VIA Water was an innovation programme of Aqua for All and IHE-Delft funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. VIA Water stands for Valorisation and Innovation in Africa in the Water sector. Between 2015 and 2019 the programme supported 62 urban water innovations across eight countries in Africa with a total grant of € 8.3 million. The programme offered grants to pilot new ideas and innovations in combination with technical, learning and business development support.

Of the 525 original concept notes that were received, 62 secured a contract with VIA Water (12 %). Of the supported innovations, 53 % reached a stage of market introduction and dissemination, while less than 10 % of pilots failed.

VIA Water has demonstrated a high inclusivity of African-led innovators with a similar level of effectiveness. Its portfolio was almost evenly distributed between innovations led by African and non-African lead partners. The programme was able to create a level playing field by providing special support to African innovators. This article explores the conditions which are needed to create this level playing field, including building a trustworthy environment in which learning and exchange are stimulated. Further, the article analyses some possible success factors, such as the country in which the innovation is applied, the theme (“pressing needs”) addressed by the innovation, the type of contract organisation and the approach chosen by the programme.

Compared to three selected reference programmes, VIA Water has shown comparable performance despite being less risk averse.

威盛水务是由荷兰外交部资助的“全民水族”和“ IHE-德尔福特”的一项创新计划。威盛水务在水务领域代表非洲的创新与创新。在2015年至2019年期间，该计划为非洲八个国家的62项城市用水创新提供了830万欧元的赠款。该计划与技术，学习和业务发展支持相结合，提供赠款以试行新想法和创新。

在收到的525份原始概念说明中，有62份与VIA Water（12％）签订了合同。在受支持的创新中，有53％达到了市场引入和传播的阶段，而不到10％的飞行员失败了。

威盛水务显示出非洲领先的创新者的高度包容性，并且具有相似的效力水平。它的产品组合几乎平均分布在非洲和非非洲主要合作伙伴领导的创新之间。通过为非洲创新者提供特殊支持，该计划能够创造一个公平的竞争环境。本文探讨了创建此公平竞争环境所需的条件，包括建立一个值得信赖的环境，在该环境中可以促进学习和交流。此外，本文分析了一些可能的成功因素，例如应用创新的国家，创新所针对的主题（“紧迫需求”），合同组织的类型以及计划选择的方法。

与三个选定的参考计划相比，威盛水务尽管表现出较低的风险规避性，但仍具有可比的表现。