Principles for water, sanitation and hygiene systems strengthening

Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services are the product of complex systems comprised of many interacting factors and actors. Over the past ten years, it has become widely recognized that an intentional and coordinated strengthening of these WASH systems is essential to realising Sustainable Development Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. A quadrupling of current rates of progress is required to achieve SDG6 by 2030. A systems strengthening approach is vital both to accelerating progress while ensuring services will be climate resilient in the long term. In April 2023, representatives from UNICEF, IRC, and SIWI came together for a two-day workshop to discuss UNICEF's emerging WASH systems strengthening framework. During this workshop, the importance of understanding WASH as a system was discussed and a set of principles to guide action for WASH systems strengthening was developed.