Integration of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and freshwater conservation : overview and background, case studies, and enabling conditions

The objective of this report is to advance the projects and partnerships of Coca-Cola's Global Water Stewardship work to have greater impact and contribute to the realization of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6. Specifically, this report focuses on community water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and freshwater conservation (FC) projects, and assesses the motivations, benefits and challenges to integrate these projects, as well as the enabling conditions that support their integration. Building off of the groundbreaking work of the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG), this report is also intended to contribute to the research on integration more broadly and support further integration of WASH and freshwater conservation efforts.

At a high level, ABCG defines integrated (or multi-sectoral) projects as those which "combine health interventions with conservation activities, creating synergies and greater conservation and human well-being outcomes than if they were implemented in single-sector approaches."1 Interviews and a review of integrated project case studies revealed there are three key factors to classify integration: (1) project origin, (2) primary objectives, and (3) interdependence.

This report applies these classifications to 17 example projects. This classification is important to identify how the motivations of a community or an implementing organization to pursue integration can contribute to the work's success, as well as to build the case for integration because parallels can be drawn between past examples and future scenarios.

Aside from SDG 6, there are various policies, institutions, and research at the international, regional, and national level that enable integration of WASH and freshwater conservation either by providing the legal framework, implementing power, or evidence base to support it.

WASH and freshwater conservation organizations have distinct motivations to integrate and also identify different benefits and challenges. Gathering this evidence from WASH and freshwater conservation practitioners not only builds the case for further integration, but also identifies specific barriers that can be addressed in the future to design and implement successful integrated projects. Finally, assembling a set of enabling criteria for integrated projects, while not prerequisites or requirements for success, serve to assist funders and practitioners in both the WASH and freshwater conservation communities when evaluating a project's potential for integration [Executive summary]..