An initiative by the World Bank’s Global Water Practice to help embrace and implement circular and resilience principles in the water sector around the world. The objective of the Water in Circular Economy and Resilience (WICER) Initiative is to establish a common understanding of circular economy principles and resilience in the water sector and to support countries to implement those principles. The World Bank’s WICER team has developed the Water in Circular Economy and Resilience (WICER) Framework (see image below) to guide practitioners who are incorporating the principles in policies and strategies, planning, investment prioritization and design and operations. READ MORE.

The Sustainable Development Goal 6 has drastically changed the focus from access to a household sanitation facility (as was prioritized under the MDGs) to consideration of the full sanitation service chain. Despite 2.1 billion people gaining access to improved toilets or latrines since 1990, we have a long way to go to meet the new SDG target of safely managed sanitation for all.

The World Bank’s Water Global Practice, in partnership with sector development partners (including The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Emory University, The University of Leeds, WaterAid and Plan International), have jointly developed and advanced an approach to tackling urban sanitation challenges, termed Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS). 

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Water and sanitation utilities require a new strategic management approach to provide WSS quality services that ensure continuity of operations, encourage continuous improvement, develop strategic capabilities, and create efficient and sustainable strategic business models.

To guide WSS utilities to reinvent and strengthen themselves, the World Bank has developed Utility of the Future (UoF), a program designed to catalyze, materialize and maintain transformation efforts in WSS utilities. The goal is to become the Utility of the Future — a future-focused utility, which provides reliable, safe, inclusive, transparent, and responsive WSS services through best-fit practices that allow it to operate in an efficient, resilient, innovative and sustainable manner. This is achieved through the strengthening of the essential processes of a WSS utility to face their current challenges, and the development of future-thinking capabilities to be one step ahead in a fast-changing environment. READ MORE.

NewIBNET invites water utilities and other service providers, regulators and researchers, to systematically share data on service delivery performance and on their management. Based on such data, NewIBNet offers analyses and other data-based services that will allow NewIBNET members – water and sanitation service providers, regulators, and others – to take informed decision, including on management action and on investments, and thus to improve their performance themselves. READ MORE.

Cooperative transboundary water management is important for economic development and growth. Transboundary water cooperation is a significant contribution to sustainable development, biodiversity conservation, and climate mitigation and adaptation in many of the world’s most vulnerable and fragile regions. Current levels of transboundary cooperation are limited in many areas, neither capturing existing opportunities nor sufficiently mitigating risks to transboundary resources. The Global Facility for Transboundary Water Cooperation aims to promote cooperation regarding shared freshwater resources. It serves as a mechanism to scale up support from the World Bank and its partners for regional and national actors who seek to collaboratively manage transboundary waters in the face of urgent development challenges and climate change. The Facility’s objective is to develop targeted knowledge, tools, operational support, and financing for cooperative transboundary water management and development. READ MORE