Giving Compass' Take:
- Alix Lebec discusses investing in water and women to counter the long-running underfunding of investment at the intersection of gender equity and water, sanitation, and hygiene.
- How can you invest at the intersection of gender equity and water and sanitation to improve the health and well-being of communities across the world?
- Learn more about trends and topics related to best practices in giving.
- Search Guide to Good for purpose-driven nonprofits in your area.
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In an age of billionaire space races and trillion-dollar tech valuations, it’s unconscionable that more people have a cell phone than a toilet, showing the lack of investment in both water and women.
And yet, here we are.
Right now, 2.2 billion people live without access to safe water, and 3.5 billion are without basic sanitation. One thousand children under the age of five die every day due to unsafe water, hygiene, and sanitation conditions. And due to recent sweeping cuts in U.S. foreign aid — approximately $8 billion — countless water projects around the world have been halted midstream, including life-saving efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where families have been forced to draw water from contaminated sources, leading to more than 35,000 suspected cholera cases, demonstrating the lack of investment in water and women.
The lack of investment in water and women isn’t just a policy failure. It’s a moral one.
These funding cuts are expected to put nearly 15 million mothers and children at risk of severe malnutrition, dehydration, and disease. In Goma, Congo, aid organizations were forced to shut off clean water access almost overnight. Elsewhere, families are drinking from the same rivers where they wash clothes and bathe livestock.
How did we get here with water and women being so underfunded — and more importantly, how do we fix it?
We need to stop treating water and sanitation as charity cases and start recognizing them as high-priority investment opportunities for blended capital. That means mobilizing philanthropy and investment financing, alongside local government funding. This is a $1 trillion opportunity. As global demand for water skyrockets — driven in part by the resource-intensive needs of AI and other technologies — we’re on track to exceed available supply by 40 percent by 2030. In this context, incremental action on funding water and women is no longer an option.
As someone who’s spent two decades working across philanthropy, innovative finance, and global development — including launching WaterEquity alongside Gary White, Matt Damon, and a global leadership team — I’ve seen firsthand how catalytic and blended capital can turn on the tap for good.
Read the full article about investing in water and women by Alix Lebec at Yahoo News.