On 23rd of April, the WASH Alliance received the news that its grant application for 68.8 million Euro to fund sustainable WASH services has passed the first round of the MFS II grant scheme. Of the 43 consortia, only 20 made it to the next round.

MFS II is the grant framework for Dutch civil society organisations (CSOs) that work systematically to achieve a sustainable reduction in poverty. Alongside multilateral and bilateral cooperation and partnerships with the private sector, the civil society channel has long formed an important pillar of Dutch development policy. The objective of this policy is to support poor countries and poor people in their efforts to create a better quality of life, to reduce their vulnerability and create scope for self-betterment; in short, to provide structural scope for development.

With MFS II, the Minister for Development Cooperation has created scope for financially supporting Dutch CSOs in their work. A sum of €2.125 billion has been earmarked for the provision of grants within this framework between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2015.