Making Blended Finance Work for Water and Sanitation : Unlocking Commercial Finance for SDG 6

The OECD, with the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), has undertaken research to better understand the current and potential role of blended finance models for water-related investments. Considering the wide variety of potential types of water-related investments, this research takes a broad approach to water-related investment and covers blended finance models that contribute to the SDGs including, but not limited to, SDG 6. Specifically, the report focuses on three subsectors: (1) water and sanitation utilities, (2) off-grid sanitation and (3) multi-purpose water infrastructure (MPWI), including emerging landscape-based approaches1.

Based on findings from case studies, interviews, workshops and extensive desk research, this publication builds a robust evidence base on how blended finance can play a role in attracting commercial finance. It provides examples of current good practices and trends, distil lessons learned and emerging guidance to scale such approaches in order to exploit the full potential of blended finance.