Save the Children Becomes Newest Member of Millennium Water Alliance

The Millennium Water Alliance Board of Directors announces its acceptance of Save the Children, one of the world’s best-known humanitarian and development organizations, as the 20th member of the 17-year-old Alliance.

“With the addition of another major international actor in global development as Save the Children, we end one the world’s most difficult years on a high note for our Alliance, expanding the promise of reaching millions more of the world’s poor with better access to safe water, safe sanitation, and essential hygiene education,” said Peter Lochery, Acting Chairman of the MWA Board of Directors.

 “At the end of 2020, MWA reaches a total membership of 20 very diverse organizations with extraordinary geographic reach and specialized skills. As one of the founders of MWA in 2003, it gives me heart to see this vivid demonstration of the organization’s continued purpose to advance best practices and help elevate the role of WASH in global development,” Lochery said.

Irene Koek, Associate Vice President and Global Health Practice Leader for Save the Children, said that “Save the Children is thrilled to join the Millennium Water Alliance. MWA’s longstanding and reputable work to advocate for universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene services is inseparable with Save the Children’s goals of ensuring that all children survive, learn, and are protected.”

“We look forward to joining forces with alliance members to advance important WASH-related policy, advocacy and program efforts to benefit the world’s children,” Koek said.

With over $70 million in WASH funding, Save the Children is a global WASH leader with programming that contributes to achieving universal WASH access in households, communities, health care facilities, and schools across development and emergency contexts. Save the Children leads WASH activities on four global USAID awards and ten bilateral programs spanning 40 countries, and works in all 2020 U.S. Government Global Water Strategy priority countries, supported by a global team of experts located in-country, regionally, and in the U.S.

MWA, headquartered in Washington, DC, convenes and influences governments, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations to accelerate progress in water, sanitation, and hygiene. Its 20 member organizations work in more than 90 countries around the world, and includes leading WASH implementing NGOs, research institutions, and private sector partners. MWA leverages the skills and knowledge that come from working in partnership.

MWA is a leading voice in the global WASH sector, and in particular, in U.S. advocacy for more U.S. government investment in global WASH. MWA was one of the key leaders in the passage by Congress of the 2005 Sen. Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act, and the 2014 Sen. Paul Simon Water for the World Act. MWA also serves as a US voice for civil society in the Sanitation and Water for All initiative, and in other development forums in the U.S. and abroad.

Save the Children also implements WASH activities funded by a variety of private and public donors (e.g., DFID, DFAT, EU, OCHA, UNICEF, GSK, Unilever, and Procter & Gamble), and is an Accredited Entity with the UN Green Climate Fund. Save the Children leads USAID’s Practices, Research and Operations in its PRO-WASH award, which aims to improve the quality of activities, strengthen the capacity and skills, and improve the level of knowledge and practices of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance WASH implementing partners.

Save the Children’s WASH priorities and programs are always integrated with other health, education, or child protection activities, and contribute to its three goals: to ensure that children around the world survive, learn, and are protected. Save the Children developed the Clean Household Approach that promotes Essential WASH Actions with caregivers to reduce exposure of children under age two to environmental contaminants.

Its Clean Clinic Approach supports health facilities to make incremental hygiene and infection prevention improvements, and to institutionalize performance-based certification and monitoring to provide routine, facility-level cleanliness data at each level of the health system.

Save the Children integrates WASH in its school health and nutrition programs through school and government policy improvements, environmental health and personal hygiene education, promotion of key WASH behaviors and practices, and supporting WASH services in schools.

Save the Children also participates on research initiatives and multiple global working groups, including the Global WASH in Health Care Facilities Working Group led by WHO and UNICEF, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the Global Cholera Task Force, the WHO Pandemics and Epidemics Working Group, and the Global WASH Cluster.