforestation in trained communities in sustainable practices. The project prioritized gender equality through tailored extension Somalia services, flexible training, and women’s internship programs. Inclusive engagement has fostered local ownership and Results Indicators strengthened institutions. BLOCK A Sustainability: In 2022, the $70 million Barwaaqo’ Somalia Water for Rural Resilience Project was launched to carry forward the Tools and monitoring systems supported to strengthen the sustainable management of water resources (at the Biyoole’s successes. And in 2025, Barwaaqo’ received $18 national, basin, and aquifer levels) built infrastructure million from the Somalia Climate Adaptation Program Multi- assets, or both Donor Trust Fund, with another $18 million planned, to Institutions: support a long-term, cohesive basin/watershed-wide land FCV-affected states supported to develop and implement and water resources management strategy. a water sector transition strategy Results Indicators BLOCK B Area under sustainable land/water management practice Number of FCV-affected states supported with a resilience lens Challenge More than 70 percent of the population of Somalia lives in extreme poverty.  Threats to food and water security come from recurrent drought and inappropriate land use, which are interconnected. Between 2001 and 2021, Somalia lost more than 430,000 trees. It accounts for at least 6 percent of all trees lost in Africa per year. Somalia’s deforestation is due, in part, to land-based livelihoods, such as charcoal production.4 Unsustainable land use, along with obstacles to environmental stewardship and resource governance, also contributes to deforestation by increasing drought frequency. As a result, Somalia’s 1.03 percent annual deforestation rate is three times that of neighboring Kenya at 0.3 percent and almost twice the 0.62 percent average rate of loss for Africa. Approach In 2015, the World Bank reengaged Somalia with the Water for Agropastoral Livelihoods Pilot Project. The $2 million pilot in Puntland and Somaliland aimed to test the feasibility of sand and subsurface dams for water storage, as described in GWSP Annual Report 2021. The successful pilot expanded into the $42 million Biyoole project. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 63 The Barwaaqo’ project’s core approach is to improve environmental management as the foundation for long- term water supply for agricultural development. Building on Biyoole’s success, it has restored more than 500 hectares of forest and established 1,947 hectares under sustainable management (target: 8,000 hectares). As of early 2025, Barwaaqo’ has built 16 new water points and rehabilitated 21, aiming for 130 new and 50 rehabilitated water points by 2028. More than 266,000 people (including 130,790 women) now have improved water access, and nearly 70,000 farmers (9,800 women) have adopted more effective agricultural practices. The Biyoole and Barwaaqo’ projects are particularly significant because they are building capacity in a highly challenging environment. Additionality GWSP support provided learning sessions in Somalia on multi dimensional approaches to integrating nature-based solutions, sustainable land and water management, and community-driven development. These sessions aimed to build resilience against climate shocks, while contributing to climate mitigation through carbon sequestration and improved ecosystem services. The Barwaaqo’ project prioritizes ecosystem restoration and land management to increase safe and secure water supply and sanitation services and to improve those services. To this end, GWSP supported the project to develop a fecal sludge management toolkit, an urban strategic sanitation action plan, and tools to expand adoption of the Bank’s citywide inclusive sanitation approach to more cities. This approach ensures that everyone has access to safely managed sanitation through tailored solutions. In Somalia, as in many other countries, GWSP provides support to improve the quality and consistency of water security diagnostics and the quality and effectiveness of water stakeholder engagement platforms using the Water Security Diagnostic framework, which helps clients identify and prioritize water-related risks and opportunities. The Water Security Diagnostic will give Somalia centralized data on water security, enabling it to explore water resource management strategies. 64 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT dollar portfolio of 363 investments with a staff of about Net-Zero Initiatives Key in the 170 employees. The organization's comprehensive and Cleanup of the Ganga River holistic approach to river rejuvenation includes pollution control, improving ecological flow, and fostering a stronger in India connection between people and river ecosystems through river basin management. Results Indicators BLOCK A The World Bank has supported India’s efforts to rejuvenate the Ganga River through the National Ganga River Basin Sustainability: Project. The first phase of the project supported the Water-related institutions supported to sustain water establishment of the National Mission for Clean Ganga and resources, built infrastructure assets, or both introduced the Hybrid Annuity Model-PPP to address the Institutions: issue of insufficient operation and maintenance of sewage Policies/strategies/regulatory frameworks informed to treatment assets with support from the private sector. The strengthen the institutional environment for improved water resource management, water services delivery, or Hybrid Annuity Model-PPP pays 40 percent of capital costs both during construction and 60 percent over 15 years based on plant performance. By 2021, the first project benefited Results Indicators 3.74 million people, added 344 megaliters per day of treatment capacity, built 2,600 kilometers of sewer network, BLOCK B prevented 404 megaliters per day of untreated wastewater % of projects incorporating resilience in design of water- from entering the river, and reduced pollution by 17,450 related initiatives metric tons of biochemical oxygen demand (an indicator of Biochemical oxygen demand pollution loads removed by organic pollution) annually. treatment plants (tons/year) People in areas covered by water-risk mitigation measures In 2020, the Second National Ganga River Basin Project was (flooding/drought) approved to expand the Hybrid Annuity Model-PPP approach Institutions with WRM monitoring systems to wastewater management to Ganga River tributaries and to strengthen basin management. The second phase introduces the first-ever World Bank guarantee in the water Challenge  and sanitation sector in India. This guarantee will backstop the payment obligations of the National Mission for Clean The Ganga River Basin is home to 43 percent of India’s Ganga under three Hybrid Annuity Model-PPP contracts population and contributes to 40 percent of the country’s and will help mobilize private investments. In addition, the gross domestic product. The Ganga River faces widespread second phase supports effective river basin management pollution from untreated municipal sewage and industrial through institution development activities and information discharge. Despite government efforts to expand sewage tools to monitor river flow and water quality. treatment, an assessment by the Central Pollution Control Board in 2013 found that less than half the sewage By June 2025, the second project had benefited 1.2 million treatment plants in the Ganga River Basin were operational people (including 720,000 youth and 612,000 women) and or meeting discharge standards due to insufficient reduced biochemical oxygen demand by 5,800 metric operations and maintenance. In 2015, the Government of tons/year. By its closing, the project is expected to have India launched the Namami Gange Program and began benefited 6 million urban residents (2 million women, empowering the National Mission for Clean Ganga, a 2.4 million youth), making 245,000 new household sewer central government agency tasked with the ambitious goal connections and increasing treatment capacity by 800 of river rejuvenation. megaliters per day. Approach  Additionality  The National Mission for Clean Ganga has emerged as a GWSP is supporting the implementation of the Second remarkable success story of institutional transformation. National Ganga River Basin Project through analytical Despite initial setbacks, it now oversees a multi-billion- and advisory services. These services evaluate recent GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 65 CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION initiatives to advance net-zero operations. Building on collection for an energy screening report. The report will innovative solutions from the Namami Gange Program, assess the effectiveness of policy measures, decision- these initiatives aim to reduce energy consumption and making approaches, and relevant guidelines to achieve greenhouse gas emissions by generating renewable energy net-zero greenhouse gases in the Ganga River Basin. It from wastewater treatment processes, introducing energy- will offer recommendations for scaling these efforts across efficient equipment and processes, and using treated India, with support from the National Mission for Clean wastewater and biosolids for agricultural, industrial, and Ganga. Drawing on global best practices, the report will other uses.  focus on practical strategies, especially for biogas use and biosolids management. It will analyze the strategies’ In FY25, GWSP supported workshops for 95 representatives emissions reductions and develop a method for calculating (including 13 women) of participating states and targeted both current and future projects’ emissions savings to operators on energy management concepts and data demonstrate impact and support broader adoption.   66 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION Water for Food To feed 10 billion people on a livable planet by 2050, the the World Bank’s Irrigation Operator of the Future toolkit to world needs to transform how it manages agricultural help the Radoniqi-Dukagjini irrigation company improve its water. Agricultural water management (AWM) is critical performance and planning. In Uzbekistan, GWSP provided for food production, jobs, economic development, and technical assistance for digital monitoring and water environmental sustainability, and it is an essential part of accounting in irrigation, enhancing efficiency and climate risk management that can help buffer against water supply resilience. disruptions. AWM also serves as a powerful tool to reduce inequality—especially for vulnerable smallholders, women, and youth, who bear the brunt of climate shocks and lack access to resilience resources. Prerequisites for successful water management are water accounting and allocation, which prevent overuse. Globally, AWM that uses blue water for irrigation represents only 6.5 percent of the total land in agriculture and 22.7 percent of arable land, yet it produces 40 percent of the food and 55 percent of global agricultural value. Irrigated agriculture can be as much as three times more productive than rainfed agriculture. Sustainable irrigation can transform rainfed croplands that are perpetually water-stressed to feed an additional 1.4 billion people. Enabling farmer-led irrigation is one prominent opportunity to accelerate the expansion of irrigation and, at the same time, motivate farmers to invest their own capital. Farmer-led irrigation is a bottom-up approach to irrigation development whereby the private sector provides expertise and funding, and smallholder farmers drive irrigation development and management. This approach also promotes water conservation and reduces GHG emissions through energy- efficient technologies. The energy transition, particularly the use of renewable energy, is an opportunity to access climate grants or carbon markets for irrigation. WBG projects mobilize commercial finance; support micro, small, and medium enterprises; and use blended finance, first-loss guarantees, and pay-as-you-go models to make irrigation resources accessible. To advance these efforts, in FY25, GWSP supported the Sahel Irrigation Strategy, offering technical assistance to ensure that farmer-led irrigation and principles of performance and financial sustainability are mainstreamed to break the region’s build-neglect-rebuild cycle. In Kosovo, GWSP used GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 67 Using Regional Cooperation to Advance Climate-Resilient Irrigation in the Sahel Results Indicators BLOCK A Sustainability: Policies/strategies/regulatory frameworks informed to strengthen sustainable management of water resources, built infrastructure assets, or both Institutions: Policies/strategies/regulatory frameworks developed or implemented to strengthen resilience of freshwater basins, delivery of services for communities dependent on them, or both Results Indicators BLOCK B % of projects that promote sustainable and efficient water use % of projects that support reforms/actions that strengthen institutional capacity % of projects that support reforms/actions for improving financial viability % of projects incorporating resilience in design of water- related initiatives Number of FCV countries supported with a resilience lens Area with new/improved irrigation services (million hectares) Challenge The Sahel region, spanning Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal, faces acute climatic and environmental risks. Agricultural investment is a gamble due to erratic rainfall, floods, and droughts. The challenge is not only water scarcity but also limited access: despite vast surface and groundwater resources, the Sahel region uses only 7 percent of available water for agriculture, and irrigates only 3 percent of farmland. The majority of the Sahel’s population relies on rainfed agriculture and agro-pastoralism, which leaves it highly vulnerable to erratic rainfall, land degradation, and food insecurity. West Africa’s transboundary hydro systems are key to regional food security, providing water for flood recession agriculture and pastures, irrigation, drinking water for livestock, fishing, and aquaculture. Proper water management and resilient irrigation systems are crucial for climate adaptation, job creation, and food security in the Sahel. 68 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 69 CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION In 2013, the six Sahelian countries signed the Dakar not focus solely on infrastructure; it also focuses on reliable Declaration, pledging to expand irrigated land from water services, governance, and farmer-led irrigation, which 400,000 hectares to 1 million hectares. However, as of can be more cost-effective and scalable than infrastructure 2024, only slightly less than half of the targeted hectares fixes. By anchoring irrigation in service delivery, climate of new irrigation had been developed, benefiting more resilience, and inclusivity—especially for women and than 390,000 people, nearly half of them women. Financing youth—the strategy seeks to transform livelihoods, create gaps, high costs, and the region’s security challenges have and protect jobs, and strengthen resilience across the Sahel. slowed progress. To implement the Sahel Irrigation Strategy and to carry Approach forward the development gains from SIIP, the World Bank is preparing a new multiphase program. The Development, To implement the Dakar Declaration, the World Bank Resilience, and Valorization of Transboundary Water for launched the Sahel Irrigation Initiative Support Project West Africa project (DREVE) builds on and expands SIIP’s (SIIP) in 2017, aiming to improve stakeholders' capacity successes by investing in transboundary water resources, to develop and manage irrigation and increase irrigated strengthening regional institutions and cooperation, areas. To address the transboundary nature of Sahelian expanding inclusive irrigation systems, capitalizing on the water storage and to promote peer-to-peer learning, region’s groundwater potential, and mobilizing public and the project involved all six countries of the region in private funding. modernizing institutional frameworks, financing irrigation investments, and strengthening knowledge management DREVE will be a critical vehicle for translating the strategy’s and coordination. vision into concrete, on-the-ground results for water and food security and increased resilience to climate change On closing in June 2025, SIIP delivered irrigation and impacts in the Sahel. DREVE is scheduled for review by the drainage services to approximately 18,170 hectares across Bank’s Board of Directors in late 2025. more than 2,000 sites. A total of 65,180 farmers (nearly half of them women) are using improved irrigation and drainage Additionality services. The project helped reduce irrigation costs, increase resilience to climate change, raise farmer incomes, GWSP provided key knowledge and technical assistance for and improve food security in the Sahel. Water managers use SIIP implementation and DREVE design, and it supported the cooperation platforms to share good irrigation practices. Sahel Irrigation Strategy’s development and endorsement. SIIP lessons informed the design of the new Sahel Irrigation GWSP-linked technical assistance informed SIIP’s approach Strategy (2025), which was officially endorsed by all six Sahel to institutional diagnostics, multistakeholder convening countries at the Dakar +10 High-Level Forum on Irrigation in and analyses, and performance monitoring. This assistance April 2025. The strategy represents a milestone in regional supported incremental service delivery reforms and cooperation, promoting coordinated interventions and mainstreamed improved irrigation practices in national harmonized irrigation policies. Crucially, the strategy does strategies. SIIP outcomes, along with the new Sahel Irrigation Strategy, informed the design of the DREVE project’s irrigation components. The strategy helped leverage funding for new activities in Senegal, Mauritania, and Mali; provide direction for irrigation in the Sahel; and define the Sahel region’s approach to irrigation development/sector reform. This strategy has proven to be more effective than siloed national efforts. GWSP directly supported the inclusion of lessons on irrigation governance and service delivery, financial sustainability, water accounting and hydro-informatics, and farmer-led irrigation development in the Sahel Irrigation Strategy. 70 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION milk yields also exceeded targets. Sixty percent of surveyed A Blueprint for Water-Wise beneficiaries reported significant crop yield increases due to Agriculture in Kosovo irrigation improvements. Results Indicators ARDP supported the design of the Kosovo Irrigation Master Plan and Investment Framework, which recommends a BLOCK A strategic shift from infrastructure-focused interventions to a Institutions: holistic approach that includes capacity building, institutional Water-related institutions supported to strengthen strengthening, and performance-based management, with capacity for managing water resources or service delivery a diversified support model for different farming contexts. The successes of ARDP (which closed in December 2022) Results Indicators are carried forward through the active Improvement and Rehabilitation of Irrigation Systems project (IRIS), which BLOCK B is implementing the Kosovo Irrigation Master Plan and Area with new/improved irrigation services Investment Framework. Challenge Kosovo’s irrigation systems are managed by public enterprises under government authority. They suffer from aging infrastructure; low utilization rates; and weak institutional links among the municipalities, service delivery agencies, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Development. The legal framework has been inefficient due to unclear roles and responsibilities, poor cost recovery, and limited information management. These challenges have resulted in unreliable water delivery, reduced agricultural productivity, and vulnerability to climate risks such as droughts and floods. Kosovo has approximately 1.0 million hectares, with about 38 percent of it used for agriculture. Only 21,000 hectares are irrigated; about 14,000 of these hectares are in formal irrigation and 7,000 hectares are in informal irrigation. Approach The World Bank’s Kosovo Agriculture and Rural Development Project (ARDP) rehabilitated irrigation plans and helped farm operators, commercial and semi-commercial agro- processing enterprises, and municipal advisors better plan investments and use other financial support (such as the European Union’s Instrument for Pre-Accession for Rural Development). Additionally, the project built the capacity of municipal advisors to provide guidance and advice to farmers on sound investment planning. This guidance directly increased beneficiary productivity: horticulture yields (using pepper as a proxy) reached 40 tons per hectare, surpassing the target of 25 tons per hectare, and dairy production and GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 71 IRIS assisted rehabilitation of the Radoniqi-Dukagjini irrigation scheme by increasing the irrigation area by 3,200 hectares, rehabilitating two pump stations, adding power supply, refurbishing monitoring and management systems, and providing capacity building to irrigation providers, farmers, municipalities, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Development. Currently, the Radoniqi- Dukagjini scheme’s total developed area is 13,600 hectares, including the operational network (8,600 hectares) and irrigated area (5,100 hectares). The potential to improve its crop yields, including vineyards, is significant. The project addresses key productivity constraints, including the fee structure and the need for agricultural performance data, infrastructure rehabilitation and expansion, and coordination among the company and municipalities to align development plans. Additionality To ensure a holistic approach to improving irrigation and service delivery, GWSP supported the application of the Irrigation Operator of the Future (iOF) toolkit by the Radoniqi-Dukagjin irrigation operator, in conjunction with the ADRP and IRIS projects. The iOF toolkit provides tools, guidance, and support to irrigation and drainage service providers to develop and take ownership of plans to rapidly improve the operational status quo. It ensures that action plans are practically implemented and owned by the government and operational teams. In Kosovo, the iOF toolkit helps Radoniqi-Dukagjini irrigation operators assess their performance, prioritize challenges by using problem-driven approaches, and then implement strategic plans. By using the toolkit to identify needs in terms of investment and changes to current practices (including management, operations and maintenance, customer relationships, financial performance, and water resources governance), the operators are developing a shared understanding of the schemes’ potential and difficulties. Application of the toolkit through the ARDP enabled stakeholders to create a 100-day action plan and a medium-term (5-year) action plan, and it informed complementary work in the World Bank’s ongoing IRIS project and Fostering and Leveraging Opportunities for Water Security Program. 72 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION Smarter, Shared Solutions Challenge for Central Asia’s Soaring Across Central Asia, projections indicate that water availability will decrease by an average of 25 percent to 31 Irrigation Needs percent, and irrigation water demand will increase by 15 percent by 2050. In Uzbekistan, the case is more severe: Results Indicators estimates indicate that water availability will decrease by 30 BLOCK A percent to 40 percent, while irrigation water demand will Sustainability: grow by 25 percent by 2050. Without mitigating actions, the economic costs of water scarcity in Central Asia will be Policies/strategies/regulatory frameworks informed to strengthen sustainable management of water resources, significant. Economic losses are projected to be as much built infrastructure assets, or both as 1.3 percent of gross domestic product annually while Tools and monitoring systems supported to strengthen crop yields are expected to decrease 30 percent by 2050, the sustainable management of water resources at the potentially leading to 5.1 million internal “climate migrants” national, basin, and aquifer levels; built infrastructure who abandon their homes. assets, or both Growing water scarcity thus adds to the urgency of Results Indicators modernizing aging irrigation and water storage assets. BLOCK B Irrigation lies at the center of the region’s energy efficiency and decarbonization agendas. Irrigation and drainage % of projects that promote sustainable and efficient water services are energy- and carbon-intensive. For example, use in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, energy needs for large-scale % of projects incorporating resilience in design of water- related activities pumped irrigation total between 10 percent and 20 percent of national electricity consumption. Any increase in energy GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 73 CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION efficiency would help decarbonize the region’s economies, generate significant savings by lowering energy costs, and Additionality potentially increase energy exports. GWSP contributed key knowledge and technical assistance to the design of both the Uzbekistan National Irrigation and Approach Energy Efficiency Improvement Project and the regional program. The World Bank’s recently closed South Karakalpakstan Water Resources Management Improvement Project GWSP-linked activities informed the Uzbekistan project’s rehabilitated 827 kilometers of canals and reached 64,420 approach to integrating digital technologies and remote water users (31,560 of them women) with new/improved sensing for monitoring of irrigation performance and irrigation and drainage services on 94,000 hectares of land. tracking of water consumption. GWSP’s technical support mainstreamed water accounting tools and hydro-informatics Continuing with this work, the Bank’s Central Asia Water in national irrigation strategies, reinforcing institutional Efficiency and Conservation multiphase programmatic diagnostics and decision-making processes. In turn, the approach will improve climate-resilient irrigation through Uzbekistan project’s early lessons on digital adoption, two overlapping phases from 2025 to 2035. The regional data-driven planning, and equity in water distribution are program is designed as a partnership aimed at improving informing the design of future irrigation operations in regional irrigation and drainage systems. It focuses on Central Asia. finding funding to modernize these systems and encourages countries involved to learn from one another throughout the GWSP supported the Uzbekistan project design with lessons process. The program will provide a strategic framework learned and the latest thinking on hydro-informatics, water to mobilize development partners’ financing (from other accounting, and the use of remote-sensing tools in water multilateral development banks and bilateral donors), use efficiency. By embedding digital solutions early on, climate financing, and trust funds. It will address underlying GWSP contributed to building efficiency, transparency, and issues constraining private-sector participation—including climate resilience in irrigation management. These steps the enabling environment, implementation capacities, and are critical for countries balancing water scarcity and food risks—by leveraging the WBG’s global knowledge and security challenges, and they will lay the groundwork for diversified instruments. financially and environmentally sustainable service delivery reforms. The first phase of the new regional program is the Uzbekistan National Irrigation and Energy Efficiency Improvement Project. Approved in FY25, 98 percent of the approximately $200 million project is climate financing (of about $200 million). The project will enhance regional resilience to droughts by improving irrigation service delivery and efficiency, while prioritizing energy efficiency gains, particularly those that can be achieved by policy reforms to increase water use efficiency and productivity. The project design draws on the experience of Uzbekistan’s Ferghana Valley Water Resources Management Project and the recently completed South Karakalpakstan Water Resources Management Project. It incorporates three lessons from those projects, namely, the importance of (1) providing opportunities for stakeholders at both national and regional levels to reach consensus on irrigation schemes, (2) improving irrigation efficiency and reducing water waste, and (3) improving the accuracy of water measurement and ensuring transparency and accountability in water allocation by irrigation service providers. 