About
The Young Water Fellowship (YWF) incubation programme empowers early-stage young entrepreneurs from low and middle income countries to set up social businesses that tackle water, sanitation & hygiene, water pollution and water scarcity issues, by offering them a fully-funded intensive training in business & WASH, seed funding grants for their pilot projects, and mentorship support from senior level experts during one year, in partnership with local incubators.
Through our YWF incubation programmes we provide the enabling conditions for young entrepreneurs to create water and sanitation social businesses.
Call for applications
Young Water Fellows are selected through an open call for applications according to criteria that include innovation, impact, feasibility, business potential, leadership potential of the candidate
Training
Selected Fellows attend a two-weeks start-up training delivered in partnership with local and international incubators. After completion, Fellows have a viable business model to tackle a water or sanitation issue, ready to pilot.
Seed funding for pilot implementation
Fellows can apply for a seed funding grant of up to €5000 to pilot their business models over 6 months following the training. So far, 97% of selected Fellows have received funding. The average amount awarded is €4400.
Coaching and mentor matching
During the pilot implementation, YWS offers regular coaching calls to Fellows, and matches them with senior experts according to their needs. They also join the YWF Alumni community, where they can meet and interact with Fellows from other cohorts.
Key figures of the YWF Incubation
editions
WASH
businesses incubated
Beneficiaries
in vulnerable communities through pilot projects
Impact
Since 2017, Young Water Solutions has implemented multiple editions of the Young Water Fellowship at different scales. To learn more about the outcomes of each edition, please download the reports using the links below.
Other than solving water, sanitation and other water management issues (SDG 6 & 14), our Fellows’ social businesses are gender-sensitive (SDG 5) and increase employment opportunities for local youth (SDG 8),
reducing poverty (SDG 1).
Calls for applications
To know about the YWF editions and their call for applications, visit the Apply section.