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Published on: 03/05/2017

Woman in Kabarole, Uganda. cc IRC, Photographer Jeroen van Loon

IRC’s Strategy Framework will guide our work until 2030 and frames our contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals, and particularly Goals 6.1 and 6.2: Universal provision of water and sanitation services.

The strategy builds on the lessons we have learned over the past ten years of supporting systems strengthening in our focus countries; and particularly those of the last five years of our 2012-16 business plan. 

Much remains the same: we continue to be committed to our existing focus countries and to the Goals of our previous business plan, most importantly the championing of the Service Delivery Approach. There is also evolution. Most importantly, we will explicitly commit to partner districts within our focus countries: agreeing to support them in achieving universal access by 2030. By doing so, we will ensure that at least one million people have access to sustainable and good quality water, sanitation and hygiene services. 

In adopting this new focus we are building on the lessons learned from our previous business plan: that building strong national and local WASH systems capable of providing decent quality WASH services requires presence and action over the long term. By holding ourselves accountable for the successful delivery of services to everyone in our partner districts we ensure that our work on systems strengthening does indeed lead to improved service delivery. As such, the new strategy aligns with the principles set out in the Agenda for Change partnership of which we are a founding member. 

Working with partner districts does not mean that we will get into the business of building new infrastructure; rather, it means supporting broad-based partnerships including with providers of new infrastructure, while remaining focused on the systems strengthening and change hub work that is our main strength. 

Our new strategy is based on continued development of our hybrid business model: a social enterprise implementing programmes in partner countries and districts in support of the SDGs; whilst providing high-quality advisory services to the market in other countries through the work of IRC Consult.

Our strategy is intended to be a living document and will be updated regularly. As such we welcome any comments and feedback.

Download the IRC strategy framework 2017-30 : building WASH systems to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals

Disclaimer

At IRC we have strong opinions and we value honest and frank discussion, so you won't be surprised to hear that not all the opinions on this site represent our official policy.

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