More Than Water: The Multiplier Effect of Integrated Development

Empowering women drives lasting change. Margaret Schuler, Senior Vice President and Chief Impact Officer at World Vision US, shows how Beyond Access is transforming communities through integrated water, sanitation, and economic initiatives.

22 March 2026

Throughout my career in international development, I've had the privilege of serving in several roles across various contexts. This means I've spent considerable time grappling with fundamental questions: How can our work lead to more sustainable outcomes? How do we ensure we are reaching the most vulnerable? How can we more effectively steward the resources entrusted to us?

These questions are especially critical when considering children's well-being because we cannot address child outcomes in isolation. We must think about the family unit, the community, the schools and health facilities, and the broader enabling environment that either supports or constrains human flourishing. 

When Women Thrive, Communities Transform

I've seen many international development programs over the years, some better than others. And most claim, or aspire to be, the silver bullet that unlocks the solution to ending extreme poverty. But we all know poverty is complex, shaped by multiple actors and intersecting factors. Our challenge is to help the most vulnerable find pathways out of extreme poverty without doing harm or displacing the role of long-term duty bearers: families, faith leaders, communities, and governments. 

The meaningful empowerment of women is essential to ending extreme poverty. In many of the contexts where we work, women face a variety of barriers, from circumstantial to societal, and they are among those most affected when key resources like clean water, dignified sanitation, healthcare and education, and economic opportunities are lacking. When women are empowered, however, the ripple effects on children, families and communities are significant.  

Witnessing Change in Kenya

Last year, I had the opportunity to visit one of our newer programs, Beyond Access, in a community in Kenya where we had been operating for three years. While we have robust metrics and data demonstrating impact, I was able to witness it firsthand through the lives and stories of participants.

I saw women and men sitting together in community meetings, something that was once taboo. I saw children thriving with support from both parents. And I saw women actively engaged in economic activities because they were no longer spending hours each day walking long distances to collect water.

Significant Results

The transformation was striking. Just three years earlier, women in this community were walking up to five miles one way, carrying heavy jerrycans of often-unsafe water. Across our Beyond Access program areas in Kenya, women's access to basic water improved by nearly 60 percentage points. But the ripple effects extended far beyond water access.

With clean water now available nearby, women invested their newfound time and energy into strengthening their household economy. Across all four Beyond Access countries (Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya and Zimbabwe), we saw significant results: 

• Women earning income from small business or employment increased by an average of 42 percentage points—with Honduras showing the most dramatic shift, from 18% to 90%.
• Women with personal savings increased by an average of 51 percentage points, with particularly significant gains in Central America: Guatemala rose from 14% to 80%, and Honduras from 7% to 78%.

Perhaps most encouraging was the increased participation of women in community decision-making around water and sanitation services, which increased by an average of 31 percentage points across all Beyond Access countries. In Honduras, this jumped from 14% to 60%. When women have voice and agency in decisions that affect their daily lives, the benefits cascade throughout the household and community.

We achieved these results through the intentional sequencing of interventions focused on behavior change, water and sanitation, and economic empowerment. This multi‑sector approach removed barriers and fostered conditions for women and their families to thrive. We also took a collaborative learning approach, partnering with Emory University and local learning partners to understand and respond to the barriers women face that keep them trapped in a cycle of poverty. 

Integration Opens Doors

These results — achieved in just three years — reflect what's possible when we move beyond siloed interventions toward truly integrated programming. The Beyond Access program is delivering rapid, measurable impact and is informing how we design and implement our programs to continue to deliver strong results for women, men, and children.

With Phase 1 of Beyond Access recently concluded, I'm proud to announce that we are expanding Beyond Access to 12 countries. By 2030, the expanded program will empower 360,000 people to break out of the cycle of extreme poverty. I'm excited to see what we'll learn as we scale, and how those learnings will continue to sharpen our effectiveness in serving the most vulnerable.

Check out our new Beyond Access Program Phase 1 Endline Results for a more in-depth summary of our findings.

Margaret Schuler is Senior Vice President and Chief Impact Officer at World Vision US, where she oversees public-sector partnerships and a global portfolio of programs empowering vulnerable children and families. Margaret has spent 30 years in international development and previously served as World Vision's national director in Ethiopia and Regional Leader for East Africa.