The Government of Ethiopia launched a multi-phased “One WASH National Program” (OWNP) in 2013 as an integrated platform for sector development. OWNP aims to improve the health and well-being of both rural and urban populations by expanding access to water supply and sanitation services, while promoting sustainable and equitable hygiene practices. The World Bank, an early supporter of OWNP, contributed to providing over 20 million people with access to improved water supply and sanitation services between 2014 and 2025. Since the start of the program, the World Bank’s participation has helped convene eight development partners to jointly support the OWNP.
Key Highlights
Since 2014, the World Bank has supported the Government of Ethiopia’s One Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) National Program (OWNP), an integrated platform for sector development, through three projects that are expected to benefit over 20 million people by 2027.
The Ethiopia Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene Project (2014-2021) provided over 10.9 million people with access to improved water supply and sanitation services.
The ongoing One WASH-Consolidated Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene Account Project (2019-2027) is expected to benefit 8.6 million people by 2027.
The Second Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project (2017-2027) is expected to benefit an additional 3.8 million people with water and sanitation access by 2027.
Ongoing technical assistance has strengthened sector governance and institutional capacity, contributing to the sustainability of WASH services.
Beneficiary Quote
“Due to the absence of a secure space for changing and cleaning, I often found myself returning home and missing classes during my menstrual cycle. Now, we have no worries about our monthly cycle, thanks to the menstrual hygiene management rooms in the school.” - 9th grader from Jaldessa Secondary School.
Provided under the OWNP Consolidated WASH Account (CWA), these menstrual hygiene management facilities are helping preserve the dignity of girls and increasing school enrolment and regular attendance while minimizing dropout rates.
Challenge
Ethiopia is currently estimated to have the largest access gap to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services in Sub-Saharan Africa. Expansion in service provision has not been able to keep up with population growth. In a country with over 132 million people (2024). approximately 60 million people in the country lack access to basic water supply, 112 million lack access to improved sanitation, and 22 million continue to practice open defecation as of 2025. This access gap has far-reaching consequences for Ethiopia's social and economic development. An estimated 60 to 80 percent of communicable diseases in the country are linked to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene practices. The country’s water sector faces a dual challenge: rapidly scaling up infrastructure to meet demand, while also ensuring the long-term technical and financial sustainability of these services.
Approach
In 2013, the Government of Ethiopia launched the multi-phase multi-sector One WASH National Program (OWNP), aimed at achieving universal access to integrated WASH services in both rural and urban areas. The program’s primary objective is to increase access to safely managed WASH services while strengthening Ethiopia’s capacity for water resources management and service delivery. OWNP includes rural WASH, urban WASH, institutional WASH (schools and health facilities), addressing drought hotspots, and institutional strengthening. Led by the Ministry of Water and Energy and regional water bureaus, OWNP mandates involvement, collaboration, and action by three other sector ministries—Finance, Health, and Education—that play key roles in the expansion and maintenance of water service provision. In particular, the Ministry of Finance ensures adequate financing, while the Ministries of Health and Education are responsible for WASH facilities in health facilities and schools.
Since 2014, the World Bank has supported the OWNP through three projects that are expected to benefit over 20 million people by 2027, one of which is the Ethiopia Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene Project (EWSSHP) which has worked to support the OWNP between 2014 and 2021.
Additionally, since 2014, the World Bank has supported an innovative financing instrument, the Consolidated WASH Account (CWA), which enables donors to pool resources to finance part of the OWNP. The first phase of CWA was completed in 2021, and the World Bank is currently financing the second phase (expected to close in January 2027). As of 2025, eight development partners are supporting OWNP CWA: the World Bank, the African Development Bank, UNICEF, the Saudi Fund for Development, and development programs of the governments of the United Kingdom, South Korea, Finland, and the Netherlands. These partners pool funds that are mainly utilized to expand service infrastructure (such as water access points and latrines) in all regions in the country, including constructing climate-resilient WASH schemes in areas that face challenges regarding availability of secure water resources. Moreover, the platform goes beyond pooling money: donors agreed to work guided by a single set of processes and standards (including World Bank fiduciary and safeguard policies), improving coordination, making it easier for the Government of Ethiopia to liaise with the multiple donors using the platform, and enabling a sector-wide approach in WASH. The World Bank has played a pivotal role in convening donors, fostering stakeholder collaboration and community ownership, improving planning capabilities, ensuring adherence to agreed-upon processes, and providing technical support to local governments for WASH plan development and implementation.
Following the 2021 completion of the Ethiopia Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene Project, the World Bank is continuing its support through the ongoing One WASH-CWA Project (launched in fiscal year 2019) and the Second Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project (SUWSSP, launched in fiscal year 2017), which focus respectively on rural and urban areas.
