About
All members of the SWEP have a mission to support water and/or sanitation entrepreneurship in one way or another. We came together for the first time in February 2017 to explore the question:
“How to work smarter together to achieve a higher impact?”
Ever since, we have been motivated by the belief that together, we will be stronger and more impactful. And that we will provide a more effective offering to water and sanitation entrepreneurs.
Our members
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cewas is the world’s first business support organization that exclusively focusses on impact entrepreneurs related to water and sanitation (SDG6). cewas is legally registered in Switzerland and Jordan but acts globally with a focus on the Middle East, Sub-Sahara Africa, and Latin America. Today, cewas guides and supports water entrepreneurs all along their entrepreneurial journey, but emphases on acceleration & scale-up support, develop respective markets and activates ecosystem actors to invest into building sustainable entrepreneurial pipelines. Since 2010, cewas has supported more than 300 water-related entrepreneurs that have created solutions benefiting more than 3 million people.
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OPERO Services is a Kenyan engineering, business development, and market research firm that specialises in scaling water, sanitation, and hygiene technologies and enterprises. Opero brings together innovative thinking, technical expertise, and in-depth knowledge of local markets to address WASH challenges in East Africa. They work with WASH enterprises to understand their markets, refine their approach, and ultimately scale their profitability and impact. From ideation to commercialization, Opero innovates, trials, and installs technologies that accelerate progress toward SDG6. They also provide market insights and analytics that give clients a clear understanding of the local markets
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Toilets for All is a Swiss foundation which contributes to closing the huge gap in access to clean and dignified toilets for the world’s population (SDG 6.2), focusing on schools. We aim to achieve this goal through different collaborative actions, acting as an enabler for both entrepreneurs and funders, but also legislative organisations, select communities and government bodies, and focusing on the sector of circular off-grid sanitation for schools and related hygiene efforts. We believe that is where the highest impact can be made, with the greatest knock-on effect on other SDGs. An amazing 130 of 169 UN SDG targets have synergies with sanitation, find out more here.
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Viva con Agua promotes access to clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene. We rely on activism and use the universal languages of music, sport and art for our work and our national and international projects. Water is life. For this reason, we are committed to realising the human rights to water and sanitation. Together with locally and internationally active partner organisations, we support water projects worldwide. Because together we can achieve more than alone. It’s the central approach of our WASH strategy to develop supported projects together. We already reached over 3.6 million people.
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WASEU is a business association that supports small-scale local entrepreneurs to plan, build and sustain WASH businesses. It was founded in 2015 with the goal of advocating for an enabling environment for WASH entrepreneurs in Uganda. It operates at the national and/or local level and builds and maintains strong relationships between government, NGOs involved in the WASH sector, local businesses and financing institutions. Within this network WASEU promotes the interests of WASH entrepreneurs and contributes to strategic WASH planning. Members of WASEU can also gain access to technical and business training, mentorship, ongoing support, funding opportunities and a professional network.
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WASTE envisions a world in which all people live in a clean environment with access to sustainable sanitation and waste services. WASTE is an international development organisation specialised in the fields of (a) sanitation and faecal sludge management, (b) solid waste and recycling (including plastics recycling), and (c) innovative financing. WASTE was founded in 1983 and holds office in The Hague, The Netherlands. WASTE designs and implements innovative programmes and systems-change approaches to ensure impact that is lasting and locally relevant. WASTE strengthens collaboration and builds capacity with key local stakeholders in low- and middle-income countries for sustainable development.
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Young Water Solutions is an international non-profit organisation that aims to develop and support the potential of young people to contribute to universal water, sanitation hygiene and water resources management. Young Water Solutions empowers young leaders and entrepreneurs, providing them the tools to carry out water and sanitation projects and launch social businesses in their communities. We promote an integrated approach and support initiatives that address inter linked challenges such as climate change adaptation, reforestation, youth employment, gender equality and food security. Based in Brussels, Young Water Solutions was co-founded in 2015 by 16 young and senior water professionals from 11 different countries.
What we do
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Research & DevelopmentOur members support the development and transfer of impact-oriented, affordable solutions in the field of water and sanitation |
FundingOur members help design financing options and attract investments in new and existing social enterprises |
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Technical AssistanceOur members offer practice-oriented expertise in founding and running water & sanitation enterprises |
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Our offer
