Accelerating Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Innovations to Scale Impact
A UNICEF Sustainable WASH Innovation Hub event
A global community of thought leaders and innovators convened at UN City, Copenhagen for a two-day event on 18-19 March 2025 Accelerating Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Innovations to Scale Impact hosted by the UNICEF Sustainable WASH Innovation Hub.
Today, 1 in 4 people lack access to safely managed drinking water, and nearly half of the world’s population lacks access to safely managed hygiene and sanitation.
As children and their families grapple with mounting challenges driven by climate change, conflict and international humanitarian funding cuts, the global summit focused on breakthrough ways to accelerate the scaling of proven innovations in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).
"The collective energy of this event is vital in rapidly transforming access to clean water and sanitation for some of the world’s most vulnerable children."
Event highlights
High on the agenda were discussions on innovative financing, artificial intelligence (AI), nature-based solutions (NBS) and the enabling of powerful private, public and development partnerships – with an emphasis on supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Key themes emerging from an energized delegation of business, finance, development, youth and academic leaders included the need to ramp up sustainable blended financing, meaningful youth engagement, and opportunities for increased connection, collaboration and learning across the sector.
"We all have a responsibility to make this world a more equitable place – and to make that happen faster, we need innovation."
Thomas Davin, Global Director, UNICEF Office of Innovation, opened the event by spotlighting the role of innovation in catalyzing impact for children in an era of climate change, conflict and humanitarian cuts.
“Innovation holds the key to realizing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals of clean water and sanitation for all," he said. "Yet no single organization can accelerate innovation at the scale needed. The collective energy of this event is vital in rapidly transforming access to clean water and sanitation for some of the world’s most vulnerable children.”
The event’s keynote speaker, Karin Poulsen, Director of Green Diplomacy and Climate at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, highlighted the need for bold action, innovation, long term financing and strong partnerships in the face of an intensifying water crisis.
“Through our partnership with UNICEF, we are investing in innovative approaches that build resilience and ensure long-term access to clean water and sanitation," she said. "This event showcases the potential of these solutions to transform lives and create a more sustainable future for children around the world.”
During two panel discussions moderated by CNN International Correspondent Larry Madowo, speakers explored some of the challenges and opportunities of accelerating the scale of WASH innovations.
“There are significant improvements in WASH over the past few decades. There’s a lot of hope," said Isha Basyal, Deputy Chief Operating Officer for the Global Water and Sanitation Center at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. "We all have a responsibility to make this world a more equitable place – and to make that happen faster, we need innovation.”
Video highlights
The summit also featured a selection of cross-sectoral breakout sessions facilitated by external partners designed to foster collaborative discussions on accelerating the scale of innovative WASH solutions.
Breakout sessions
| Session | Collaborating partner |
Innovative Approaches to Blended Finance in WASH Exploring innovative partnerships and financing, including blended finance models to improve WASH access in humanitarian crises, this session featured case studies from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Iraq to examine a pipeline of projects and share key lessons learned. | International Committee of the Red Cross |
Nature-Based Solutions: What’s Needed for Scale Various factors enable or hinder WASH service providers from adopting NBS. This session presented global research and experiences on the conditions necessary for NBS uptake, and included an interactive discussion on recommendations for accelerating NBS scaling in WASH. | Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) |
Transforming WASH SMEs: Unlocking Private Sector Potential for the Last Mile Empowering WASH small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to accelerate SDG6 progress is critical. This session examined challenges, solutions and pathways to scale, drawing lessons from other sectors with a focus on finance, policy, regulation and government partnerships. | Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney |
Scaling Existing Solutions: Identifying and Overcoming Barriers. Systems Thinking to Bring Innovations to Scale Recognizing that different strategies are needed to overcome barriers to scaling WASH innovations across diverse contexts, this session focused on incentive shifts within and beyond the sector, with case studies from India and Malawi. | International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC-WASH) |
Innovative Products to Scale This session explored product innovation in development settings, addressing how to communicate product needs and challenges, questioning perspectives on supply vs. demand, defining the customer in low-resource settings, and examining learnings from corporations attempting to address product innovation in these contexts. | UNICEF Supply Division |
Blended Finance Approaches: Accelerating Implementation, Replication and Scale Current best practices in blended finance for WASH involve different actors, funding mechanisms, and concrete steps to further develop and accelerate the application of these models to scale innovative solutions. | UNICEF Sustainable WASH Innovation Hub, Office of Innovation |
AI for Climate-resilient WASH: From Hype to Impact- Practical Applications for Scale This interactive session dissected real-world applications and opportunities of AI in WASH, focusing on scaling pathways and implementation challenges. It used scenario-based learning to explore how AI can enhance or hinder climate-resilient solutions while considering data governance, ethics, and integration into decision-making. | Baobab Tech, WASH AI |
Bringing it all together- Pathways to Scale for Greater Impact, Faster This session began with facilitators sharing key insights and gaps from each break-out discussion. The closing session then synthesized perspectives to outline strategies for scaling WASH solutions, focusing on removing bottlenecks, investing in impact pathways, and building consensus on key challenges. | UNICEF Sustainable WASH Innovation Hub, Office of Innovation |
Call for applications
The event launched a call for innovations (now closed) focused on enhancing climate-sensitive data and its integration into WASH programming and strengthening supportive environments for WASH SMEs. Successful applications will be eligible for technical support, access to UNICEF’s global WASH network and potential funding.
Have a WASH innovation? Get in touch.
What's next?
The summit fostered a consensus that WASH innovation was not only about the adoption of new technology, but the creation of an enabling environment.
“Innovation isn’t all about doing shiny new things. It’s about doing the basics, better,” said Sean Furey, Director of the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN).
Access the full event report, synthesizing key themes and learnings. Other key upcoming initiatives building off the momentum of the event include:
- a white paper on ways forward for accelerating the scale of WASH innovations.
- new tools for cross-sectoral knowledge sharing and capacity building.
Interested? Sign up to our mailing list for updates.
Event speakers
Karin Poulsen
Department of Green Diplomacy and Climate.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark
Francis de los Reyes III
Professor of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
North Carolina State University
USA
Isha Basyal
Deputy Chief Operating Officer
Global Water and Sanitation Center Asian Institute of Technology Thailand
Dr. Wotabe Kokou Marin
Secretary General
Ministry of Health, Togo
