This chapter presents a comparative capability-based analysis of rural WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) interventions in Vietnam and Cambodia, examining how access to resources, effective agency, and socio-structural context shaped social inclusion and women’s empowerment. In both countries, WASH programmes expanded formal access to basic water and sanitation and improved hygiene, safety, and time use for poor and vulnerable households, yet inclusion remained uneven for elderly people, persons with disabilities, and the poorest households. Distinct targeting arrangements and socio-cultural contexts produced different social inclusion outcomes: in Vietnam, administrative exclusion and entrenched gender norms constrained agency despite infrastructure availability, while in Cambodia, distrust in poverty targeting and procedural rigidity undermined equitable access. Women’s empowerment outcomes were similarly mixed. Women became central actors in WASH mobilisation and community outreach, gaining confidence, skills, and social recognition; however, unpaid care burdens persisted and leadership remained concentrated in socially sanctioned caregiving domains with limited decision-making power or economic recognition. Socio-structural contexts further differentiated outcomes: in Vietnam, moralised civic participation constrained autonomy within bureaucratic hierarchies, whereas in Cambodia, relational care enabled community engagement but lacked institutional authority. The chapter argues that by distinguishing resources from real freedoms and tracing the conversion factors linking one to the other, the Capability Approach explains why similar programmes produced divergent outcomes and redirects impact reporting away from infrastructure counts and attendance sheets towards the substantive freedoms women and marginalised groups can gain to lead the lives they have reason to value.