Most people who advise governments on how to run essential services have seen those systems from the outside. Olivier Kanangire has spent 18 years inside one – moving from the chemistry bench of a water treatment plant through utility management, projects planning and public-private partnership (PPP) contracts management, to leading the governance work that determines whether Rwanda's institutions can sustain what they’ve built. That journey through every layer of a system gives him something most advisors don't have: an understanding of how the whole thing works, and where it is most likely to fail.
He began his career testing the water that came out of Rwanda's treatment plants before it reached people's taps. That grounding in what service quality means at the point of delivery has stayed with him as he moved through every level of the system above it – from plant manager to technical WASH Advisor, projects planning manager to senior water, sanitation and hygiene governance expert. He spent more than a decade at WASAC, Rwanda's national water and sanitation corporation, preparing projects for the African Development Bank, EIB, KfW and JICA, managing Rwanda's first major bulk water PPP contract, and leading the sanitation planning unit responsible for scaling the country's urban sanitation programme.
Olivier leads Riva Rwanda as Country Coordinator, bringing that accumulated institutional knowledge to the work of strengthening Rwanda's governance systems, investment pipeline and district-level service delivery. He led Riva's contribution to the five-year Isoko y'Ubuzima project – a USAID-funded national initiative to strengthen water governance across ten districts – and continues to support WASAC in developing climate-resilient investment plans. He holds a master's degree in environmental science with specialisation in water quality management from UNESCO-IHE in Delft. He speaks English, French and Kinyarwanda fluently and is based in Kigali.
A few highlights
- 18 years embedded in Rwanda's public service institutions
- Led Riva's contribution to Isoko y'Ubuzima (2021–2026) – a five-year USAID-funded initiative to strengthen governance across ten districts, led by Water For People in consortium with VEI, CARE International and Riva
- Senior positions at WASAC, Rwanda's national water and sanitation corporation
- Managed Rwanda's Kigali Bulk Water PPP contract – a flagship public-private partnership in water and sanitation infrastructure development
- Project preparation and fund mobilisation with the African Development Bank, European Investment Bank, KfW and JICA
- MSc in Environmental Science (Water Quality Management), UNESCO-IHE, Delft; BSc in Chemistry and Physics, Kigali Institute of Education; short courses certificates in wastewater and faecal sludge management
- Working languages: English, French and Kinyarwanda