Water for Women to include people with disabilities in climate-resilient WASH
Project | April 24, 2025
CBM Global’s Inclusion Advisory Group (IAG) Australia partners with the Water for Women Fund to ensure water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) projects across Asia and the Pacific are inclusive and accessible for people with disabilities.
Water for Women is Australia’s flagship WASH program that is delivered across seven projects in ten countries in the Asia-Pacific via a Fund Partnership Group, comprising eight Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), four research organisations, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Fund Coordinator and managing contractor, GHD.
About the program
From 2018 to 2024, Water for Women aimed to deliver 20 climate-resilient WASH projects across South Asia, South-East Asia, and the Pacific, benefiting over 3.4 million people, including people with disabilities. People with disabilities often face additional barriers to accessing WASH services and development processes and can be unintentionally overlooked in WASH efforts.
The role of IAG in the program is to support:
- Equipping Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and research partners with strategies to implement disability inclusion in their projects.
- Strengthening disability-inclusive practices across all levels of the program.
At the fund level, IAG:
- Provided guidance on disability measurement and monitoring and undertook annual disability inclusion analyses.
- Produced learning briefs and delivered learning events.
- Developed a range of tools and guidance like the Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) Self-assessment Tool and Partnerships for Transformation: Guidance for WASH and Rights Holder Organisations.
- Facilitated workshops, Communities of Practice, and technical discussions.
- Acted as a technical advisor for the Fund’s learning agenda and key initiatives.
At the project level, IAG:
- Delivered training, mentoring, and technical advice to project teams.
- Contributed to project designs and monitoring frameworks for inclusion.
- Supported research, evaluation and enhanced the capacity of WASH implementers to embed inclusive practices.
- Developed knowledge and learning products.
Through IAG’s support, the Water for Women program has become a model for disability-inclusive climate-resilient WASH, fostering more equitable access, capacity-building, and knowledge-sharing across diverse stakeholders. The collaboration has strengthened practices, contributing to more sustainable, climate resilient and inclusive impacts for communities in the region.
Examples of resources developed under this partnership include:
- Disability-inclusive WASH: Practice within Water for Women – Water for Women Fund
- Partnerships for Transformation: Guidance for WASH and Rights Holder Organisations
- Disability inclusion and COVID-19: Guidance for WASH delivery
- Towards Transformation: Shifting Social Norms for Transformative WASH – Water for Women Fund
- GESI Self-Assessment Tool (SAT)
- Sustainability without accessibility? Not likely!
https://cbm-global.org/project/water-for-women
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