Our story

Riva Ghana is a member of Riva – an international network of local systems leaders driving change that transforms lives through resilient national systems and public services. As systems catalysts, we partner with governments and communities to ensure everyone has access to clean water, safe toilets, and good hygiene that last for generations. We inform and inspire leaders to place these essential services at the heart of their budgets and policies. By turning complex challenges into reliable public systems, we drive lasting solutions that elevate communities and improve lives.

Ghana stands out as one of Africa's most stable democracies, with a robust decentralised governance structure. This makes it the ideal environment for us to test and scale national policies and innovative approaches. We work with local authorities and national institutions – including ministries and agencies – to build resilient, unified systems across public services. 

We are trusted advisors to nation builders in Ghana – the political leaders, decision makers, technocrats, development partners, community leaders and citizens who are actively building and improving the systems that shape people's lives. Locally led and globally connected, our network draws on more than fifty years' experience in international development and on the knowledge, relationships and trust we have built here over thirty years.

Where we came from 

We began as IRC Ghana, a branch office of IRC international Water and Sanitation Centre, The Netherlands, an international development agency which had been working in Ghana since the early 90s. Many of our current team worked for and with IRC to tackle the root causes of systems failures. In 2011 we set up our country office in Accra and later a field office in the Ahafo Region so we could work more directly with local governments, communities and partners to achieve universal access to water and sanitation. To further deepen our legitimacy we registered as a local entity in Ghana in 2025. We are now Riva Ghana, a member of the Riva network.

The work that shapes us

Over the years, national ministries, supported by Riva Ghana have built up the systems that make water and sanitation services last – costing them for the long term, embedding monitoring directly into government frameworks, and testing new approaches to delivery together. We have learnt that lasting progress depends on anchoring clear strengthening and transformation frameworks inside government itself, not running alongside it. As Riva Ghana, we aim to bring that lesson to bear to all essential public services in Ghana who face the same challenge.

We believe that water is the quiet force behind everything a nation hopes to become: a gateway to resilient public services, social justice and sustainable development. And while our background is in water, our work now flows through every essential system that shapes people's lives.