Nic-Riabelle Zohoun

Riabelle works on an often overlooked aspect of reform: the systems and routines that make local services accountable. A water system may exist, a contract may be signed, and responsibilities may be assigned, but services remain fragile unless communes, operators and public authorities regularly review performance, discuss challenges openly, and take action where improvements are needed. Riabelle’s work focuses on making those processes part of everyday practice.

She works with local governments, rural water operators, technical services, programme teams and students to make service performance visible and actionable. She helps structure projects, monitor implementation, review operator performance, document lessons, and translate field realities into practical tools for action. In Burkina Faso, she has supported communal water and sanitation planning, delegated management of rural water systems, digital reporting through mWater, local accountability processes and evidence-based learning for national and local actors.

Riabelle is able to connect engineering, governance and learning without treating them as separate worlds. She understands the infrastructure, but she also sees the contracts, reporting gaps, financing weaknesses, institutional behaviours and human routines that decide whether that infrastructure will keep working. With experience ranging from sanitation engineering and faecal sludge management to water and sanitation governance, monitoring, business development, training and research supervision, she brings a broad and practical perspective to the sector. She is building the kind of professional discipline Riva needs: grounded in field experience, focused on systems, and committed to helping tomorrow’s leaders learn from today’s practice.

A few highlights

• 8+ years of experience in water and sanitation governance, local service systems, project design, monitoring, knowledge management and capacity strengthening, mainly in Burkina Faso.
• Current role: Water and Sanitation Governance Expert / Monitoring and Business Development Coordinator with Riva Sahel.
• Supports the full cycle of assistance to local governments – from project formulation and implementation to monitoring, reporting and learning.
• Contributed to projects supported by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Vitol Foundation and the European Union.
• Supported consolidated performance analysis of 195 rural water systems operated under lease contracts across seven regions of Burkina Faso, covering technical, financial and governance performance.
• Designed or facilitated training on water and sanitation governance, leadership, systems strengthening and mWater-based reporting for rural water operators and local actors.
• Supervised applied research by 2iE Master’s students on faecal sludge management and sustainable financing of sanitation services in Burkina Faso.
• Academic qualifications: Master’s Degree in Water and Sanitation Engineering from 2iE; Bachelor’s Degree in Agronomy,  specialising in Rural Engineering, Water, Fisheries and Aquaculture, University of Abomey-Calavi. 
• Working languages: French and English.