74 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION Endnotes 3 Since the Bank began implementing citywide inclusive sanitation in its projects, some 56.14 million people have 1 Data are based on information provided by Sabesp about benefited, influencing more than $6 billion in investments average water production by water system in 2017. in more than 40 countries to promote safely managed sanitation. 2 World Health Organization. 2025. “Multi-Country Cholera Outbreak: External Situation Report.” WHO, Geneva. 4 Global Forest Watch. n.d. “Somalia.” https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/multi-country- https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/country/ cholera-outbreak--external-situation-report--22---24- SOM/. january-2025?#:~:text=Overview,those%20reported%20 in%20December%202023. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 75 ADVANCING RESULTS Chapter CHAPTER 4: ADVANCING RESULTS The Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership is dedicated to advancing a water-secure world for all by The GWSP Results Framework sustaining water resources, delivering water services, and building resilience. In pursuit of this mission, GWSP supports The GWSP Results Framework tracks and reports client governments in achieving water-related Sustainable results using standardized indicators across five priority Development Goals (SDGs) by leveraging global knowledge, themes: inclusion, resilience, financing, institutions, and providing on-the-ground assistance, influencing World Bank sustainability. Indicators are grouped into three blocks. financing mechanisms, and fostering global dialogue and Block A looks at the multiyear knowledge and technical advocacy with key partners and clients to enhance its reach assistance activities supported by GWSP. Block B considers and impact. how GWSP-supported knowledge and technical assistance have influenced newly approved and active World Bank This chapter provides an overview of the accomplishments lending operations in terms of design and outcomes. Block in fiscal year (FY) 2025. A comprehensive set of tables in C, now in its second phase, includes baseline assessments appendix B details the indicators, targets, and results of the influence and impact of knowledge and technical performance for both Block A and Block B of the GWSP assistance on lending operations of the World Bank Water Results Framework. GWSP’s theory of change is illustrated Department in nine countries/regions (box 4.1). in figure 4.1. Box 4.1 GWSP Results Framework’s Three Components Block A Knowledge, Analytics, and Technical Assistance • Institutions, policies, or both strengthened in support of the five priority themes (sustainability, inclusion, finance, institutions, and resilience) • Amount (in U.S. dollars) of World Bank lending influenced by GWSP-supported knowledge and technical assistance Block B Influence on World Bank Lending • Design features of the World Bank’s Water Department lending that address GWSP’s five priority themes • Access/availability of services and number of strengthened institutions across all water subsectors, as reported by the active World Bank lending portfolio in the water sector Block C Combined Results • Results from technical assistance, knowledge work, and lending operations in priority countries and country groupings. Phase 1 included the following countries: Arab Republic of Egypt, Bangla¬desh, Benin, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Pakistan, the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, and Uganda. Phase 2 (launched in FY25) includes the following countries/country groupings: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti, Jordan, Mozambique, Nigeria, Central Asia (Amu Darya River Basin covering Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), Senegal and Niger river basins, and the Pacific Islands • Baseline data reported in FY18 (phase 1) and FY25 (phase 2) and results reported at midterm (FY20 and FY22 for phase 1; annual learning exercises for phase 2) and end of term 78 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 79 CHAPTER 4: ADVANCING RESULTS Figure 4.1 GWSP's Theory of Change PROBLEM ANALYSIS INTERVENTIONS GWSP’s Theory of Change KEY PROBLEMS & EFFECTS GWSP PROBLEM ANALYSIS ENTRY POINTS INTERVENTIONS GWSP’s GWSP’s Theory “Knowledge LACK OF ACCESS into Implementation” of Change Lack of access to water supply, sanitation, and hygiene KEY PROBLEMS & EFFECTS GWSP Brings About Results underlies public health, economic, and environmental ENTRY POINTS Across GWSP’sAll Water “Knowledge challenges across the developing world. LACK OF ACCESS Subsectors into Implementation” of accessSHOCKS Lack WATER to water supply, sanitation, and hygiene LONG TERM Brings The GWSP About Results Results Framework underlies public health, economic, and environmental COUNTRY Increasing demand, variable supply, widespread Across tracks howAll Water the Partnership challenges across the developing world. pollution, and water-related disasters are ENGAGEMENT Subsectors helps client countries resulting in water stress and scarcity. WATER SHOCKS LONG TERM improve and deliver water The GWSP services byResults working Framework to FOOD Increasing INSECURITY demand, variable supply, widespread COUNTRY tracks how the Partnership enhance the impact of the pollution, and water-related disasters are ENGAGEMENT Growing demand for food and fiber, unsustainable resulting in water stress and scarcity. helps Worldclient Bank’scountries water portfolio resource use, and vulnerability of smallholder farmers improve and and to achieve deliver water measurable are affecting agricultural productivity. services by working to FOOD INSECURITY results on the ground. KNOWLEDGE enhance the impact of the Growing demand for food and fiber, unsustainable MOBILIZATION In particular, World Bank’sthe results water portfolio UNDERLYING CHALLENGES resource use, and vulnerability of smallholder farmers framework and demonstrates to achieve measurable are affecting POLICY, agricultural productivity. INSTITUTIONAL, & REGULATORY DRIVERS the additionality results of GWSP on the ground. • Weak planning processes and water sector KNOWLEDGE support—the added value that management MOBILIZATION In particular, could not be the results achieved with UNDERLYING • Conflicting policies CHALLENGES and misaligned incentives framework demonstrates World Bank lending alone. • Weak institutional capacity and collaboration POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL, & REGULATORY on DRIVERS the additionality of GWSP sector goals • Weak planning processes and water sector support—the added value that Low participation and inclusion of stakeholders and • management JUST IN TIME could not be achieved with • land users policies and misaligned incentives Conflicting SUPPORT World Bank lending alone. • Weak institutional TECHNICAL DRIVERS capacity and collaboration on sector goals • Lack of knowledge and data JUST IN TIME • Low participation and inclusion of stakeholders and • Insufficient sharing of best practices land users • Knowledge gaps in sustainable water supply SUPPORT and resource TECHNICAL management DRIVERS CROSS CUTTING • Fragmented and • Lack of knowledge poorly targeted financing and data • Poorly planned infrastructure/resilience/sustainability THEMES • Insufficient sharing of best practices Inclusion, Sustainability, • Knowledge gaps in sustainable water supply Financing, Institutions, and resource management CROSS CUTTING and Resilience CONTEXTUAL • Fragmented and poorlyFACTORS targeted financing • Poorly planned infrastructure/resilience/sustainability THEMES Climate change; fragility, conflict, and violence; Inclusion, Sustainability, weak governance; biodiversity loss; etc. Financing, Institutions, and Resilience CONTEXTUAL FACTORS Climate change; fragility, conflict, and violence; weak governance; biodiversity loss; etc. 80 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 4: ADVANCING RESULTS RESULTS GOALS & IMPACTS KEY OUTPUTS INTERMEDIATE LONG TERM OBJECTIVE OUTCOMES OUTCOMES RESULTS GOALS To achieve& IMPACTS a water-secure • Water sector Institutions Influenced world for all by sustaining stakeholders engaged KEY OUTPUTS (including platforms) INTERMEDIATE development finance LONG TERM strengthened and OBJECTIVE water resources, delivering country policy, legal, and • Water-related investments OUTCOMES in the OUTCOMES regulatory frameworks services, and building water sector To achieve a water-secure • institutions Water sector supported in place, contributing Institutions resilience Policy, strategies, • stakeholders and Influenced Strengthened world for all by sustaining engaged to sustainable, resilient, strengthened and regulatory frameworks development in-country water finance water resources, delivering (including platforms) and inclusive country water policy, legal, and investments sector dialogue in the • developed, Water-related informed management regulatory and service frameworks GOAL 1 services, and building • institutions Proof-of-concept water sector supported Enhanced capacity delivery in place, contributing resilience SDG 6 • pilots Policy,undertaken strategies, and Strengthened of service delivery to sustainable, resilient, and other Infrastructure regulatory frameworks institutionswater in-country to design and inclusive water water-related investment programs developed, informed sector dialogue and implement management and service SDGs GOAL 1 Plans, strategies, pol- implemented, • Proof-of-concept sustainable, inclusive, delivery SDG 6 icy notes, handbooks, Enhanced capacity contributing to pilots undertaken and resilient water and other manuals, and of service delivery sustainable, resilient, Infrastructure sector reforms and institutions to design and inclusive water water-related approaches dra ed investment programs investment programs GOAL 2 and implement management and service SDGs • and disseminated Plans, strategies, pol- implemented, sustainable, inclusive, delivery World Bank • Tools monitoring and handbooks, icy notes, Enhanced capacity contributing to and resilient water Group Twin systems developed manuals, and of service delivery sustainable, Water sector resilient, investment sector reforms and Goals and supported approaches dra ed institutions to raise and inclusive water programs implemented • Global knowledge and commercialprograms investment finance management and service GOAL End 2 extreme and disseminated through a broad range of advocacy delivery poverty and World Bank • Tools and campaigns monitoring Enhanced capacity financing options boost shared delivered Group Twin systems developed of service delivery Water sector investment prosperity Goals and supported institutions to raise programs implemented on End livable a extreme • Global knowledge and commercial ENHANCING finance through a broad range of planet poverty and • Capacity building advocacy and campaigns ACTIVITIES financing options training delivereddelivered boost shared • Policy and technical INTERNAL prosperity Training, project quality WATER on a livable advice provided ENHANCING assurance, fit-for-purpose STRATEGY planet • • Diagnostics Capacity and and building analytics conducted ACTIVITIES lending instruments, etc. PILLARS training delivered • • and approaches Innovative Policy technical INTERNAL • Water for People piloted EXTERNAL WATER advice provided Training, project quality • Water for Food Advocacy, knowledge STRATEGY • Diagnostics and assurance, fit-for-purpose • Water for Planet dissemination, dialogue and analytics conducted lending instruments, etc. PILLARS communication, etc. • Innovative approaches • Water for People piloted EXTERNAL Advocacy, knowledge • Water for Food dissemination, dialogue and • Water for Planet BLOCK A BLOCK B1 BLOCK A BLOCK communication, B1 etc. BLOCK B2 BLOCK C validates the knowledge-into-implementation BLOCK C model across the results chain in select priority countries. BLOCK A Supported BLOCK by our B1 clients, partners, BLOCK and WorldA BLOCK Bank staff B1 BLOCK B2 BLOCK C validates the knowledge-into-implementation BLOCK C model across the results chain in select priority countries. Supported by our clients, partners, and World Bank staff GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 81 CHAPTER 4: ADVANCING RESULTS As in FY24, the portfolio's contribution to primary themes, Knowledge and Technical as measured by number of grants, was heavily focused on sustainability, resilience, and institutions (figure 4.2, panel Assistance Supported by A). The portfolio’s contribution to secondary themes was GWSP (Block A) also heavily focused on these themes (figure 4.2, panel B). In FY25, 86 percent of grants addressed climate adaptation, Block A comprises intermediate outcomes that are directly climate mitigation, or both.1 achieved by GWSP’s analytical and advisory activities. As the stories in chapter 3 show, these activities include Block A includes 23 indicators that measure expected results engaging stakeholders (e.g., Cross-Sector Partnerships at the intermediate outcome level across the five priority Powering Water Reforms in Central America’s Dry themes. Of the 273 active grants this year, 74 percent Corridor), informing sector policies and strategies (e.g., achieved one or more intermediate outcomes (figure 4.3). Using Regional Cooperation