2026: A year of transformation

Published on: 12/01/2026

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Image: Adobe Stock - By singkham

I like to start January thinking of the year ahead, knowing that the process of digesting the previous year still has a little time to reach full maturity!

While the term is often misused, 2026 will be truly transformational for IRC — the year in which we finally shed our identity as a Dutch-based INGO with branch offices in the global south, to become a truly networked organisation of independent and mutually supportive national partners.

This is a journey we've been on for several years. Indeed, our 2017-2030 strategy mentioned our intention to become a networked organisation with at least one branch office fully independent by 2021.

It's taken a little longer than planned! But we're still on track. For the last three years we've been working intensively on the groundwork. Now we're ready. By the end of the first quarter of 2026 we'll have three founding members supported by a global hub (one of these members will retain the Dutch legal entity). It's been a long haul — and it's exhilarating to be moving into this next phase.

A new network requires a new identity, so watch this space as we roll out a new brand and name in the first half of the year!

The right time and the right change

I'm convinced this is the right moment. The world is changing — fast. Last year started with the Trumpquake — the overnight ending of US development assistance. The multilateral world in which I've spent most of my career is changing as never before. Not before time, the post-1945 consensus was well past its sell by date. That said, this sort of change is deeply uncomfortable, while also providing the opportunity of new beginnings.

IRC's transformation will enable us to embrace and contribute to a new vision of multilateralism — based on equality of esteem between strong nations shaping their own development trajectories. Building on our decades of experience, we'll continue to contribute to strengthening national systems, now with increased legitimacy as rooted national actors. At the same time, through our global network we'll maintain the ability to scan across contexts and contribute to global debate as a respected thought leader.

Optimistic and realistic pragmatists

I am, in my essence, an optimist. Trips to Bangkok and Delhi at the end of 2025 reminded me why. When I started at IRC in 2000, Thailand had a poverty rate of 42%; by 2021 that had reduced to 6%. In the same period, India has lifted millions out of poverty and shifted focus from basic provision to higher service levels. These transformations show what's possible with good governance, committed leadership, and the absence of conflict — and they're happening across much of Asia as well as in bright spots across Africa like Ghana, Rwanda, and Senegal.

This is the context in which our independent members will deliver our ambitious targets: as national actors contributing to building strong and proud nations.

Our focus for 2026

Nation building in a post-aid era. Writing at the start of 2025 with the rubble from USAID's destruction still settling, I was optimistic about African organisations and governments stepping up. A year later, despite the criminal damage done, this remains a necessary wake-up call to countries and sectors that have been overly reliant on ODA. The Africa Water & Sanitation Systems Leadership Symposium 2026  in Kigali in August will champion strong visionary leadership: with mature governance, there's no reason ambitious water and sanitation investment cannot be mobilised. This will only happen when countries become serious about professionalising their systems — making them credible targets for investment.

Stepping beyond WASH. I continue to be convinced that WASH — above all as an acronym — has outlived its usefulness. When introduced by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council in the early 2000s, it was a refreshing cry for attention at the start of the MDG era. In 2025, it increasingly looks like a relic — a holdout of INGOs and UN agencies standing for low quality services and smacking of "appropriate development". It feels out of step in an era of mobile phones, AI, and energy transition. It's time to put WASH behind us while continuing to champion water and sanitation for all, everywhere and forever, but without being tied to an outdated acronym.

Water, sanitation and resilience. A final trend I expect to accelerate — particularly with the UN Water Conference in the UAE in December — is the full integration of water and sanitation into climate discussions. From almost no visibility five years ago, water is now increasingly central to climate debates. As resilience and adaptation grow in importance, we'll continue championing how resilient water and sanitation services underpin resilient communities: an investment in water and sanitation is an investment in societal resilience to a changing climate.

Energy transition. Just as mobile phones leapfrogged landlines, decentralised solar promises to bypass sclerotic national efforts to electrify a continent where 600 million still lack electricity. A key insight from experience in South Africa and India: electricity is utterly transformative for water supply. Without it, providing clean water is an order of magnitude more complicated — a critical bottleneck to service delivery and economic development. Understanding and embracing the potential of the energy transition in Africa for resilient water and sanitation services will be at the heart of our work on systems strengthening and professionalisation.

Artificial intelligence. I expect 2026 to see continued rapid but uneven integration of AI across the sector, from chatbots and writing assistants to utilities mining their troves of unused data. At IRC, we'll continue exploring how to use AI to facilitate access to our knowledge base, including through our WASH Systems Academy.

It's going to be quite a year. I'm excited to be navigating it with all of you.