Gary White « Skoll Foundation

Water.org

Skoll Entrepreneur(s): Gary White
Change(s) Addressed: Environmental Sustainability

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Over 20 years ago, Gary committed himself to bringing safe water to those in the world who are without it. Gary’s entrepreneurial vision has driven innovations in the way clean-water projects are delivered and financed. Gary developed demand-driven water and sanitation programs, using microfinance to leverage financial resources from the bottom-up. These innovations now serve as a model in the sector.

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS OF 2010

Before Water.org launched WaterCredit in 2003, virtually all water and sanitation programs were charity-driven. Today, WaterCredit has stimulated more than $5 million in capital from commercial banks to fund water and sanitation microloan portfolios.
Water.org’s WaterCredit initiative has enabled more than 130,000 people to access clean water and safe sanitation with microloans offered through microfinance institution partners. Globally, WaterCredit loan repayment rates over the past 2 years average 98%.
Women are key to sustainable water and sanitation programs. With Water.org’s grant-based projects, all local water committees have female members. With WaterCredit, women comprise 90% of all loan borrowers.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THEIR WORK:

Gary White, Water Partners International.

Water is life, but increasingly scarce as sources dry up or are depleted all over the world. Micro-finance is a proven means of economic development, but there hasn't been any obvious way to connect the two until now .

By brokering relationships with social benefit organizations and micro-finance institutions, Water Partners structures loan products that enable the poor to secure the clean water and sanitation solutions that best meet their needs.

Water Partners programs have dispersed more than 1.6 six million in support of water credit initiatives to benefit directly more than 110,000 people. Water Partners has ten active water credit programs globally, as well a growing network of 23 local partner organizations.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Gary White.

Thank you. Thank you.

I am honored and it is such a pleasure to be here to accept this award on behalf of all of those at water partners and water.org.

But, more importantly, on behalf, of the 1 billion people who still lack, what you and I take for granted, a safe, clean water.

The Skoll grant will help us to accelerate our water credit initiative.

This means a greater number of people will be empowered to achieve access to clean water and access adequate sanitation through affordable credit.

We'll do this by continuing to attract new and existing microfinances institutions into the water and sanitation space.

One vivid example of this is guardian. We help guardian launch in 2007, as a spinoff of the indian NGO Grimalia. We believe it's the first MFI set up to lend into the water and sanitation space and target urban slum dwellers.

It was early water credit pilot programs that provided the proof that the poor are a viable market, for water and sanitation micro credit loans. Without this proof Guardian would have never launched.

Now, last year Guardian broke new ground once again, and it was able to access 1.6 million dollars in private capital from commercial lending institutions in India, and rapidly scale up its portfolio for water and sanitation loans.

The Skoll Grant will allow us to push the charity driven water sectors towards models that incorporate commercial capital. We will continue attracting micro-financing institutions to the water sector through our smart subsidy model, allowing them to better understand the market and build relationships with borrowers.

We will provide credit enhancements where necessary, and then exit as these institutions begin to independently source commercial financing for their portfolios.

We believe we can lead in making financing for water and sanitation services for the poor, both affordable and ubiquitous.

Thank you.

Skoll Foundation

Water.org

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