to Advance Climate-Resilient The remaining 26 percent were expected to start achieving Irrigation in the Sahel), providing technical assistance results by the end of the grant period (FY26–FY27). (e.g., A Blueprint for Water-Wise Agriculture in Kosovo), publishing and disseminating knowledge products and Box 4.2 summarizes selected Block A results. A detailed developing tools (e.g., Fresh Perspectives on Water Security breakdown of Block A-related results is included in appendix and Desalination), and piloting innovative approaches (e.g., B, table B.1. Innovative Solutions for São Paulo’s Water Crisis from Combined Private Sector and Government Interventions). Through these activities, GWSP influences investments in GWSP’s Direct Influence on the water sector, both within and outside the World Bank. World Bank Water Lending In FY25, the GWSP portfolio contributed results across GWSP’s unique value proposition is as a source of all five priority themes. Each GWSP activity was assigned knowledge and technical assistance to shape the design a primary theme to which it was expected to contribute and execution of World Bank-funded water sector reforms results. Given the cross-cutting nature of the themes, and infrastructure projects. most activities contribute results to the primary theme and secondary themes. Activities are expected to deliver results In FY25, active GWSP grants informed lending projects under both applicable primary and secondary themes. totaling $47.9 billion; of this amount, $12.5 billion was for Figure 4.2 The Cross-Cutting Nature of Financing and Inclusion, as Percentage of Portfolio, FY25 a. Primary themes b. Secondary themes 10% Financing 13% Financing 2% Inclusion 26% Sustainability 12% Inclusion 38% Sustainability 26% Institutions 20% 29% Resilience Institutions 23% Resilience 82 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 4: ADVANCING RESULTS newly reported projects, reflecting the multiyear nature of Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, GWSP activities, which may influence any one project at Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen) in different points in the project’s lifetime.2 fragile, violent, and conflict-affected (FCV) situations and to one regional project in Eastern and Southern Africa. Among the 14 newly influenced lending projects, which Globally, map 4.1 shows that more than half of the newly represent commitments of more than $1.7 billion, 13 were influenced lending projects were for projects in South Asia linked to 11 countries (Burundi, Chad, the Democratic (40 percent) and Africa (22 percent). Box 4.2 Block A: Examples of Results for FY25 45 countries 51 countries (compared with 31 countries in FY24) were (compared with 34 in FY24) were supported to supported to develop policies and strategies that strengthen the capacity of their water-related strengthen the sustainable management of water institutions for managing water resources or resources and build infrastructure assets. service delivery. 21 countries 30 countries (compared with 13 in FY24) were supported (compared with 21 in FY24) were supported to to improve the financial viability and develop knowledge products on resilience. creditworthiness of their water sector institutions. 12 countries (compared with 7 in FY24) were supported to train institutions in diversity- and inclusion-related gender issues, human resources practices, or both. Figure 4.3 Intermediate Outcomes Achieved Through Active Grants, FY25 Financing In FY25, 86% Inclusion of grants Institutions addressed climate Resilience adaptation, Sustainability climate mitigation, All active or both. grants 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Results achieved in FY25 Results expected to be achieved by end of grant GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 83 CHAPTER 4: ADVANCING RESULTS GWSP’s influence extended beyond the Water Department. in the Energy and Extractives Department. Figure 4.5 In FY25, almost half (49 percent) of the lending projects shows sources of financing for GWSP-influenced World influenced by GWSP were led by departments outside the Bank lending. Of this lending, 61 percent ($5.7 billion) was Water Department. As shown in figure 4.4, GWSP informed in countries eligible to be financed by the International approximately $1.8 billion of lending in the Agriculture Development Association (IDA), the part of the World Bank and Food Department and more than $1 billion of lending Group that helps the world’s poorest countries. Figure 4.4 GWSP-Influenced World Bank Lending, by Department Amount in US$ billions/percentage of total $1.80/14.5% Agriculture and Food $1.08/8.7% Energy and Extractives $6.38/51.2% Water $1.03/8.2% Transport $0.89/7.2% Environment, Natural Resources, and the Blue Economy $0.35/2.8% Urban, Resilience, and Land $0.01/0.1% Education $0.31/2.5% Other $0.25/2% Health, Nutrition, and Population $0.15/1.2% Social Sustainability and Inclusion $0.20/1.6% Social Protection and Jobs 84 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 4: ADVANCING RESULTS Figure 4.5 GWSP-Influenced World Bank Lending, by Financing Source Eligibility, FY25 (US$ billions) 0.96 Grant Financing 1.38 BLEND In FY25, 45.36% of GWSP influence 5.65 IDA was in IDA-eligible countries. 4.46 IBRD Map 4.1 GWSP-Influenced Global Water-Related World Bank Lending by Region, FY25 GWSP-INFLUENCED GLOBAL WATER-RELATED WORLD BANK LENDING BY REGION, FY24 GWSP-INFLUENCED GLOBAL WATER-RELATED WORLD BANK LENDING BY REGION, FY24 Europe and Central Asia $1.85B in lending Middle East and 7 projects North Africa 15% of total $0.55B in lending Europe and Centra 4 projects $1.85B in lending 4% of total Middle East and 7 projects North Africa East Asia and Paci c15% of total $0.55B in lending $0.67B in lending 4 projects 4 projects 4% of total 5% of total East Asia and Paci c $0.67B in lending South Asia 4 projects $5.02B in lending 5% of total Sub-Saharan Africa 23 projects $2.72B in lending 40% of total 23 projects South Asia Latin America and 22% of total $5.02B in lending the Caribbean Sub-Saharan Africa 23 projects $1.64B in lending $2.72B in lending 40% of total 4 projects 23 projects 13% of total Latin America and 22% of total 49180 | the Caribbean BER 2025 y the Cartography Unit of the World Bank $1.64B in lending 4 projects olors, denominations and any other s map do not imply, on the part of the dgment on the legal status of any territory, 13% of total ceptance of such boundaries. IBRD 49180 | OCTOBER 2025 This map was produced by the Cartography Unit of the World Bank Group. The boundaries, colors, denominations and any other information shown on this map do not imply, on the part of the World Bank Group, any judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Source: GWSP portfolio monitoring data. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 85 CHAPTER 4: ADVANCING RESULTS Reporting on Portfolio Shifts Newly Approved Water and Project Results (Block B) Department Lending Projects As illustrated in the theory of change, GWSP’s knowledge, In FY25, total approved financing for water, led by the analytics, and technical assistance influence how policies Water Department, was $4.17 billion, a 16 percent increase and projects are designed and implemented, positioning over FY24. This financing included 27 projects: water for them to deliver better outcomes. Progress along this results people (15 projects), water for planet (6 projects), and water chain is reported through Block B indicators. for food (6 projects). Four of the 27 projects are additional financing projects.3 Block B1 indicators are used to document both the performance of new Water Department lending across In FY25, projects improved or maintained their performance GWSP’s five priority themes and the ways that thematic against 12 of 14 Block B1 indicators tracking GWSP's priorities are reflected in projects’ design and monitoring influence in the design of new water lending (table 4.1). (appendix B, table B.2). A second set of indicators (Block B2) is used to document the results of all active World In FY25, GWSP supported the following achievements: Bank water-related lending operations, most of which were influenced by activities funded by GWSP (appendix B, table Inclusion: In FY25, 22 of 23 new projects were gender- B.3). tagged, meaning that, during design, they demonstrated a results chain by linking gender gaps to specific project results that are tracked in the results framework.4 The untagged project, additional financing for the Phase II Lesotho Lowlands Water Development Project, conducted a gender analysis and is helping reduce the time burden for women collecting water. However, the project did not meet the criteria of the World Bank’s gender tag because it did not propose to explicitly target and track disadvantaged women; instead, it will implement the on-site connections for universal benefit. Seventy percent of IDA-financed water operations included actions to create employment opportunities for women in medium- and high-skilled water sector jobs. While this result represents a decrease from FY24 (to 93 percent), it remains above the FY30 target of 65 percent. The percentage of projects with social inclusion aspects remained consistent at 74 percent, and the percentage of projects in FY25 that included disability-inclusive approaches in water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) increased to 62 percent (exceeding the target of 60 percent by FY30). All World Bank Water Department projects use universal access standards.5 Resilience: All new projects incorporated resilience in the design of water-related activities, meeting the FY30 target. Newly approved projects, including additional financing projects, are supporting 10 FCV countries (Cameroon, Comoros, Ethiopia, Kosovo, Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan). The fraction of project commitments designated climate financing increased from 68 percent in FY24 to 81 percent in FY25, and the annual net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction expected 86 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 4: ADVANCING RESULTS from the projects was much greater in FY25 than in FY24. Institutions: All projects approved in FY25 supported One new project in Karachi, Pakistan, is responsible for reforms/actions that strengthen institutional capacity. One nearly half of this reduction. Many activities contribute to of these projects is the Mali Water Security Project, which the large GHG reduction, including network rehabilitation aims to increase access to improved drinking water supply and leak reduction, filtration plant rehabilitation, expanded and enhance conservation of water sources in selected cities. wastewater collection and treatment, and wastewater reuse It finances targeted operational measures—particularly initiatives. nonrevenue water reduction—to improve the performance and cost recovery of Mali’s state-owned urban water Financing: The percentage of projects supporting reforms/ utility (the Société Malienne de Gestion de l’Eau Potable) actions to improve financial viability increased from 77 and to advance policy dialogue to define and sequence percent in FY24 to 89 percent in FY25, and the percentage sector reforms. The project strengthens monitoring and of projects focused on leveraging private finance increased information-sharing systems for water quantity and quality, from 41 percent to 56 percent. Both results now exceed enabling better coordination of water use and early warnings the FY30 targets. For example, advancing public-private of climate shocks. A dedicated project management and partnerships is a core activity for 30 percent of the projects capacity reinforcement component builds implementation in FCV settings. capacity throughout the Direction Nationale de l'Hydraulique and utilities. Table 4.1 Block B1 Indicators: Progress and Targets Summary Baseline Progress Progress Progress Target Indicator FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25 Number of new projects 24 26 22 27 Sustainability % of projects that promote sustainable 100 100 100 100 95 and efficient water use % of rural WSS lending projects that 100 100 100 80 90 measure functionality of water points* Inclusion % of projects that are gender tagged† 100 100 100 96 85 % of projects with other social inclusion 88 73 74 74 75 aspects‡ % of IDA-financed infrastructure — 89 93 70 65 operations in water, including actions to create employment opportunities for women in medium- and high-skilled jobs in this sector§ % of water projects with disability- — 54 58 62 60 inclusive approaches in WASH§ Institutions % of projects that support reforms/ 100 96 100 100 100 actions that strengthen institutional capacity Finance % of projects that support reforms/ 89 81 77 89 85 actions for improving financial viability % of projects with explicit focus on 22 8 41 56 20 leveraging private finance (table continues next page) GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 87 CHAPTER 4: ADVANCING RESULTS Baseline Progress Progress Progress Target Indicator FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25 Resilience % of projects incorporating resilience in 100 100 100 100 100 design of water-related initiatives Number of fragile and conflict-affected 7 9 5 10 20 states supported with a resilience lens|| % of new World Bank lending 58 65 68 81 60 commitments with climate change co-benefits# % of projects that have at least one — 100 100 100 100 climate-related indicator in their results framework Net GHG emissions (tCO2eq/year)¶ — -732,508 -540,959 -1,878,158 -900,000 Source: Analysis of the FY25 Water Department portfolio approved by the GWSP Monitoring and Evaluation team. Notes: GHG = greenhouse gas; WASH = water supply, sanitation and hygiene; WSS = water supply and sanitation; — = not available. * Three of four rural WSS projects measure functional water points. † Measures the percentage of projects that demonstrate a results chain by linking gender gaps identified in the analysis to specific actions tracked in the results framework. The calculation is based on 23 of the 27 new projects (not including additional