This annual review assesses the outputs of the Increasing sustainable access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) programme, and how they contribute to expected outcomes and their sustainability. The review also includes updated recommendations for improving integration of gender into WASH programming and assesses the implementation of the programme in a humanitarian context.

The WASH programme provides up to £164.8 million over a seven-year period (2013 – 2020) to increase the availability of sustainable WASH services in the DRC. The programme consists of four pillars that together aim to deliver quality, scale and sustainability of WASH sector results in DRC:

1. Creating community incentives to deliver individual lasting behaviour change;
2. Increasing affordable access to WASH education;
3. Strengthening systems of empowerment and accountability between the communities, service providers and local and provincial government structures; and
4. Improving the capacity of service providers, institutions, and communities to monitor, operate, maintain, and deliver WASH services, and improving the capacity of national government to coordinate, monitor, and set appropriate priorities in the WASH sector.

Based on the overall progress summarised in the main report, the details described in the subsequent sections and the project score calculator, the overall score for this annual review is an “A”.