Three women and one male representing Riva

We were IRC. We're now Riva.

Welcome to Riva

Trusted advisors to nation builders

We're here to help nation builders turn today's challenges into public services that last for generations. Riva is a network of independent, locally led organisations, working as trusted advisors to the people building the nations of tomorrow.

News

18 August 2026

Riva leadership welcome message

Meet Riva: global systems leaders transforming water, sanitation, and public services with you

News

18 August 2026

Riva launches - media release 18 August 2026

Riva announces changes to drive local legitimacy and global reach

News

18 August 2026

What's in a name?

Marc Jaffrey, Riva's Director of Brand & Communication unpacks the story behind the name Riva

News

18 August 2026

IRC becomes Riva, why?

Patrick Moriarty, Secretary General of Riva, explains why IRC's transformation was essential and is a commitment to local leadership

News

30 July 2026

How the Riva network works

Inside the Riva network: collective decision-making, local autonomy and mutual accountability

We can help

Whatever your challenge, we’ll have a way of approaching it. Read about our services and expertise to see how we can help you.

What we do

Three things nations need to build public services that last – expertise, capability, and the leadership to transform, not just strengthen, what's there. Find out about these aspects of what we do.

Deep expertise across systems

Grounded expertise in public services and systems that make nations grow.

Practical capabilities

The people and know-how to move from strategy to lasting change

Transformational systems approach

Delivering a systems approach that drives transformational change

Change stories

Change looks different in every district, ministry, or country. Read what it took.

Eight years of systems strengthening put to the test

Strong local ownership enabled a rapid response to South Ari’s water quality crisis

Making health systems investable

A simple costing tool and stronger political engagement helped Mali make water and sanitation in healthcare facilities a national investment priority.

Building stronger institutions through workforce learning

Strengthening institutions at scale through digital learning, local ownership, and systems thinking

Who we are

We are Riva. Our people – their talent, their experience, their judgement – are here to help you build the systems that make progress last: that turn ambition into water, sanitation and public services people can rely on. Meet the people who make Riva what it is.

Riva network

The Riva network is a federation of independent, locally led and globally connected organisations across Africa, Asia and Europe, united by a shared mission and name. Find out more about the network.

Find out more

Our people

Every challenge is different. What doesn't change is the depth of experience we bring to it. Our people carry the expertise and local knowledge that makes systems change possible. Meet Riva's leadership team.

Our approach

We've spent fifty eight years learning how systems fail, evolve and how to strengthen them. Today, our key focus is on systems leadership, institutional credibility, enabling nation builders and strengthening collective impact. These are the key drivers that unlock effective systems strengthening and transformational change.

Growing systems leadership

The nations that deliver essential public services to everyone – safe water and sanitation, health, education and beyond – share a common foundation: systems that work.

Building institutional credibility

The question that shapes our work is not “where is the money?” but “how do we build systems worth investing in?”

Enabling nation builders

Essential public services – are the foundations of economic and human flourishing and will only reach everyone, everywhere, when those who govern nations place them at the heart of national development.

Strengthening collective impact

No government, no organisation and or sector delivers transformation alone. Safe water and sanitation, health, education, climate resilience, energy are the interconnected foundations of public life, and the connections run in every direction.

Themes

Public services don’t fail for want of pipes or good intentions. They fail when the system around them breaks. Transforming systems means seeing the whole — and the world it operates in — then acting on it. Riva has fifteen themes that operate as a lens on how we are doing that. Here are six, our approaches page allows you to explore them all.

Systems leadership

Anyone can build. It takes systems leadership to make it last.

Planning

Reaching everyone is a plan, not a hope.

Monitoring

You can’t fix what you refuse to measure.

Finance

Services run on money that lasts, not goodwill.

National Development

Public services are the foundations on which nations are built, treat them that way.

Professionalisation

Professional providers, professional services, quality that lasts.