financing projects, which have been reported previously). ‡ Indicator added in FY23. § Projects that target poor, vulnerable, or underserved communities or areas. Excludes citizen engagement, which is included under corporate monitoring. || In FY25, 38 countries and one economy were classified as having fragile and conflict-affected situations, per corporate guidelines. From FY24 to FY25, Haiti and Lebanon were reclassified, moving from fragile to conflict-affected. Target is cumulative for the period FY23–FY30. # Climate co-benefits are the percentage of commitments that meet the World Bank’s criteria for climate financing. ¶ The corporate GHG mitigation calculation does not apply to the Program for Results lending instrument; therefore, the calculation will underestimate the influence of all new lending on GHG mitigation. Sustainability: In FY25, all water projects promoted Project measures safely managed WSS services, nonrevenue sustainable and efficient water use, in line with performance water, and cost recovery, and the project incorporates in FY24. For example, the Second Greater Beirut Water universal access principles in WASH facility design. Only Supply Project is expanding wastewater treatment capacity the projects in Somalia (Barwaaqo’ additional financing), and promoting the reuse of treated water for agriculture Comoros, and Zambia did not include results indicators or industry or for aquifer recharge. This approach reduces aligned with SDG 6.1, SDG 6.2, or both. the demand for fresh water, limits pollution, and supports a circular water economy. Three of four water supply and sanitation (WSS) projects in rural areas included activities Active World Bank Lending to measure the functionality of water points. The project Projects in the Water Sector that did not measure functional water points is in the Kyrgyz Republic, where water is provided through centralized water Better-designed projects and enhanced technical schemes that are managed by a small municipal enterprise, assistance during implementation were expected to result not water points. The project will install individual household in improved project outcomes. A total of 218 ongoing water meters to replace communal standpipes. lending operations in the World Bank’s water-related portfolio reported their results in FY25. Most of these Of the 15 WSS projects approved in FY25, 12 included operations were influenced by activities funded by GWSP activities, results indicators, or both covering different and its predecessors, the Water Sanitation Program and dimensions of the safely managed level of service in the the Water Partnership Program. Figure 4.6 highlights some water or sanitation service ladders. For example, the results of the results achieved in FY25. framework for the Philippines Water Supply and Sanitation 88 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 4: ADVANCING RESULTS Figure 4.6 Results Reported by World Bank Lending Operations, FY25 = Yearly indicative target Millions of people with Millions of people with access to an improved access to improved sanitation water source 5 10 15 20 5 10 19.06 12.09 Female: Female: 8.8 12.9–14.9 5.68 8.42–9.7 Safely Managed: 4.4 Safely Managed: 0.44 Millions of farmers adopting Millions of people covered improved agricultural by risk mitigation measures technology (flood/drought) 1 2 2 4 6 2.46 7.16 2.37–2.4 4.1–5 Millions of hectares under Number of institutions with sustainable land/water water resources management management practices monitoring systems 2.0 4.0 6.0 5 10 15 20 25 5.8 23 1.0–1.2 22–24 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 89 CHAPTER 4: ADVANCING RESULTS Three of five indicators for water supply and sanitation farmers adopted improved agricultural technology; of these met or exceeded the yearly target range. The number of farmers, 80 percent were in IDA-eligible countries and 17 people provided with access to improved water in FY25 percent in countries affected by fragility and conflict (Central was 19.06 million, 28 percent above the upper bound of African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the yearly target range. This over-performance was mainly the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mali, Mozambique, due to results reported by India’s Karnataka Rural Water Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, and Somalia). Supply Program and Tanzania’s Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation project. In FY25, they provided In FY25, 7.16 million people benefited from water risk access to 6.43 million additional people in rural areas. Forty- mitigation, including measures addressing floods and seven percent of the people provided with access to water droughts; 4.6 million of these people benefited from in FY25 through World Bank projects were in IDA-eligible Poland’s Vistula Flood Management Project. Of the total countries.6 Thirty percent (up from 13 percent in FY24) were beneficiaries reported under this indicator, 19 percent in countries affected by fragility and conflict (Burkina Faso, were in IDA-eligible countries, and 12 percent came from Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea- countries affected by conflict and violence (Chad, Ethiopia, Bissau, Haiti, Iraq, Kiribati, Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Haiti, Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen). Niger, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Ukraine, and Yemen). Furthermore, the number of people provided with access to improved sanitation in FY25 was 12.09 million, which In FY25, 7.16 million is almost 25 percent higher than the upper bound of the yearly target. Almost three-quarters of the people who people benefited from gained access to improved sanitation (74 percent) in FY25 water risk mitigation, did so in IDA-eligible countries, while 25 percent were in countries affected by fragility and conflict (Burkina Faso, including measures Ethiopia, Iraq, Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, addressing floods and Ukraine, and Yemen). droughts. Of the indicators focused on water in agriculture and on water resources management, five of eight performed within or above the target range. In FY25, 2.46 million 90 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 4: ADVANCING RESULTS Five Block B2 indicators did not meet annual targets in FY25 (appendix B); however, three indicators (number of Endnotes schools and health centers with access to improved water 1 While the number of grants per sector offers one view of and sanitation services, biochemical oxygen demand GWSP’s support, it does not fully capture the breadth and pollution loads removed by treatment plants, and basins with depth of work funded in cross-cutting areas such as social management plans/stakeholder engagement mechanisms) inclusion and climate. Much of this work is reflected through are on track to reach or exceed the cumulative target range. results indicators—particularly those in Block B1—which track progress on these themes. As a result, figure 4.2 likely The indicators, water user associations created/strengthened underrepresents contributions advanced through other and hydropower generation capacity constructed/ mechanisms. Qualitative reporting, such as that included rehabilitated, were also short of the annual target range. in chapter 2, provides a more comprehensive reflection of Water user associations created/strengthened totaled GWSP’s impact across these areas. 2,163 (target 3,171–7,000), but the yearly result average is within the target range. The FY25 result for Hydropower 2 Influenced lending is calculated on the basis of (1) approved generation capacity constructed/rehabilitated is the highest and pipeline lending projects that were informed in a in four years and above the baseline yearly average; given fiscal year by active grants for the first time and (2) however, it remains below the target. A relatively small all active lending projects in a given fiscal year that were number of new dam projects are approved annually, and the informed by active grants (including those that had been time to accrue results can be very long. Furthermore, power previously reported). This figure is based on information generation varies from very small to very large. Therefore, collected through the annual monitoring process and the the data used to set the target may not have been sufficient dollar value of World Bank projects that were influenced. for making accurate predictions. If GWSP-supported knowledge was used in the design or implementation of a World Bank operation, the value of that Combined Results of GWSP operation is counted in its totality. Technical Assistance and 3 Additional financing projects are not new standalone World Bank Lending in Nine projects, but rather an extension or augmentation of an ongoing operation to address various needs that arise Countries (Block C) during project implementation, such as scaling up activities, covering cost overruns, filling financing gaps, or responding In FY25, GWSP conducted the baseline assessment for the to emergencies. new group of Block C countries and regions: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti, Jordan, Mozambique, Nigeria, Central Asia 4 The count excludes additional financing projects because (Amu Darya River Basin covering Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the parent projects had already undergone the gender tag and Uzbekistan), the Senegal and Niger river basins, and process. This process circumvents double counting. the Pacific Islands. Phase 2 of Block C emphasizes learning, sustainability, resilience, fragility, reaching the poor, and the 5 Eight of 13 new WASH projects have explicit indicators of interlinkages between GWSP-supported work and the WBG and activities related to disabilities inclusion. Water Strategy 2025–2030. It also emphasizes the role of partnerships in achieving results. Drawing on desktop reviews 6 To access IDA resources, a country must lack creditworthiness of project documentation, regional and national strategies, for borrowing from the International Bank for Reconstruction and other data sources—alongside interviews with relevant and Development, have a per capita income below the IDA stakeholders—the baseline assessments identified water operational cutoff ($1,335 in FY25), or both. IDA funds are challenges, mapped stakeholders, and developed theories allocated to the recipient countries on the basis of their of change to show how GWSP-funded technical assistance income levels and record of success in managing their will advance sustainability and resilience. Additionally, the economies and their ongoing IDA projects. IDA credits assessments produced a results framework with indicators, carry no or low interest charges. baselines, and FY30 targets, and they formulated context- specific questions for the new Block C engagement period. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 91 FROM KNOWLEDGE SHARING TO ENGAGEMENT Chapter CHAPTER 5: FROM KNOWLEDGE SHARING TO ENGAGEMENT In fiscal year (FY) 2025, GWSP continued to advance creation, peer-to-peer exchange, and community building. its knowledge-into-implementation approach, positioning It brings together the expertise of the World Bank, itself to implement the World Bank Group’s Water IFC, and MIGA to help client countries address critical Strategy 2025–2030. This approach emphasizes translating development challenges, reduce poverty, and promote knowledge into actionable solutions, fostering operational shared prosperity on a livable planet. GWSP developed innovation, and strengthening client capacity across a regional peer network for academy trainees to support regions. their ongoing collaboration on operational performance, tariff reform, and investment planning. Using this network, former trainees shared practical strategies, such as Knowledge Management and Greater Maputo’s approach to reducing nonrevenue water, Learning and insights, including those from Angola’s Luanda Bita Guarantee Project, which mobilized more than $1 billion The Bank’s Water Department delivered a diverse port- for water infrastructure. folio of 40 learning events and webinars, engaging more than 2,800 participants from the World Bank, International In FY25, GWSP supported the development of the Defying Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guar- Drought (D2) Impact Program, a collaborative initiative with antee Agency (MIGA), client institutions, academia, and the International Institute for Water and Environmental partners, such as UNICEF, the United Nations Educational, Engineering in Burkina Faso. D2 engages senior officials Scientific and Cultural Organization, the Global Conserva- from six Sahelian countries to foster policy dialogue and tion Fund, and The Nature Conservancy. These offerings reform on drought resilience. The program offers modular, covered a wide range of thematic areas (box 5.1). replicable learning solutions and was soft-launched in June 2025 under the theme  A Dialogue for Solutions to Help Address Drought in the Sahel. The WBG Academy: A New Approach to Engagement GWSP also developed the Utility Creditworthiness course, which uses a guided cohort model over 8 to 10 weeks or a Emerging from the Knowledge Compact, the World Bank 2-day face-to-face classroom-based session. In FY25, GWSP Group Academy was officially launched in June 2024 delivered the course to 229 people (about 30 percent to elevate capacity development as a core service— women) in Angola, Cambodia, Malawi, Mozambique, the alongside analytics and financing. The academy moves Philippines, the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, and Zambia, beyond traditional training models, emphasizing co- as well as the Caribbean. Box 5.1 Thematic Areas of Learning Events • Climate resilience and drought: Events such as Let’s Talk Drought in LAC!, Floods and Poverty, and the WBG Academy Drought Management Impact Program explored strategies for managing climate risks and building resilience. • Women and jobs: Equal Aqua and Integrating Gender into Climate-Resilient Irrigation focused on strengthening women’s economic participation in the water sector. • Water security and regulation: Events such as Enhancing Water Quality and Anchoring Regulation with Data and AI addressed regulatory innovation and service delivery. • Collaboration and knowledge sharing: Cross-cutting exchanges such as a water supply and sanitation community of practice and a WB-UNICEF session on WASH in FCV contexts promoted peer learning and joint action. • Transboundary water governance: The Global Forum on Transboundary Waters and basin roundtable events facilitated dialogue on shared water resources management. 