Article
Systems, not projects
Systems leadership is honest
When people ask what real systems leadership looks like in WASH, I point to Mrs. Vida Affum Duti. For over two decades, Vida has shown—patiently, persistently, and powerfully—how to move a sector from chasing short-term projects to building national systems that deliver services for everyone, forever. Today, as Country Director of IRC Ghana (and a global strategist across our network), she continues to inspire a generation of public leaders, practitioners, and partners.
We don’t fix problems one project at a time—we strengthen the system that prevents them.
Vida Duti
Roots in systems change
Vida’s pathway runs through the tough, unglamorous work of policy reform, collective learning, and change management. In Ghana, she helped steer Triple-S (Sustainable Services at Scale) and nurtured the National Learning Alliance Platform safe spaces where government, utilities, civil society and private actors leaned into evidence, debated trade-offs, and agreed on how to strengthen service delivery as a system.
That convening instinct bringing the whole system into the same room has become her trademark. It’s why, years later, Vida still opens national learning exchanges reminding us that progress only lasts when it’s owned by local institutions.
Courage to name what isn’t working
Systems leadership is honest. Vida has consistently surfaced uncomfortable truths like the high share of dysfunctional rural water systems in parts of Ghana and then turned those truths into shared agendas for reform: clarifying service definitions, adapting delivery models, and tightening regulation so that public interest anchors private participation.
Why systems not projects:
• Projects start and end; systems learn and improve.
• Projects deliver outputs; systems protect public value.
• Projects count facilities; systems guarantee services.
Recognition that reflects impact
In 2019, Vida received the OPEC Fund (formerly OFID) Annual Award for Development, honouring her dedication to sustainable WASH services for Ghanaians. The award recognized not just outputs, but the deeper work of institution building, accountability, and equity that defines systems change.
Her philosophy is simple and profound: “Water is life…”. But her practice goes further, she goes for life-long investment in people and public systems, so services don’t collapse when a project ends.
From Accra to the world
Ghana has benefited enormously from Vida’s leadership. So has the global WASH community. Her voice and practice increasingly shape international agendas, most recently through her appointment to the Global Water Center's Board of Directors, a role that amplifies African systems experience on a global stage, while staying anchored in country priorities, district realities, and frontline problem‑solving.
What I’ve learned from watching Vida
- Start where the system is, not where we wish it was, map the incentives, the data, the budget flow, then design with government to close the gaps.
- Make learning a habit, not an event: Regular, trusted platforms build the muscle for adaptive management.
- Celebrate public leadership: Awards matter when they lift the often invisible work of civil servants and local authorities to keep services running.
- Hold the global-local line: Serve national priorities first, then take what works to global forums so others can adapt not copy.
A call to the next generation
To young professionals, especially women, looking at WASH and wondering if systems work is “too slow” or “too political”: look at Vida’s journey. Systems leadership is technical; it is also relational, political, and deeply human. It asks us to bring evidence, humility, and courage to the same table and to stay long enough for institutions to learn, adjust, and lead.
Ghana’s progress hasn’t been a straight line. But thanks to leaders like Vida, the line bends in the direction of sustainable services, public accountability, and shared prosperity. That is the arc of systems change. And that is why I’m honoured to call her a colleague, a mentor, and a compass for our work across Africa.