Development Innovation Ventures, with co-funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is searching for cost-effective, sustainable solutions in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector.

Photo credit Jonathan Kalan

The Problem:

Today, more than 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and populations who nominally have "improved service" suffer problems of both water quality and service reliability. 2.6 billion people lack access to safe sanitation, of which 1.1 billion people practice open defecation, meaning they have no sanitation facilities at all. These failings have a profound effect on public health around the world. Diarrhea alone kills nearly 2 million people worldwide each year, of which 1.5 million are children. Nearly 90 percent of diarrhea is attributed to unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene, and researchers estimate that effective sanitation services alone can reduce diarrheal disease by up to 45 percent.

This partnership with DIV and Gates Foundation will work to identify and rigorously test new WASH technologies and delivery models, and then scale and replicate those that are proven successful.

How to Apply to WASH For Life

USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures is an open competition supporting breakthrough solutions to the world's most intractable development challenges—interventions that could change millions of lives at a fraction of the usual cost.

WASH for Life seeks applications through DIV’s general competition. Read more on how to apply to DIV. For additional questions on the DIV model, visit the DIV Model in Detail page.