Our Approach
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing all of us to shift our ways of working and charity: water is prepared to help our partners adapt to the challenging circumstances. At the same time, we want to try to mitigate the adverse impact of COVID-19 on our shared goals for 2020.
In order to support you through this difficult time, we are prepared to offer significant flexibility in existing grants. Our goals are, first, to help make sure that our implementing partners retain their institutional strength through this difficult period, and second, to help you make a positive contribution to the fight against COVID-19.
Our top concern is for the health of your staff and beneficiaries. As you make decisions about your staff movements, this is a good resource produced by Action Against Hunger with some practical considerations on how to reduce risks to your staff and the beneficiaries in the WASH context.
Our second concern is to help you maintain the strength of your organization as an institution. COVID-19 will have a prolonged negative impact on the global economy. We expect it could take us 2-3 years to return to 2019 fundraising levels, so at charity: water, we are planning for reduced cash flow. We encourage you to take decisive action early to safeguard your organization’s long term financial health.
To help support you, we are prepared to be flexible with the terms of the grant that you are currently implementing. We realize that restrictions on movement in your country may result in staff not being able to work as usual, yet still needing to get paid. If you anticipate this or are already experiencing this scenario, please contact us so we can discuss options. Similarly, if you anticipate that unexpected costs will result in a reduction in outputs for the grant, please also contact us so we can discuss options.
Finally, you may be called on to contribute your resources and staff to efforts to limit the spread of the pandemic. Access to clean water, handwashing, and health promotion are pillars of WASH, and also key tools to prevent the disease. As such, you might be re-orienting your programmatic focus to address the spread of COVID-19. If this is the case, please let us know as soon as possible. We have prepared a simple process for adapting the grant you are currently implementing to support these unplanned activities.
We are prepared to continue working with you however possible to make these changes and allow your team to continue to provide vital WASH support to the communities you already know so well.