Progress to deliver safe drinking water services to 100 million rural people by 2030

REACH research is informing the development of results-based funding to improve rural water services and make progress towards SDG 6.1. In 2021, a global diagnostic survey identified rural water service providers in 68 countries with interest or existing experience in results based funding. From small service providers to national and sub-national governments, over 460,000 handpumps and some 2.6 million piped connections were documented.

Further screening of the data indicated up to 68 service providers in 28 countries could potentially provide results-based services to 5 million rural people in the near term. Four conditions are proposed to guide prioritising on-going country engagement: a) policy alignment, b) public finance, c) verifiable data, and d) professional services. Supported by this diagnostic study, the Uptime Catalyst Facility has expanded results-based contracts for reliable water services serving 1.5 million rural people in 7 countries in 2022 to over 5 million people in 17 countries, including Latin America and India in 2024.