94 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 5: FROM KNOWLEDGE SHARING TO ENGAGEMENT transboundary leaders to discuss common issues and build Knowledge Exchanges trust. In FY25, two basin roundtables were organized: Data Sharing for Informed Decision-Making in Transboundary GWSP provides opportunities for knowledge exchanges Basins in December 2024 and Financing Transboundary to enable practitioners and policymakers to learn from Basin Development (Part 1) in May 2025. The quarterly successes and setbacks in regions other than their own to roundtables consistently attracted more than 100 targeted adapt proven approaches and avoid repeating mistakes. participants from river basin organizations, national GWSP’s knowledge exchanges are a catalyst for collective governments, academia, and civil society. action, empowering countries and partners. The Water in Circular Economy and Resilience team, in Scaling Up Finance for Water collaboration with Águas de Portugal, hosted a knowledge exchange and client capacity-building workshop in Portugal In FY25, a new workshop on  nonrevenue water and in October 2024. The workshop, Implementing Circular performance-based contracts was piloted in Dar es Salaam Economy Principles in the Water Sector, brought together for eight utilities from Tanzania, Kenya, and Zambia, participants from Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Serbia, and the along with their respective ministries and regulators. The Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. It aimed to support client workshop gave participants the opportunity to learn from countries in embedding circular economy principles in the private sector’s experience with reducing water loss. water sector policies and projects. The event featured in- At the end of the workshop, each utility developed a depth discussions on water security, nature-based solutions, roadmap for adopting performance-based contracts. If the nonrevenue water reduction, ecosystem restoration, climate utilities achieve their roadmaps’ targets, recovered water adaptation and mitigation, and inclusive access to water losses could provide water to 2 million people and increase and sanitation. revenues by $48.5 million. High-Level Events The Global Facility for Transboundary Water Cooperation provided capacity building and knowledge exchange Over the past year, GWSP has provided technical through the second Global Forum on New Frontiers expertise and convening power to shape the agenda and for Transboundary Water Management, Financing and outcomes of major global and regional events attended Cooperation (co-hosted by the World Bank, the Swiss by the WBG. By facilitating collaboration among ministers, Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the United development partners, and private sector leaders, GWSP Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s Secretariat of helped drive concrete commitments and innovative the Water Convention) in Geneva, Switzerland. Participants solutions and move the conversation from awareness to recognized the forum as an important informal setting for action at these events. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 95 CHAPTER 5: FROM KNOWLEDGE SHARING TO ENGAGEMENT Washington, DC Stockholm, Sweden World Bank–International Monetary Fund World Water Week Annual Meetings Discussions advanced practical solutions for A side event spotlighted a projected 57% gap transboundary cooperation, urban sanitation, between water demand and supply by 2030 and groundwater governance, and financing water a $1 trillion annual investment shortfall. security. Baku, Azerbaijan COP29 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Seville, Spain 4th International Conference on Financing A session focused on scaling country-led for Development investment pipelines that integrate rapid development, resilience, and adaptation. GWSP supported the launch of the first joint MDB water security financing report by 10 multilateral development banks. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia COP16 of the United Nations Convention to Dakar, Senegal Combat Desertification Dakar+10 Forum GWSP helped launch the Drought Risk and The forum adopted the Dakar+10 Declaration Resilience Assessment methodology, enabling a for climate-smart expansion of irrigation systems, shift to proactive drought risk management. improved governance, and innovative financing in the Sahel. 96 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 5: FROM KNOWLEDGE SHARING TO ENGAGEMENT Data for Development drought resilience. The dashboards provide vital analytics on water accounting, crop yield gaps, and virtual water Water and sanitation challenges are inherently complex and flows. The initiative offers technical support to integrate dynamic, requiring timely, accurate, and granular data to these analytics into investment decisions, and it is inform responses to droughts, floods, pollution, and service advancing AI models to provide tailored solutions for local delivery gaps. GWSP’s open and accessible data platforms challenges. foster collaboration across sectors and borders, supporting water management and global learning, and are used by an In FY25, the Global Water Informatics and Data Initiative increasing number of people every year. established climate and early warning decision support tools. These tools help teams implement drought Key initiatives include the Funding a Water-Secure Future management measures. Two core tools are the Drought Dashboard—the first public database for water sector Risk and Resilience Assessment methodology—currently spending—which now allows World Bank task teams to being implemented in Jordan and in various Latin American explore and analyze spending trends. The dashboard’s more countries, Central Asia, and Southern Africa—and global than 100 global water indicators enable rapid visualization, drought bulletins. Updated quarterly, the bulletins provide country comparisons, benchmarking, and evidence-based World Bank teams with essential information on current and recommendations. The Water Department also supports near-future drought risk, as well as related hydrological and the WBG’s public Data360 Initiative, offering a global view socioeconomic conditions, such as groundwater deficits, of key indicators. food insecurity, and price trends. To equip policymakers, government agencies, and Efforts to support client dialogue and investments in World Bank teams with critical evidence, the Global water accounting and hydro-informatics continue to Water Informatics and Data Initiative translates complex expand through data-driven approaches to address geospatial data into actionable insights. The initiative has water management challenges. For example, NewIBNET delivered 23 tailored, publicly accessible dashboards at (International Benchmarking Network for Water and global, regional, and national levels. Client countries are Sanitation) allows utilities to upload their data and actively using these tools to inform their national water use visualizations to identify trends and track their strategies, target investments in irrigation, and build performance. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 97 CHAPTER 5: FROM KNOWLEDGE SHARING TO ENGAGEMENT non-World Bank sources. Queries consistently reflect the Connecting Teams and Clients with need of teams for resources on good practice/contextual Expertise advice (38 percent), terms of reference (23 percent), and sources for technical assistance (19 percent). GWSP supports the AskWater Help Desk, which connects operational staff to a global network of subject matter The Water Expertise Facility provides just-in-time support experts and resources related to the water sector. In FY25, to World Bank water operations by enabling teams to draw demand for the service grew by 7 percent, to a total of on external experts to provide timely, often urgent, advice 134 queries, with 28 percent from Africa, followed by Latin to help overcome project bottlenecks, address complex America and the Caribbean Region (15 percent), the Europe challenges, and draw on specialized technical expertise to and Central Asia (11 percent), and South Asia (9 percent). support clients. In FY25, the facility provided five grants, About 7 percent of requests came from staff not mapped spanning two regions (table 5.1). to the Water Department, and about 3 percent were from Table 5.1 Examples of Just-in-Time Support, FY25 Country / Supported project / initiative  Expertise provided  region  Africa Botswana Support the Preparation of National Supported the Government of Botswana in reviewing and refining Guidelines for Wastewater Reuse wastewater reuse and fecal sludge management guidelines to align and Fecal Sludge Management with international best practices and national policies, thereby improving environmental and public health protection under the Emergency Water Security and Efficiency Project. Burundi Menstrual Hygiene Empowerment Supported the Ministry of Education in developing a locally for Girls in Burundi adapted Kirundi-language guide to empower girls with knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage their menstruation and trained stakeholders for its nationwide rollout in primary schools. Tanzania Dissemination of a Data Monitoring Supported the Government of Tanzania to disseminate a data and Visualization Tool for Rural Water monitoring and visualization tool for rural water supply and Supply and Sanitation Services in sanitation services. Assistance included workshop planning, Tanzania training material design, and technical support for knowledge transfer to national counterparts adopting the tool. East Asia and Pacific Indonesia and Increasing the Water Footprint in Supported the governments of Indonesia and Papua New Papua New Development Policy Lending Guinea in scoping potential areas for water sector policy reform Guinea through expert-led reviews of regulatory, institutional, and legal frameworks, with the aim of informing development policy operations and enabling replication in other regions. Lao PDR Post-Flood Dam Break Assessment Provided technical support to the Government of Lao for in Support of Lao PDR Irrigation Dam conducting a dam safety risk assessment of the Nam Tha 3 Dam Safety, Operation, and Management following its failure during Typhoon Yagi. Support included an in-depth investigation of post-flood conditions to inform planning. Source: World Bank. 98 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT Communications In FY25, GWSP’s communications focused on turning evidence and operational results into influence, positioning GWSP as a leading solutions-oriented voice on water security. External and internal communication aimed to inform policy choices, sustain partner engagement, and expand awareness of GWSP’s role in securing water for people, water for food, and water for the planet. To increase its external visibility, GWSP rolled out a social media editorial line that is authoritative yet accessible, urgent but optimistic. It reinforced the line with a website audit, content refresh, and new LinkedIn channel. By the end of FY25, the top 12 countries by followers for the new LinkedIn account were the United States, India, South Africa, Kenya, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Colombia, France, Uganda, and Switzerland. Communications efforts, such as those highlighted here, elevate GWSP’s convening power, ensure that results are visible and credible, and keep water security at the center of development and climate agendas: • To mark World Water Day, GWSP coordinated a social media activation that translated the three pillars of the WBG’s Water Strategy 2025–2030—Water for People, Water for Food, and Water for Planet—into crisp visuals, human stories, and data-led messages underscoring water’s role as an enabler of jobs and growth. Two staff videos answering the question “Why is water important to you?” humanize GWSP’s technical agenda and rank among the top performers for GWSP’s new LinkedIn channel in terms of followers and impressions. • GWSP supported the development and promotion of the immersive story Resilient Lands, Thriving Futures, which highlights how communities in Jordan and Brazil are leading efforts to combat land degradation and drought. • GWSP highlighted a feature story from Bangladesh about women entrepreneurs who are breaking taboos and expanding access to affordable menstrual products. Profiles of Rita Majumder (who sells 150 menstrual packets per month while running school and community awareness sessions) and Baby Akter (who sells 200 packets per month and who is hiring help to meet demand) show how project linked training and GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 99 CHAPTER 5: FROM KNOWLEDGE SHARING TO ENGAGEMENT mentorship convert information gaps into viable micro increase the share of female staff from 12 percent in 2019 businesses and dignity enhancing services for girls and to 32 percent in 2024. Profiles of female staff members, women. such as Sim Sokhea, who advanced into a technical water-quality role thanks to training and supportive • GWSP created a video showcasing the collective action human resources practices, illustrate how these changes underway to restore Lake Victoria. Years of pollution open new career pathways for women. and inadequate sanitation have put the lake’s health and local livelihoods at risk. In response, the Lake Victoria • The Water Blog expands GWSP’s dissemination of Basin Commission, together with basin countries and knowledge, insights, and advocacy