Change Story
Making the connections that change nations through systems leadership
A continuation, not a change: Ghana's leaders unite behind $1.7 billion a year for WASH
In August 2024, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the previous President of Ghana made a courageous decision – he put water, sanitation and hygiene at the centre of his nation's future. In 2025 His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, the new President of Ghana and the new Government chose to drive this commitment forward.
The Presidential Compact commits Ghana to $1.7 billion a year on water, sanitation and hygiene until 2030. Only the third presidential commitment of its kind in Africa – and a signal to governments across the continent that this kind of transformation is possible.
Why it matters
This is not a story about water.
"For too long, water and sanitation have sat in one or two ministries, disconnected from finance, from health, from education, from climate. But these systems are not separate. Safe water determines whether children go to school, whether clinics function, whether economies grow, or whether communities are resilient to climate change. A nation that invests in water is investing in all of them. That is why this Compact does not belong to one ministry. It belongs to Ghana."
Vida Duti, CEO, Riva Ghana.
The Compact spans eight government ministries. It is, at its core, an exercise in systems leadership – connecting institutions, aligning political will, and building the cross–sector coherence that makes transformation irreversible.
How we worked
Getting water and sanitation onto a president's agenda doesn't start with the president. It starts with a minister, a budget meeting, and a trusted advisor willing to ask an uncomfortable question.
That question was asked by Vida Duti, CEO of Riva Ghana: what would it take to make water and sanitation not a sector priority, but a national one?
Ghana's Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources decided to find out.
What followed was years of coalition–building and institutional reform work – convening eight government ministries, the National Development Planning Commission, the Office of the President, UNICEF, the World Bank, the United Nations, and Heads of State Initiative partners around a single national vision.
As Vida says: "These processes aren't linear. They require navigation of complex institutional landscapes and relationships."
Vida grew up in Sefwi Bodi in Ghana's Western Region, fetching water from the stream before school. She would see people carried to the hospital, and then carried back. At the signing, her thoughts went back to that village: "I thought about how far we'd come – and how this was the start of a step–change in making sure that no child had to experience what I'd gone through."
What changed
The Compact brings every national WASH policy, programme and plan under a single presidential mandate – with financial commitments, institutional reform targets, and accountability across all eight ministries.
After the signing, Vida remembers that the Minister turned to her and said: "On the day you came to my office and spoke about a Presidential Compact, I thought: this is the kind of leadership we need to nurture. But now we have more work to do – taking the compact beyond signing to implementation. We need more systems leaders at all levels to achieve this."
We'll continue to help build that leadership capacity – including through our Systems Academy Systems Leadership course.
What's next
Ghana is part of a growing global movement. Governments across Africa and beyond are now committing to the same transformation. Our role is to work alongside nation builders like you – in government, in civil society, across sectors – who are ready to drive systems change for the long term.
Want to talk about what this could look like for you?