Results
The EWSSHP benefited 10.9 million rural residents. The ongoing One WASH-CWA Project and SUWSSP are expected to help an additional 12.4 million people gain access to safe water and sanitation services in rural and urban areas across the country.
Between 2014 and 2021, the EWSSHP constructed or rehabilitated around 17,500 community water points, constructed 1.2 million improved latrines, and constructed or rehabilitated over 10,000 WASH facilities in schools and health-providing sites. The project provided about 5.3 million people in rural areas with access to improved water sources, and about 5.6 million people gained access to improved sanitation facilities. About 2 million people (1 million of whom were women) received training to improve hygiene behavior and sanitation practices under the project.
The project provided capacity building and technical assistance to the government implementing agencies. This included training on the management of water schemes and sanitation infrastructure, sanitation and hygiene education and sanitation marketing. In total, representatives from 89 participating utilities, 122 towns, have attended training sessions supported by the project.
As of 2025, the ongoing One WASH-CWA and SUWSSP projects have achieved outcomes for millions of people.
The CWA, including through leveraging resources from development partners, has benefited about 7.5 million people (1.95 million people with water supply and 5.5 million people with safe sanitation).
Over 2,600 rural water schemes—infrastructure systems designed to collect, treat, store and distribute water safely— were completed, benefiting 1.4 million people in rural communities throughout Ethiopia. Further, 460,000 people were trained in sanitation and hygiene, 228 sanitation marketing centers were established, and 1.5 million households constructed improved latrines. Moreover, 575 schools established water supply facilities, 1,054 improved latrine facilities, and 427 new menstrual hygiene management facilities. Further, 690 health facilities have been provided with improved water supply facilities and 1,330 improved latrines have been constructed in health facilities.
Meanwhile, the SUWSSP has provided about 1.4 million people in urban areas with access to improved sanitation services and improved water supply. A total of 471 public and communal toilet facilities are providing services for 65,869 users. About 40,000 new sewer connections have been constructed in Addis Ababa, and 65,000 new piped water connections were established in Addis Ababa and 22 smaller cities.
Water and sanitation investments and capacity building under the project are strengthening the Addis Ababa Water Supply and Sewerage Authority, as well as the water and sanitation utilities in these 22 smaller cities.
The gaps in female representation in decision-making positions within water and sanitation utilities have been reduced and the proportion of management positions held by women increased from 15 percent to 21 percent.
Modern water purification system funded by UWSSP. Photo: World Bank
World Bank Group Contribution
The World Bank initially provided OWNP with a $205 million International Development Association (IDA) credit for the Ethiopia Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene Project. Following this, the World Bank has continued to support the WASH sector through the One WASH - CWA Project, with an IDA credit of $300 million, and the Second Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project, which received an IDA credit of $725 million. Under the One WASH - CWA platform, a total of$1.07 billion has been mobilized since 2013 ($485 million in the first phase and $589 million in the second phase), with IDA contributing about $505 million ($205 million in the first phase and $300 million in the second phase).
Partnerships
Ethiopia's OWNP serves as an effective model for aligning government priorities with donor assistance, ensuring clear direction and impact. The program employs an innovative financing strategy, where resources from multiple donors can be pooled into a harmonized funding instrument—the CWA. This collaborative approach supports the successful implementation of the government’s flagship WASH program. The CWA effectively provides the common mechanism and rules for the utilization of the pooled funds (which the World Bank helped to anchor through the One WASH - CWA Project). It includes an agreed joint implementation and supervision arrangement, guided by the project implementation manual and the principle of One Plan, One Budget, and One report, while utilizing a common monitoring and reporting arrangement.
In addition to the World Bank, key international partners have contributed to the program’s success. Besides the World Bank, thus far the African Development Bank, UNICEF, the Saudi Fund for Development, and development programs of the governments of the United Kingdom, South Korea, Finland, and the Netherlands, are collectively contributing to the CWA. Furthermore, the French Development Agency (Agence Française De Développement, AFD) provided €15 million in parallel to the Second Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project through its Social Impact Reinforcement Project.
Looking Ahead
Despite significant progress, Ethiopia still faces a significant WASH access gap, which is at risk of growing as the country’s population increases. To address this, the World Bank aims to strengthen a long-term strategic approach that builds on past progress. OWNP adopts a phased approach, with short- to intermediate-term objectives of increasing and sustaining coverage of safely managed water and sanitation services in both rural and urban areas. The long-term goal is to achieve universal, sustainable, climate-resilient, and equitable access to safe and affordable water for all. The World Bank plans to align future interventions with the OWNP, using a phased, results-based approach. In addition to improving access, the World Bank is focused on managing and securing water resources, essential for the success of OWNP. Through the Horn of Africa Groundwater for Resilience Project, the World Bank is working to achieve sustainable groundwater access and management, enhancing resilience in vulnerable communities, reducing forced displacement, and fostering sustainable development.
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