Water, Sanitation and Health: The World Bank's Financing of Sustainable Development Goal 6

ABSTRACT The World Bank has an explicit commitment to financing projects aimed at ensuring access to drinking water and sanitation (SDG 6), given their implications for countries' development. The objective of this study is to analyse its performance over the past decades, in order to understand the evolution of the allocated amount and the distribution across countries, as well as its link to water and health indicators. To that purpose, 546 projects promoted by the institution between 2000 and 2022 have been analysed. The results confirm that access to water and sanitation has been a priority in the actions undertaken by the multilateral institution, especially since the adoption of the MDGs, contributing to the improvement of water services in recipient countries in different territorial contexts. However, the resources managed by the institution are concentrated in a limited number of economies and not always in those most in need, which present high child mortality rates and low‐income levels. Governance conditions and the predominance of repayable instruments limit access to financing for countries with lower borrowing capacity, despite their significant needs. This situation calls for the World Bank, based on its experience and commitment, to implement new and innovative financing instruments, particularly targeted at low‐income countries, where a fundamental human right essential to human life has still not been guaranteed.