What’s so special about systems?

Published on: 01/01/2024

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Grace Kansiime and her daughter enjoying safe water from a new household water connection

Systems are all around us, delivering essential services that we rely on. Power, healthcare and of course water, sanitation and hygiene. 

We benefit from these systems daily, and often the systems are interlinked.

When they work well, we don’t notice them.

And when they don’t? The electricity goes off, and people are denied life-saving health treatments. In the case of water, sanitation and hygiene: the water isn’t there or if it is, it’s dirty or a long way away. People aren’t able to go to school or work, and at worst, they get ill and die.

 If we can fix the parts of the system that are going wrong - we can transform lives, making sure that people like those in our stories enjoy the same equity, justice and opportunity as the rest of us.

 The good news is …

… we know how to strengthen the system to achieve strong, safe and lasting water, sanitation and hygiene for everyone. It takes everyone in all parts of the system to know and play their part. And that’s what we’re all about.

 So what do we actually do?

 The money we raise from people like you, and from funding organisations and governments, is invested in working with people to transform the way things are done. We don’t do short-term projects that don’t fix the problems. Instead we:

• analyse the barriers to achieving water and sanitation for all – gathering data and evidence to show what’s happening, where the gaps are, and what’s needed.
• activate collective action - bringing together people in communities, local and national governments, international development agencies and commercial water and sanitation businesses to understand which parts of the system are/aren’t working and how it can be fixed. We then collaborate to create a plan of action – called a master plan.
• test solutions on the ground - different ways of working together to get services to people in our focus countries.
• share this learning, and spread knowledge, expertise and solutions – through training, communications, influencing and advocating.

 The result? People get strong, safe, and reliable services. And life-giving,  life-changing, water, sanitation and hygiene.

If you've chanced upon this blog, nice to meet you. We are IRC. We support countries to build strong local and national services, underpinned by resilient systems, that transform lives and build equity, justice and opportunity for all.

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