Rural Access to New Opportunities in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (RANO WASH) is a five-year
$30 million bilateral United States Agency for International Development (USAID) water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) activity in Madagascar. Its period of performance is June 2017 to June 2022. CARE International leads the consortium implementing the project, and sub-awardees include Catholic Relief Services (CRS), WaterAid, BushProof, and Sandandrano. The program aims to reach 250 rural communes in six high-priority regions of Madagascar: Vatovavy Fitovinany, Atsinanana, Alaotra Mangoro, Amoron’i Mania, Haute Matsiatra, and Vakinankaratra. RANO WASH is built around three interconnected strategic objectives (SOs):
• SO 1: Strengthening the governance and monitoring of water and sanitation
• SO 2: Increasing the engagement of the private sector in the delivery of WASH services
• SO 3: Accelerating the adoption of healthy behaviors and the use of WASH service

The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Partnerships and Learning for Sustainability (WASHPaLS) project completed a mid-term evaluation between April and August 2021 to assess whether the approaches employed and activities undertaken are successfully contributing to the program’s goal of increasing equitable and sustainable access to WASH services.
Overall, the Evaluation Team assessed the program to be complex, ambitious, and innovative; perceived positively by a large majority of stakeholders; and seen as a sector leader. While water supply provision through the public private partnership (PPP) model is substantially off-track, there are plausible reasons for these delays, and important lessons to be learned. Sanitation results, particularly regarding Open Defecation Free (ODF) status, are above target