Introduction
This report presents a series of briefs highlighting key learning from CARE’s Water+ portfolio in 2025. Each brief illustrates how CARE works with governments, communities, and service providers to improve systems and build skills. The overall goal is to support long-term, equal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and integrated water resource management (IWRM) services. Together, these examples show CARE’s continued focus on system strengthening, governance, accountability, financing, and learning as the foundation for lasting outcomes.
The past year brought significant challenges for the Water+ team and the broader development and humanitarian sectors. Sudden changes in bilateral funding, shifting global priorities, and other shocks threatened to reverse progress for the communities we serve. In response, we intensified engagement with corporate, foundation, and major gift donors while maintaining a clear commitment to private sector integration, innovative finance, locally led development, and advancing women’s leadership in WASH and IWRM.
Each year, in recognition of World Water Day, the Water+ team publishes this retrospective report. It provides a concise review of selected case studies and insights from the previous year. The 2025 edition features six case studies that explore:
- Improved irrigation methods for smallholder farmers in Egypt.
- A conservation fund model within Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) in Ghana.
- Follow-up evaluations of the SABA model in Peru and the Water Fund model in Ecuador.
- Efforts to expand sanitation services through CARE’s VSLA network in Zambia.
- Watershed restoration efforts in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Cambodia.
- Implementation Science innovations developed through CARE’s partnership with Emory University.
Together, these case studies show how different programs, designed with and for local communities, can support long-term resilience, environmental restoration, economic opportunity, while improving long-lasting WASH and IWRM services. While this report does not cover all Water+ programming, it offers a snapshot of how CARE teams and partners around the world are strengthening the conditions that protect health, dignity, and resilience for everyone.