Washington, DC, June 21, 2023 – The Millennium Water Alliance (MWA) Board of Directors is pleased to announce its approval of two new members, the World Resources Institute, headquartered in Washington, DC, and the Global Water Center, headquartered in South Carolina. This brings the current membership of the 20-year-old Alliance to 20 international NGOs, research institutions, and private sector companies working to accelerate access to sustainable safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene education (WSSH) in the developing world.
The World Resources Institute (WRI) brings a much-needed focus and skillset to the water security, sanitation, and hygiene sector. WRI’s expertise is on water resource management, climate resilience, and conservation of the ecosystems in which members deliver services. As climate stress increases risk to our work, WRI’s voice and skillset will be an asset. MWA is a core partner for a WRI project in Ethiopia, funded through the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. The program aims to improve governance and promote integrated water resources management, implementing watershed management alongside services delivered by MWA members.
WRI is a global research nonprofit organization with offices in Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and the United States, and regional offices for Africa and Europe. WRI’s work now spans more than 50 countries, addressing seven global challenges: Food, Forests, Water, Energy, Climate, the Ocean, and Cities.
“WRI is excited to join the Millennium Water Alliance,” said Charles Iceland, Director for Water Security at WRI. “We have been partnering with the Alliance and its members in Ethiopia to advance data-driven water planning and integrated water resources management.
“Joining the Alliance will enable WRI to expand our collaboration to other areas and geographies,” he added. “We look forward to engaging with WSSH organizations and bringing new perspectives on water governance and water service delivery, including how environmental health, freshwater conservation, and climate adaptation are critical for securing the flow of water to people and communities.”
Global Water Center (GWC) is a forward-thinking nonprofit based in Charleston, South Carolina. GWC’s unique contribution to the WSSH sector is to address the global water crisis through a strategy that incentivizes collaboration among organizations working in the WSSH sector, helps those organizations to comply with Performance and Quality Standards, and mobilizes internal and external experts to aid in assessment, design, implementation, and monitoring of projects as a service to WSSH organizations in low- and middle-income countries.
Current GWC work and partnerships focus on training on solar powered systems, pathways for water operators to attend technical vocational schools, and remote monitoring of water systems to increase uptime. For example, in partnership with MWA members CAWST (Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology), Water Mission, and UNICEF, GWC offers virtual learning experiences for rural water professionals and partners through two online courses: “SPWS101 – An Overview of Principles and Practice,” and “SPWS201 – Designing Solar Powered Water Systems.” To date, more than 500 people have participated in these courses from more than 60 countries.
“The Global Water Center shares MWA’s vision for great learning and collaboration across the WSSH sector,” said MWA Executive Director Keith Wright. “Improving this will be key to accelerating WSSH access for millions of people.”
MWA’s member organizations work in more than 100 countries around the world to bring safe drinking water, better sanitation, and hygiene practices to more than 50 million people every year. See a full list of members here and more information on our leading U.S. and global advocacy for water, sanitation, and hygiene and our field and member programs here.