There is a tremendous need for investment in clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) throughout the world. Lack of access to adequate WASH facilities leads to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of deaths each year and disproportionately affects rural areas of low and middle-income countries. A recent United Nations report indicates a majority of countries with national WASH plans lack sufficient financing to implement the plans and almost 90% don’t have enough for rural drinking water and rural sanitation plans. World Vision, supported by SeaFreight Labs, is interested in exploring opportunities to close the financing gap by leveraging its planned investments into WASH to attract additional funding for the most remote and vulnerable communities. The aim of this Challenge is to gather well-formulated plans to accomplish this and maximize the impact of World Vision’s WASH investments.
This Challenge has a special award structure with awards of $20,000, $10,000, and $5,000 for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, respectively, for granting the Seeker a non-exclusive license to practice the solutions.
This Theoretical Challenge requires only a written proposal.
Access to adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services has a major impact on the health and well-being of a population. Unfortunately, many people around the world lack such access with a lack of financing for WASH development a primary reason. The 2019 UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water Report indicates most countries with costed national WASH plans lack sufficient finance to implement. Almost 90% do not have sufficient financing for rural drinking water and rural sanitation plans. The financing needed to fill this gap will not be met by a single entity in the sector. Governments, the private sector, nonprofits and civil society all need to influence additional financing for WASH.
Over the next 5 years, World Vision is committed to raising $1 billion for investment into WASH services for low- and middle-income countries to help close the financing gap. World Vision is interested in exploring opportunities to increase investment in the sector by leveraging its planned investments into WASH to attract additional funding for the most remote and vulnerable communities. World Vision has the opportunity to utilize tens of millions of dollars in creative ways without many of the restrictions faced by government-backed institutions. There are a number of resources detailing the financing gap in WASH and there are already a variety of thoughtful ways to reduce this gap. The aim of this Challenge is to gather thoughtful and appropriate detailed plans to help explore these opportunities and/or develop completely new ideas for increasing investment in WASH.
This is a Theoretical Challenge that requires only a written proposal to be submitted. The Challenge award will be contingent upon theoretical evaluation of the proposal by the Seeker.
To receive an award, the Solvers will not have to transfer their exclusive IP rights to the Seeker. Instead, Solvers will grant to the Seeker a non-exclusive license to practice their solutions.
Awards:- $20,000, $10,000, and $5,000
Deadline:- 14-09-2021