on water-related partners, developed the Lake-wide Inclusive Sanitation issues. It connects technical experts, practitioners, Strategy—a comprehensive plan that integrates policymakers, and the broader public and is highly sanitation, stormwater, and solid waste management accessed on GWSP’s LinkedIn account. across 57 urban settlements. • On International Women’s Day, GWSP highlighted the impact of gender-friendly recruitment in Cambodia’s water sector, drawing attention to practical steps for diversifying utility workforces. The story focuses on the Mondulkiri Water Utility, where targeted vacancy notices and tie-breaking policies in favor of women helped Featured Publications GWSP’s support has allowed the Water Department to develop a substantial knowledge base for policymakers, development specialists, and partners at all levels. Highlighted here are six GWSP-supported global FY25 publications that aim to inform government policy and implementation and to influence World Bank lending for sustained results. Public Disclosure Authorized Water Security and Climate Change: Insights from Country Climate and Development Reports Public Disclosure Authorized Drought Risk and Water Security and Resilience Assessment Climate Change: Methodology: Public Disclosure Authorized Insights from Drought Risk and Water Security and Resilience Assessment A Proactive Approach Country Climate and Climate Change Methodology to Managing Drought Development Reports Insights from Country Climate Risk Public Disclosure Authorized and Development Reports A Proactive Approach to Managing Drought Risk WATER SECURITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE: INSIGHTS FROM COUNTRY CLIMATE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORTS 1 This report analyzes how Country Climate and Development This report presents a methodology to help governments Reports address water-related climate risks and actions. proactively manage drought risks, offering practical It reveals that water is a central issue for economic measures for resilience throughout the drought cycle. The development, human well-being, and environmental methodology enables stakeholder engagement, targeted sustainability. It concludes that water sector actions support action, resource optimization, and reduced economic losses. both climate mitigation and climate adaptation. 100 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 5: FROM KNOWLEDGE SHARING TO ENGAGEMENT WO R K I NG PAPE R G LO B A L D E PA RT M E N T F O R WAT E R Financial Tools for the Water Sector to Support Scaling Drought Risk Management Water Financial Tools for Reuse: the Water Sector to A Tipping Point for Municipal and Support Drought Risk Industrial Use Management Rochi Khemka and Rolfe Eberhard Hila Cohen Mizrav, Markus Enenkel, and Nathan L. Engle Scaling Water Reuse: A Tipping Point for Municipal and Industrial Use This paper explores financial tools for drought risk This report presents a business case and roadmaps for management, focusing on meso-level stakeholders such sustainable water use, highlighting the public sector’s role in as utilities and irrigation associations. It proposes tailored market creation, regulation, and infrastructure investment. mechanisms, illustrated by case studies, and emphasizes It stresses enabling environments for a resilient water co-design with stakeholders, clear risk ownership, and economy focused on reuse. alignment with local contexts. WAT E R S E C U R I T Y F I N A N C I N G R E P O R T 2 0 2 4 1 Governance and Economics of Desalination and Reuse Water Governance and Water Security Economics of Security Financing Report 2024 Desalination and Financing Reuse Report Volumes 1–5 2024 VOLUME Adjusting Policy and Regulatory 1 Frameworks to Go Mainstream This five-volume series guides sector authorities in main- This inaugural report tracks joint commitments by streaming desalination and water reuse. It covers policy multilateral banks to global water security by 2030, frameworks, governance models, economic viability, project providing a baseline of investments and highlighting delivery, financial structures, and service models for under- the banks’ collaboration to foster innovation and share served communities. knowledge. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 101 APPENDIX A Financial Update APPENDIX A: FINANCIAL UPDATE Economic Affairs; the Swiss Agency for Development GWSP Donor Contributions and Cooperation; and the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The United From inception in October 2016 through June 30, 2025, total States Agency for International Development informed us signed contributions to GWSP totaled $383.4 million (table of its decision to exit GWSP in late FY25. A.1), of which $375.5 million is new funding, complementing $7.9 million rolled over from the Water and Sanitation Despite volatility in the development fundraising landscape, Program and the Water Partnership Program.1 FY25 saw continued interest and support from many development partners in GWSP. In FY25, GWSP signed new At the end of FY25, GWSP had 10 active donors: Australia’s contributions totaling $21.2 million. These contributions Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Austria’s indicate appreciation for GWSP’s value and its critical Federal Ministry of Finance; Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign role in supporting the implementation of the World Bank Affairs; the Netherlands’ Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Group Water Strategy 2025–2030. New contributions in Gates Foundation; Spain’s Ministry of Economy, Trade FY25 included $10.7 million from the United Kingdom’s and Business; the Swedish International Development Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, $3.1 Cooperation Agency, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for million from the United States Agency for International Table A.1 GWSP Donor Contributions as of June 30, 2025 Donor name US$ millions Share (%) Netherlands—Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation* 128.6 33.6 Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) 78.6 20.5 Gates Foundation 41.0 10.7 Australia—Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 28.5 7.4 Denmark—Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs 22.3 5.8 Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) 18.4 4.8 United Kingdom—Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office 16.7 4.4 Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) 16.7 4.3 United States Agency for International Development (USAID) 11.4 3.0 Austria—Federal Ministry of Finance 8.9 2.3 Spain—Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business 8.5 2.2 Norway—Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2.4 0.6 Rockefeller Foundation 1.6 0.4 Ireland—Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 0.02 0.01 Total commitments 383.4 100.0% * The Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation falls under the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 104 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT APPENDIX A: FINANCIAL UPDATE Development (for water supply and sanitation activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo), $2.7 million from the FY25 Disbursements Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, $2.6 million from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs In FY25, GWSP disbursed $31.1 million to support its and Trade, and $2.1 million from Austria’s Federal Ministry work program activities and had an active portfolio of 303 of Finance ($1.05 million for Ukraine). activities in 90 countries and regions, including 27 in settings of fragility, conflict, and violence.2 Of these 303 activities, The GWSP Council–endorsed 2022 GWSP Strategy Update 132 were newly activated in FY25, and 171 were carried includes a target budget of $320 million for the FY23–30 over from previous fiscal years. period. Fundraising efforts were stepped up following endorsement of the strategy by existing and new partners. GWSP continues to support innovative technical assistance At the end of FY22, GWSP had $43.3 million available for and analytical work for the sustainable delivery of water allocation. In addition, $28.5 million in signed contributions services. In FY25, 85 percent of disbursements were were scheduled for payment in FY23 and beyond. An allocated to knowledge and analytics that are global, additional $171.1 million in contributions was signed from regional, or country-based (see figure A.2). Of this amount, FY23 to FY25. A funding gap of $77.1 million is to be raised 67 percent of the disbursements for knowledge and in the FY26–30 period (see figure A.1). analytics were made in regional units, while the remaining disbursements (33 percent) were global. Much of that Figure A.1 Funding Status, FY26–FY30 ($, Millions) 43,3 28,5 171,1 77,1 0 40 80 120 160 200 240 280 320 Available resources as of June 30, 2022 Signed contributions to be received Contributions signed since July 1, 2022 Funds to be raised Figure A.2 Disbursements by Activity, FY25 7% Knowledge Sharing and Dissemination 6% Program Management and Administration 1% Communication 85% Knowledge and Analytics GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 105 APPENDIX A: FINANCIAL UPDATE Figure A.3 Disbursements by Activities and by Region, FY25 7% Knowledge Sharing and Dissemination 1% Communication 7% East Asia and Pacific 6% PMA 6% Europe and Central Asia 28% 57% Global Regional 7% Latin America Knowledge Knowledge 24% and the Caribbean and Analytics and Analytics Sub-Saharan Africa 3% Middle East and North Africa 10% South Asia global work was rooted in country-based analysis that was Communications, partnerships, learning, and knowledge then translated into overarching summaries, findings, and dissemination activities all drive the knowledge-into- recommendations. GWSP’s global analytical work provides implementation agenda and are what make the GWSP model direct expertise and advice to regional teams in addressing unique. These critical inputs into the program get cutting- complex design and implementation issues. edge research and analytics into the hands of staff, clients, and partners to influence policy, improve implementation, More than $17.7 million was disbursed by regional units in and build capacity. In addition, these inputs enhance GWSP’s FY25. The funds supported both lending activities and advisory critical interventions through lending from the World Bank services and analytics. These activities include country-level and other international financial institutions. The inputs also knowledge and technical assistance that influence policy include services delivered through the AskWater Advisory dialogue and project design. The Africa region accounted Service (Help Desk) and Water Expertise Facility, which for the largest percentage of regional disbursements in FY25 connects task teams with technical experts on a just-in-time (see figure A.3). GWSP disbursed $8.8 million to knowledge basis. Chapter 5 highlights some of the activities delivered and analytics categorized as global. These activities include through these entities. developing and refining tools for use by country teams as well as curating and expanding cutting-edge research, such The program management and administration (PM&A) as the World Bank publication Drought Risk and Resilience functions ensure GWSP’s smooth, efficient, and effective Assessment Methodology, that is directly applicable to the management. These functions include day-to-day program current challenges our clients are facing. The disbursements management and administration, program monitoring and to activities were managed globally and again drew heavily evaluation, and council engagement. GWSP’s lean program on expertise at the regional and country levels. management team plays an important role in administering trust fund operations and in monitoring and reporting To maximize the use of the analytical work by clients and results. Approximately $2.0 million, about 6 percent of the other key development partners, $2.5 million, accounting total program disbursements in FY25, corresponded to for 7 percent of the total budget, was allocated for PM&A activities. FY25 activities included the delivery of communications and knowledge dissemination activities. nine Block C baseline assessments. 