What is the WASH Insecurity Analysis?

The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Insecurity Analysis is based on the human right to water and sanitation.  WASH insecurity is influenced by WASH service levels but also by exposure to natural or human-induced hazards and underlying vulnerabilities, such as gender or poverty.     WASH insecurity results in negative WASH-related outcomes (e.g., increased rates of water and sanitation diseases) and ultimately, a denial of people’s human rights to water and sanitation.  The WASH Insecurity Analysis identifies geographic areas and quantifies the population at risk of WASH insecurity and the population already experiencing WASH insecurity.   It is a tool and a process that can bring together diverse stakeholders across the humanitarian-to-development continuum, including those working in the nexus space or fragile contexts, and promotes localization by providing analytical insights at the local level before and aftershocks.  It can be used by governments and development actors to prioritize sectoral investments.  

How does it work?

The WASH Insecurity Analysis uses secondary data to produce the analysis.  There are three different functions to meet users’ needs related to comparability and granularity.  A Base Score will form the core of the analysis and it will allow global level comparisons of WASH-related needs and risks.  The Modular Function integrates common (but not globally available) data into the Base Score and provides more granularity to facilitate planning in a country or in a specific region. The Tailored Function provides real-time analysis with a high level of granularity to inform rapid decision-making at the local level, including after disasters.  

Why do we need it?

WASH is a key life-saving sector in emergencies and is required to facilitate safe and sustainable access to other services such as Health or Education.  The absence of safe or appropriate WASH services can also expose people to the risk of gender-based violence.  The lack of an analytical tool affects all WASH sector actors as there are insufficient resources for WASH.  The 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan was only 35% funded for WASH (a gap of $2 billion USD). Other sectors have common methods (IPC for Food Security) which allow them to influence decision-making with more robust data and analyses.  The WASH Insecurity Analysis is endorsed by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee and meets an expressed need from WASH actors and donors to increase the availability of reliable WASH analytics at a global level.  

How can we engage?

The WASH Insecurity Analysis will continue development in 2023 and additional countries will be included in 2024, including those where there is an ongoing humanitarian response or others with priority use cases, such as countries working on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus or Anticipatory Action frameworks.  Outreach and integration with other data platforms and analytics initiatives is a core way of working to maximize efficiency and ensure technical quality.  

Please contact Angelica Fleischer, the WASH Insecurity Analysis Coordinator, at afleischer@unicef.org for more information.