Catarina de Albuquerque was a force of nature who transformed how our sector thinks about human rights and dignity
Published on: 17/11/2025
My friend Catarina died just over a month ago. The loss is still real and raw. I still expect a WhatsApp or a voice message ... "but Patrick Moriarty what do you think about....". As attested to by the flood of appreciations that came and keep coming following her death - on LinkedIn, at her funeral, during her Sanitation and Water for All's Sector Ministers Meeting - Catarina was a friend to many people and touched the lives of many more.
Unmissable and impossible to ignore, she helped me, as she helped so many others, to step out of my comfort zone of nerdy technical expertise into the realm of humans and their rights. And, to engaging with the power that can unlock access to those rights. Working together on SWA and its strategy we grappled with the water and sanitation system and with how to elevate it to the highest levels of politics and power. But equally, how to encourage it to reform and grow - moving beyond silos and petty empires to being part of something bigger: human dignity; environmental sustainability; resilience; and nation building.
Catarina was the model of a systems leader – someone who made the world change and flex and adapt not because of any formal power she wielded, but because of who she was. A connector, an inspirer, an advocate and a speaker of truth to power. She helped me, and I believe our entire water and sanitation sector, to challenge ourselves to step beyond the boundaries of our own system and to engage with what lies beyond – political power, economics, environment and climate. She did that through her own power of personality, but also through her ability to encourage and engage others around her – motivating and inspiring them. Whether those were the members of her team in the SWA secretariat, or the 400+ partners who make up Sanitation and Water for All’s extended family.
At 55, Catarina has left all of us far too soon – her family, friends, colleagues and those whose life she touched. Yet her legacy remains and is one we must commit to. To water and sanitation, yes. But above all to the human rights and human dignity that access to these services delivers. Water, not for its own sake, but as the ultimate enabler of resilience, growth and prosperity.
As the latest round of climate talks kicks off in Belem, another part of Catarina’s legacy sees water continue to rise up the climate agenda. Water is, after all, the flux through which climate change becomes real to people - as exceptional rainfall, floods and also droughts.
Catarina’s life work contributes to a great legacy of rights, law and multilateralism – something that she embodied and to which our greatest act of remembrance must be to recommit ourselves now and in the future. Catarina changed my life, in gratitude I commit to continuing to champion and build on this legacy. What will you do?
At IRC we think that global challenges require a new kind of leadership: systems leadership. On 3 December, 2025, IRC organised an online event that explores systems leadership — leadership that embraces complexity, collaboration and courage. The event marked the launch of IRC's Systems Leadership suite, featuring a A thought leadership essay on systems leadership in WASH, a technical paper on applying systems thinking and a free online course for emerging and established systems leaders.
Explore the essay Read the technical paper Sign up for the online course
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