Spotlight: Water Forward Initiative

By the DaRe2 Advisory Council

In its spring meeting in 2026, the World Bank Group, in partnership with multilateral development finance institutions, launched a new platform — Water Forward — to help improve water security for 1 billion people by 2030, with the World Bank Group specifically committed to reaching 400 million people directly.

This comes at a time when global aid cuts are the result of the significant reduction or withdrawal of major donors such as USAID, affecting progress on projects especially in low-income and underserved regions.

World Bank President Ajay Banga underscored the need for and importance of the initiative, stating: "Water is foundational to how economies function. When water systems work, farmers produce, businesses operate, and cities attract investment. Our task now is to align reform, financing, and partnerships to deliver reliable water services at scale."

Through the initiative, a number of governments defined priorities and agreed to strengthen their institutions, and announced national water compacts under the Water Forward platform. It is expected that many more governments, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, will announce their water compacts and join the initiative.

Multilateral organizations, philanthropies such as the Coca-Cola Foundation and Aliko Dangote, and the private sector have joined hands in financing and speeding up the implementation of water projects. Among the development banks and international finance institutions, the Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Council of Europe Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, New Development Bank, OPEC Fund for International Development, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development pledged their support and announced their commitment to this initiative.

Such an initiative and platform is welcoming news to the water sector, whose progress toward achieving SDG 6 — which aims to ensure universal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene by 2030 — is increasingly coming under threat from recent global funding cuts.  

The SDG Report 2025 indicates that 74% of the global population used safely managed drinking water in 2024, up from 68% in 2015. However, 2.2 billion people still lacked this access in 2024, highlighting the need to double the current rate of progress if the world is to meet the SDG target of universal coverage by 2030. Although the Water Forward Initiative alone may not close the gap by 2030, it goes a long way toward upholding the principle of leaving no one behind — which is central to the SDGs.