New report – Assessing DFID’s Results in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

23 May 2016

ICAI’s latest review finds that UK aid has reached 62.9 million people with water, sanitation and hygiene interventions over five years, but must do more to ensure these improvements are sustainable.

The review highlighted sustainability as an area of particular concern, with not enough being done to ensure that improved WASH access was becoming a permanent part of people’s lives.

DFID needs to do more to address long-term problems like water security, maintenance of infrastructure, strengthening local institutions so they can manage services, and changing behaviour.

The review also found that improvements are needed to ensure value for money – with a stronger focus on lifetime investment costs – and to target vulnerable people as well as hard-to-reach communities, in line with the Global Goals commitment to ‘leave no one behind’.

The review gave DFID a ‘Green-Amber’ rating, recognising the impressive results, but also underscoring the need to better maximise the impact and sustainability of UK aid in this important sector.

Assessing DFID’s Results in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene is ICAI’s first Impact Review, a new format of review which examines results claims of UK aid, including their credibility and significance for the intended beneficiaries.

Read the full report – Assessing DFID’s Results in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene