Riva Sahel - our story

Who we are 

Riva Sahel is a member of Riva – an international network of local systems leaders driving change that transforms lives through resilient national systems and public services. We work across Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, three neighbouring countries that share a single water and sanitation challenge and a single conviction: that reliable public services can be built even in the hardest of times. We are trusted advisors to nation builders in the Sahel – the political leaders, decision makers, wealth generators and citizens who are remaking 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 across the world over the last 14 years. 

Where we came from 

We began as IRC Burkina Faso in 2012, part of an international development agency which had been working here for many years. Many of our current team were working for and with IRC to tackle the root causes of systems failures. We then extended to Mali and Niger in 2016 so we could work more directly with local governments, communities and partners to achieve universal access to water and sanitation.  We are now Riva Sahel, a member of the Riva network. 

The work that shapes us 

We grew up alongside the people who run the Sahel’s water systems – national water and sanitation directorates, public utilities, municipal authorities and the small operators who serve rural towns. With partners including the European Union, UNICEF, WHO and the Vitol Foundation, we helped professionalise these services and prepare the investments that keep them running. A decade of working through crisis taught us that change here is patient work: it depends on the steady credibility of systems that deliver, and on the trust of the people who hold them together. 

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.  

Find out more about the Riva Network origin story here.