Water.org’s WaterCredit product aims to achieve universal access to clean drinking water and improved sanitation by increasing access to finance for households making investments in water and sanitation improvements. This effort has resulted in partnerships with 113 financial institutions worldwide and 4.6 million water and sanitation (WSS) loans disbursed for a total value of USD 1.7 billion.

After more than a decade of collaborating with financial institutions (FIs), Water.org commissioned IPC to develop a comprehensive overview and primer on the organisation’s work with FIs to date. The purpose of this internal document was to serve as a key resource to raise awareness among Water.org staff on the types of FIs partnered with, the key characteristics of those partnerships and the most effective partnership approaches with each partner type.

In order to do this, IPC’s experts implemented the following tasks:

• compiling an inventory of Water.org’s past interventions with FIs, using case studies, technical briefs and WaterPortal data
• conducting key informant interviews with Water.org staff, with a focus on country directors and operations managers
• synthesising findings into key descriptions, including a typology of Water.org partner institutions
• distilling key insights and guidance for developing and scaling effective partnerships with various types of financial institutions