Gaps in WASH in Humanitarian Response: 2021 Update

This 2021 WASH Gap Analysis – the most extensive research project of its kind in the humanitarian sector – opens an avenue for WASH actors to gain substantial insights at a global level into the priority needs and preferences of people affected by crises across multiple contexts.

The Gap Analysis presents data on priority needs collected from over 1,700 people affected by crises across 30 countries, and highlights the gaps that are prioritised by almost 700 WASH practitioners across 24 countries and 256 global WASH actors across 64 countries. In addition, it summarises and triangulates these findings with recent grey and academic literature on pressing problems in humanitarian WASH. As such, it sets a challenge for everyone involved in humanitarian WASH response, requiring us to explore why these gaps exist and how they can be addressed.

It is an important contribution to the accountability agenda, and its findings have implications for the direct delivery of aid, the coordination of response, and for humanitarian research and innovation.

The research was developed in a unique partnership between leading actors within all these fields: the GWC, Elrha and Oxfam (the three main partners), supported by Tufts University, Cranfield University and University of Leeds