Governance & Accountability

WSSCC believes in a people-centred approach to water and sanitation and uses the same approach to its own governance.

In this context, the most important people are WSSCC's members. They are committed to its mission of achieving universal and sustainable access to safe water and adequate sanitation, and they direct and provide credibility for its work. They elect a Steering Committee from among themselves, which governs WSSCC and sets out its mission, principles and strategies. WSSCC is programmatically accountable to this Steering Committee.

As a result of a conscious decision periodically reviewed and confirmed by the members, WSSCC has no legal existence as an independent organization. Instead, since 1990, its Secretariat has been hosted by WHO in Geneva, while its National WASH Coalitions are hosted by various member organizations in the relevant countries. Thus the National WASH Coalitions are legally and financially accountable to their host organizations and the Secretariat is legally and financially accountable to WHO. WHO in turn is legally and financially accountable to WSSCC's donors for the use of the funds that they entrust to WHO for WSSCC's work.