The Goma West Water Project, launched by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2019, is now catalysing investments and reshaping how humanitarian actors respond at scale in fragile settings.
Through a strategic mix of grants, partnerships, and long-term planning, the ICRC helped turn a CHF 40 million essential service gap into a multi-actor blended finance project that will bring sustainable water access to 2.5 million people in eastern DRC.
This strategic use of humanitarian resources to catalyse public and private investment for lasting impact in fragile contexts has been defined as Humanitarian Blended Finance (HBF).
By de-risking projects and aligning the interests of humanitarian, development, and private sector actors, HBF creates new opportunities to scale impact and deliver durable solutions.
New Models for a Changing Humanitarian Landscape
This shift is happening at a critical moment. The humanitarian system is facing an unprecedented funding crisis: widening needs, shrinking donor budgets, and increased competition for limited grants. Traditional, short-term, grant-based models, while still essential, are no longer adequate to meet the scale and complexity of today’s emergencies.
In this environment, HBF is not just innovative, it’s necessary. It enables humanitarian actors to achieve greater impact with fewer resources, unlocking additional capital and forging deeper partnerships with development banks, local governments, and private investors.
A Model That Works and Replicates
The Goma West model works because it blends both roles and resources. The ICRC acted as a convener, bringing together donors, national authorities, development banks and private actors like the World Bank to co-create the solution. It integrated technical design, community engagement, and government ownership to build long-term sustainability.
An initial CHF 8 million grant from ICRC donors catalysed a USD 42 million commitment from the World Bank, with additional financing now flowing to nearby areas. In DRC, each franc invested by the ICRC has leveraged an additional nine francs.
The model is being replicated across the whole of Goma, the cities of Bukavu and Bunia, as well as in other geographies. What began as a pilot has become a pipeline of investable, impact-driven water projects. If successfully implemented in the next few years, the current pipeline of projects will bring water to 11 million people.
DIFI: Building Capacity for Additional Impact
The Driving Innovative Finance for Impact (DIFI) programme has played a critical role in making this possible. Created to support ICRC colleagues to understand and engage in innovative finance, DIFI is building a new generation of humanitarian and development professionals equipped to think, and act, beyond grants.
Participation has grown rapidly, from 44 in 2022 to 65 in 2024, including a large number of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) coordinators, who bring critical operational insight. Their inclusion signals DIFI’s evolution from a training programme to a platform for technical, operational, and strategic teams alike.
DIFI doesn’t just teach financial instruments, it builds the mindset needed to bridge humanitarian action with investment logic, helping teams design projects that are both impactful and fundable.
Not Just the ICRC: Also the RCRC Movement
While the Goma-approach began as an ICRC-led initiative, there are now examples across the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. National Societies are developing their own blended finance initiatives, from Uganda and Ghana to South Sudan, with DIFI alumni being part of the charge.
These projects span WASH, climate resilience, and infrastructure, all using HBF principles tailored to their own operational contexts. And they reflect a growing realisation: in today’s environment, grant-only models are no longer enough.
Importantly, the broader humanitarian sector is also embracing this shift. Among others, UNICEF, the International Rescue Committee, and the Danish Refugee Council are all exploring and implementing blended finance approaches to strengthen sustainability, scale, and long-term impact in fragile settings.
The DIFI programme plays a critical role in this evolving landscape. It brings together expertise and partnerships from across the sector, linking humanitarian, development, and finance professionals to build a common language and shared capacity.
By using tools like HBF and platforms like DIFI, humanitarian actors are unlocking new ways to serve communities: more sustainably, more strategically, and at greater scale.
