Skip to main content
Water fee collector, Kwamekrakrom community, Sunyani West, Ghana

Our Impact

IRC works around the world promoting sustainable WASH systems and in six focus countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, India and Uganda. Within each country, we have identified partner districts where we can make the most direct impact. 

We want every household, school, health care facility, workplace and public place in the world to have access to safe and reliable drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services by 2030. To achieve this we act as a change hub - supporting networks of governments, NGOs, entrepreneurs and users of services. Read about how we're doing across our programmes.

Our impact is wide-ranging. At the centre of our work is catalysing change on the ground – in partner districts in our six focus countries.  From there, we bring lessons learned to national capitals and global organisations, networks and decision-makers around the world. We ensure that local learning can positively impact the development of resilient systems in WASH and disrupt failing short-term approaches.  Read, listen to and watch stories from the different parts of the WASH system, and check out our data to see how we're doing.

Around the world

We are working for change in 25 countries around the world.

Our head office is in The Hague, Netherlands. We have 8 IRC offices in Africa, Asia and the Americas.  Our work is around the world – in six focus countries; working with partners in 21 country districts; operating in an additional 20 countries delivering 86 active programmes and projects and with over 200 partners and hundreds of global decision-makers in governments and global institutions such as the World Bank and UN. In 2017, we sought to positively impact the lives of 1,156,800 people in our focus country districts. This work continues. 

 

World map of 26 countries IRC is involved in 

International Programme

IRCs International Programme is dedicated to taking what we are learning from our focus countries, district-level work and wider international activity and promoting it to global institutions, governments and decision-makers. Its central aim is to ensure that investments and strategies in the WASH sector are more effective in delivering WASH systems.

 

89
active programmes and projects
2.64m
people in partner districts we work with directly
200+
partners in development worldwide
11.8
million euros invested overall

Burkina Faso

In Burkina Faso, we are working with the Ministry of Water, Hydraulic Infrastructure and Sanitation, national, regional and local government, NGOs and service providers to deliver sustainable WASH systems. 

We are working with one partner district: Banfora 

154k
Population of partner district
1
Partner District
69%
Water coverage (in Banfora)
28%
Sanitation coverage (in Banfora)

Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, we are working with our partners to achieve the goal of universal access to WASH services in targeted places - at national and district level - by 2030. 

We are working with two partner districts: South Ari woreda and Mile woreda (Afar region).

 

 

27%
Water coverage: (in Mile)
20%
Water coverage: (in South Ari)
21%
Water coverage: (in Farta)
31%
Water coverage: (in Dera)
42%
Water coverage: (in North Mecha)
1,392,875
Population partner districts:

Ghana

Our work in Ghana is focused on working with government, development partners, private sector organisations, NGOs and research institutions to achieve the WASH sector's visionary target of providing universal water and sanitation services by 2025. 

We are working with one partner district: Asutifi North

 

72%
Water coverage (in Asutifi North District)
14%
Sanitation coverage (in Asutifi North District)
66k
Population of partner district

Honduras

In Honduras, our programme is making an impact by delivering through the Para Todos Por Siempre initiative – a collaboration between national government, municipalities and NGOs. Our office is hosted by CONASA, the national government body responsible for regulating the water and sanitation sector.

Our work focusses on impacting the lives of people in rural communities with a wide-ranging programme in 15 districts across the country.