Building the institutional foundations that make services last

By Marc Jaffrey , 25 July 2026
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Rwanda
Location
Rwanda
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Since 2022, Riva Rwanda has been working alongside district officials, utility staff and national institutions to strengthen the systems behind Rwanda's water and sanitation services. The change that matters most is often harder to measure than pipelines or people reached. It is whether the people responsible for those services now think and act like stewards of a system rather than managers of a project. That shift is the result of years of deliberate work to build the institutional foundations that make services last.

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Since 2022, Riva Rwanda has been working alongside district officials, utility staff and national institutions to strengthen the systems behind Rwanda's water and sanitation services. The change that matters most is often harder to measure than pipelines or people reached. It is whether the people responsible for those services now think and act like stewards of a system rather than managers of a project. That shift is the result of years of deliberate work to build the institutional foundations that make services last.
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THE BIGGER PICTURE

Rwanda has clear ambitions for universal water and sanitation access and a government that takes those ambitions seriously. The challenge is the less visible infrastructure behind services: the planning processes, accountability structures, financing frameworks and human capability that determine whether services are still working in ten years’ time.

Projects can be built quickly: systems take longer. And when systems are weak, even well-built infrastructure eventually fails.

Our work in Rwanda is grounded in a conviction at the heart of what we do: that lasting public services require strong institutions, and strong institutions require sustained investment, especially in the people who lead them. 

HOW WE WORKED

Since 2022, we’ve been part of the Isoko y'Ubuzima programme in Rwanda – a USAID-funded initiative led by Water For People, working across ten districts to strengthen water and sanitation governance and long-term sustainability. Within that partnership, our focus has been on what lies beneath: how people plan, decide, budget, learn and adapt. That meant working alongside government staff at national and district level – with WASAC, Rwanda's national water utility, and with the Ministry of Infrastructure – to strengthen governance and build the capacity to manage complexity.

Central to this was the Riva Systems Academy: practical, context-specific training for planners, engineers, finance officers and utility staff, adapted to Rwanda’s own challenges and grounded in what had been jointly identified through capacity assessments. This went beyond training. We also supported coaching and peer exchange, recognising that changing practice requires requires confidence, shared language and a genuine commitment to doing things differently: systems leadership.

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Modeste Nzirabatinya, Vice Mayor of Kirehe District, saw what changed when citizens became part of planning rather than recipients of it. Across the ten districts, 138 board members were trained to use community scorecards — a practical tool for holding services to account: "Kirehe District valued Riva's support in joint planning and implementation, which equipped district staff and WASH board members with the knowledge and skills required for inclusive planning."

For Eric Habumuremyi, Manager of Infrastructure Planning at WASAC, the test is now, will it still work as the climate changes around it: "We gained new skills in conceiving WASH projects with technologies that minimise greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change hazards. We also learned to assess and mitigate the risks of WASH projects to climate change impacts."

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Modeste Nzirabatinya, Vice Mayor of Kirehe District, saw what changed when citizens became part of planning rather than recipients of it. Across the ten districts, 138 board members were trained to use community scorecards — a practical tool for holding services to account: "Kirehe District valued Riva's support in joint planning and implementation, which equipped district staff and WASH board members with the knowledge and skills required for inclusive planning."

For Eric Habumuremyi, Manager of Infrastructure Planning at WASAC, the test is now, will it still work as the climate changes around it: "We gained new skills in conceiving WASH projects with technologies that minimise greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change hazards. We also learned to assess and mitigate the risks of WASH projects to climate change impacts."

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WHAT CHANGED

Rwanda's own measure of how well its water institutions are functioning – across planning, regulation, finance and infrastructure - improved from 68% to 80%.  In Kacyiru, water lost to leaks and poor metering before it reached anyone fell from 41% to 23%. In one area of Ntora, it fell to 9%.

These are are signals that institutions are performing differently – something has shifted in who feels responsible. That is the hardest thing to build, but also the most durable.

WHAT'S NEXT

Isoko y’Ubuzima completes in 2026 but we will continue helping to embed these practices permanently within national and district institutions and to share learning regionally and globally. 

Want to talk about how we could help strengthen the institutions behind your services?

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Professionalisation
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From projects to systems: strengthening Rwanda’s foundations for lasting water and sanitation services
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Building the institutional foundations that make services last
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