About

The sWASH&grow project aims to:

  1. Improve the conditions for innovators (sellers) to meet the demands of relief organizations (buyers).
  2. Enable innovations in the WASH sector to reach off-grid environments and vulnerable populations in humanitarian crises.
  3. Test innovative sustainable solutions in collaboration with buyers and users; and design tools for development, scaling and export.

Objective

To develop tools that improve the opportunities for innovators and aid organizations to bring more circular, inclusive and sustainable innovations to those in need.

We aim to enable WASH innovations to reach off-grid environments.

The Problem

Impact and effects

The project brings together major global buyers, the innovation system’s support functions and innovation companies in a partnership aligned with Agenda 2030 and SDG 17. The project focuses on SDG 6 and 9, which have an impact on SDGs 2, 3, 7, 12 and 13.

The results contribute to achieving the above Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by providing better decision support tools to develop and implement innovative sustainable, circular and inclusive solutions to those in need – in times of crises or off-grid environments. In the long-run, the results will contribute towards:

  1. Improved conditions for circular and long-term sustainable off-grid solutions to successfully reach the most vulnerable and markets in inaccessible places.
  2. Increased success of procured or delivered sustainable, circular and inclusive innovations.
  3. Creating the means to empower vulnerable populations to build resilience.

Results

The project collaborates with experts and customers from the public, private, academic and NGO sectors. The results will include:

  • An AI tool for decision support that can be used to develop innovative WASH solutions aimed for export to humanitarian crises and off-grid situations.
  • Quality-assured tools for developing and scaling up innovations based on requirements, needs and price.
  • A university course module.
  • Mapping of success factors for off-grid solutions.
  • Methods and platforms for validation, upscaling and export.
  • Development of five Swedish innovative water and sanitation solutions.

All the results are based on case studies in test sites in Sweden, Bolivia, Lebanon, South Africa and Tanzania.

See the list of outputs
Funding & Duration

sWASH & grow is co-financed (40%) by Vinnova Challenge-Driven Innovation Program (Utmaningsdriven Innovation – steg 3) and 60% co-financed by the 28 project partners. The project runs from September 2020 to November 2022.