106 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT APPENDIX A: FINANCIAL UPDATE Financial Trends Collaboration with Other In FY25, disbursements increased by 2.8 percent Trust Fund Programs compared with FY24 (see figures A.4 and A.5). Demand from the Water Department for GWSP resources—both GWSP coordinates closely with the following water- analytical and lending—is expected to continue growing. focused trust funds: the Cooperation in International At the country level, additional resources are needed to Waters in Africa, the 2030 Water Resources Group, the support upstream analytical work, including diagnostics, Danube Region Water Security, and the Utility of the capacity building, and convening efforts. This work is Future Center of Excellence. These funds are managed essential to help countries plan investments, mobilize by Water Department staff, and the overall approaches financing, and prepare for operations under the WBG and strategies are coordinated globally. water strategy. The Water Department also is committed to strengthening collaboration with other departments to Collaboration with other trust fund programs outside enhance water-related delivery through partnerships. the Water Department offers an avenue for expanding Figure A.4 GWSP Annual Disbursements, FY18–25 40 35,6 35 32,9 31,6 31,1 30,2 30 28 25 24,4 24,6 US$ Millions 20 15 10 5 0 FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 FY2024 FY2025 Figure A.5 GWSP Disbursements by Region and by Fiscal Year, FY18–25 FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 FY2024 FY2025 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 US$ Millions Sub-Saharan Africa Middle East and North Africa Knowledge Sharing and Dissemination East Asia and Pacific South Asia Program Management and Administration Europe and Central Asia Global Latin America and the Caribbean Communications GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 107 APPENDIX A: FINANCIAL UPDATE the Water Department’s reach and influence in other of irrigation services. In India, a GWSP grant supported sectors. From FY18 to FY25, $13.6 million was disbursed the development of a framework for a safety-related risk by the Water Department from the Global Facility for assessment of large dams. A GFDRR grant is supporting Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR); $11.3 million the development of tools to improve the resilience and was disbursed by the Water Department from the Quality safety of dams and downstream communities. In Kenya, Infrastructure Investment Partnership (QII); and $10.6 a Korea Green Growth Trust Fund grant supports the million was disbursed by the Water Department from the capacity building and institutional strengthening of Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility. In Uganda, county governments and their water services providers to a QII grant supports the design of large-scale irrigation facilitate high-quality planning, design, and development schemes under the Irrigation for Climate Resilience of climate-resilient water sector investments that support Project. In parallel, a GWSP grant leverages the Field- green growth. This grant ensures that these investments Level Leadership approach to effectively mobilize and are sustainably operated and maintained. Table A.2 inspire frontline government workers, who are essential lists the largest collaborating trust funds based on to service delivery. This collaboration strengthens disbursements between FY18 and FY25. institutional capacity and enhances the quality and impact Table A.2 Top 10 Trust Fund Programs Disbursing Through the Water Department, FY18–25 No. Program 1 Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) 2 Quality Infrastructure Investment Partnership (QII) 3 Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) 4 South Asia Water Initiative (SAWI)* 5 Korea Green Growth Trust Fund (KGGTF) 6 Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) 7 IFC-Hungary Partnership 8 Global Partnership for Results-Based Approaches (GPRBA) 9 Western Balkans Investment Framework Program 10 Global Environment Facility (GEF) * The SAWI multi-donor trust fund closed in June 2021, after more than a decade of work to increase regional cooperation in managing major Himalayan river systems and building climate resilience. Endnotes 2. Of 303 activities, 273 were monitored for results using the GWSP results monitoring and evaluation system. The 1. Funding from Norway, the Rockefeller Foundation, and remaining 30 activities were not monitored because they Ireland was rolled over from the two preceding programs. were too new (approved in the last quarter of the fiscal These donors have since exited the GWSP trust fund. year); focused on knowledge sharing, dissemination, or communications; or involved program management and administration. 108 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT APPENDIX B: RESULTS PROGRESS GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 109 APPENDIX B Results Progress APPENDIX B: RESULTS PROGRESS BLOCK A GWSP-Funded Knowledge and Analytics Activities Table B.1 Summary of Results Achieved as of June 30, 2025 Reported by 273 Active GWSP-Funded Activities Reporting Results in FY25 % of projects with indicator Results to be achieved by FY25 results Indicator Program end of grant achieved Sustainability Policies/strategies/regulatory frameworks informed to strengthen 48 26 sustainable management of water resources, built infrastructure assets, or both Tools and monitoring systems supported to strengthen the sustainable 32 22 management of water resources (at the national, basin, and aquifer levels) built infrastructure assets, or both Water-related institutions supported to sustain water resources, built 51 33 infrastructure assets, or both Knowledge products generated on sustainability 37 18 Inclusion Policies/strategies generated or refined to enhance SOCIAL 14 11 INCLUSION OF WOMEN in accessing jobs, markets, services, or decision-making roles in water resources/water supply and sanitation or other water-related service delivery* Policies/strategies generated or refined to enhance SOCIAL 4 4 INCLUSION OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES in accessing jobs, markets, services, or decision-making roles in the management of water resources or in water supply and sanitation or other water- related service delivery Policies/strategies generated or refined to enhance SOCIAL 5 4 INCLUSION OF OTHER EXCLUDED GROUPS† in accessing jobs, markets, services, or decision-making roles in the management of water resources or in water supply and sanitation or other water- related service delivery (beyond gender and disability inclusion) Initiatives that develop approaches, including integrated cross-sectoral 14 8 approaches where relevant to address water, sanitation, and nutrition issues Water-related institutions trained in GENDER ISSUES, human resources 10 6 practices related to diversity and inclusion, or both Water-related institutions trained in issues and practices related to 2 1 PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES (table continues next page) 112 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT APPENDIX B: RESULTS PROGRESS % of projects with indicator Results to be achieved by FY25 results Indicator Program end of grant achieved Inclusion Water-related institutions trained in issues related to 3 2 (continued) OTHER EXCLUDED GROUPS† (beyond gender and disability inclusion) Knowledge products generated on inclusion 9 6 Institutions Policies/strategies/regulatory frameworks informed to strengthen the 47 29 institutional environment for improved water resources management, water services delivery, or both Fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV)–affected states supported to 7 3 develop and implement a water sector transition strategy Water-related institutions supported to strengthen capacity for 29 40 managing water resources or service delivery Institution-focused knowledge products generated 60 12 Financing Policies/strategies/regulatory frameworks developed to improve 22 12 financial viability Institutions supported to improve their financial viability and 24 12 creditworthiness Knowledge products generated on financing 22 7 Resilience Policies/strategies/regulatory frameworks developed or implemented 30 16 to strengthen resilience of freshwater basins, delivery of services for communities dependent on them, or both Diagnostics conducted or implementation undertaken to promote 22 12 principles of freshwater-resilience building Water-related institutions supported to build resilience in water 32 28 resource management or service delivery Resilience-focused knowledge products generated 45 17 * Of 303 activities in the FY25 GWSP active portfolio, 273 activities were monitored for results using the GWSP results monitoring and evaluation system. The remaining 30 activities were not monitored because they were too new (approved in the last quarter of the fiscal year); focused on knowledge sharing, dissemination, or communications; or involved program management and administration. † These groups refer to people excluded on bases other than gender or disability. GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 113 APPENDIX B: RESULTS PROGRESS BLOCK B Water Department Outcomes Table B.2 Portfolio Influence Indicators Baseline Progress Progress Progress Target Indicator FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25 Number of new projects 24 26 22 27 Sustainability % of projects that promote sustainable 100 100 100 100 95 and efficient water use % of rural WSS lending projects that 100 100 100 80 90 measure functionality of water points* Inclusion % of projects that are gender tagged† 100 100 100 96 85 % of projects with other social inclusion 88 73 74 74 75 aspects‡ % of IDA-financed infrastructure — 89 93 70 65 operations in water, including actions to create employment opportunities for women in medium- and high-skilled jobs in this sector§ % of water projects with disability- — 54 58 62 60 inclusive approaches in WASH§ Institutions % of projects that support reforms/ 100 96 100 100 100 actions that strengthen institutional capacity Finance % of projects that support reforms/ 89 81 77 89 85 actions for improving financial viability % of projects with explicit focus on 22 8 41 56 20 leveraging private finance Resilience % of projects incorporating resilience in 100 100 100 100 100 design of water-related initiatives Number of fragile and conflict-affected 7 9 5 10 20 states supported with a resilience lens|| % of new World Bank lending 58 65 68 81 60 commitments with climate change co-benefits# % of projects that have at least one — 100 100 100 100 climate-related indicator in their results framework Net GHG emissions (tCO2eq/year)¶ — -732,508 -540,959 -1,878,158 -900,000 (table continues next page) 114 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT APPENDIX B: RESULTS PROGRESS Source: Analysis of the FY25 Water Department portfolio approved by the GWSP Monitoring and Evaluation team. Notes: GHG = greenhouse gas; WASH = water supply, sanitation and hygiene; WSS = water supply and sanitation; — = not available. * Three of four rural WSS projects measure functional water points. † Measures the percentage of projects that demonstrate a results chain by linking gender gaps identified in the analysis to specific actions tracked in the results framework. The calculation is based on 23 of the 27 new projects (not including additional financing projects, which have been reported previously). ‡ Indicator added in FY23. § Projects that target poor, vulnerable, or underserved communities or areas. Excludes citizen engagement, which is included under corporate monitoring. || In FY25, 38 countries and one economy were classified as having fragile and conflict-affected situations, per corporate guidelines. From FY24 to FY25, Haiti and Lebanon were reclassified, moving from fragile to conflict-affected. Target is cumulative for the period FY23–FY30. # Climate co-benefits are the percentage of commitments that meet the World Bank’s criteria for climate financing. ¶ The corporate GHG mitigation calculation does not apply to the Program for Results lending instrument; therefore, the calculation will underestimate the influence of all new lending on GHG mitigation. Table B.3 Sector Results Indicators Baseline Progress Indicative targets FY Yearly FY FY FY Yearly FY Yearly Indicator 18–22 avg 23 24 25 avg 23–30 avg Water Supply and Sanitation 1.1 People with access 64.3 12.86 11.34 17.24 19.06 of 15.88 103.2– 12.9– to improved water of which of which which 119.1 14.9 sources (million) female: female: female: 5.65 8.53 8.8 safely managed: 4.4 1.2 People with access to 201.11 40.22 15.87 4.13 12.09 of 10.7 67.38– 8.42– improved sanitation of which of which which 77.6 9.7 (million) female: female: female: 7.96 2.06 5.68 safely managed: 0.44 1.3 Biochemical oxygen 86,891 17,378 8,136 18,562 14,785 13,828 139,000– 17,400– demand pollution 164,000 20,500 loads removed by treatment plants (tons/year) 1.4 Number of schools 2,559 5,404 1,107 3,023 11,000– 1,375– and health centers 15,000 1,875 with access to improved water and sanitation services (table continues next page) GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT 115 APPENDIX B: RESULTS PROGRESS Baseline Progress Indicative targets FY Yearly FY FY FY Yearly FY Yearly Indicator 18–22 avg 23 24 25 avg 23–30 avg 1.5 Utilities with improved 118 23.6 25 23 24 24 192– 24– working ratio 240 30 Water for Agriculture 2.1 Area with new/ 3.66 0.73 0.53 2.16 1 1.23 5.84– 0.73– improved irrigation 7.62 0.95 services (million hectares) 2.2 Farmers adopting 11.84 2.37 2.79 2.48 2.46 of 2.58 19.2– 2.37– improved agricultural of which of which which 19.94 2.4 technology (million) female: female: female: 1.13 0.68 1.11 2.3 Water user 15,854 3,170 5,158 4,962 2,163 4,094 25,368– 3,171– associations created/ 56,000 7,000 strengthened Water Security and Integrated Water Resources Management 3.1 People in areas 21.77 4.35 2.15 16.37 7.16 8.56 33.1– 4.1– covered by water-risk 40 5 mitigation measures (flooding/drought) (million) 3.2 Basins with 91 18 35 17 12 21 144– 18– management 160 20 plans/stakeholder engagement mechanisms 3.3 Institutions with WRM 109 21.8 23 24 23 23 176– 22– monitoring systems 192 24 3.4 Area under 4.82 0.96 2.9 2.9 5.8 3.86 8– 1– sustainable land/ 9.4 1.2 water management practices (million hectares) 3.5 Hydropower 2,100 420 375 50 507 311 11,088– 1,386– generation capacity 13,600 1,700 constructed/ rehabilitated (megawatts) Note: WRM = water resources management. 116 GWSP 2025 ANNUAL REPORT Photo Credits Front cover reewungjunerr / Adobe Stock 61 Cynthia Flores / World Bank 2 World Bank 62 Jessica Belmont / World Bank 7 World Bank 63 World Bank 9 THINK b / Adobe Stock 64 Warsame Gure / World Bank 12 Deyan Georgiev / Adobe Stock 66 explorewithinfo / Adobe Stock 14 World Bank 67 kenan / Adobe Stock 15 World Bank 68 Ami Ndiaye / World Bank 16 World Bank 71 World Bank 20 World Bank 72 World Bank 22 World Bank 73 World Bank 24 World Bank 75 World Bank 26 World Bank 76 World Bank 28 ENGINEER - STUDIO / Adobe Stock 79 World Bank 30 World Bank 84 World Bank 31 jaturunp / Adobe Stock 86 World Bank 32 World Bank 90 Smart Edge / World Bank 33 World Bank 92 Media Lens King / Adobe Stock 35 Mariana Kaipper Ceratti / World Bank 95 Naguib Chowdhury / World Bank 36 Ollivier Gerard / World Bank 97 Alejandra Gutierrez / World Bank 37 World Bank 99 World Bank 38 World Bank 101 World Bank 40 World Bank 109 Tapash Paul / World Bank 41 Guillermo Gonzalez / World Bank 100 World Bank 42 World Bank 43 Matilda James Kivelege / World Bank 44 World Bank 46 World Bank 47 World Bank 48 Mariana Kaipper Ceratti / World Bank 49 Osmar / Adobe Stock 50 World Bank 52 Eric Vanweydeveld / World Bank 54 World Bank 55 World Bank 56 World Bank 57 World Bank 58 World Bank 59 Graham Crouch / World Bank 60 Graham Crouch / World Bank