Will joined United Purpose in September and is tasked with shaping and leading our Stepping UP WASH process. This will involve evolving our WASH portfolio and internal capacities, developing key strategic partnerships, and maximising the scale, quality and impact of our WASH work.

He brings with him 14 years of experience in the WASH sector, having worked in the past on roles from field researcher and engineer, to programme manager, government policy advisor, and donor. After his MSc in WASH (Cranfield University, UK), he spent 8 years overseas delivering WASH programmes and supporting governments and donors, in Bolivia, Nepal, Mongolia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and South Africa.  When he returned to the UK, he worked for Aguaconsult (a high-profile global WASH consultancy), giving advice to INGOs and development partners on their WASH work, and undertaking research and writing global guidance documents on topics such as sustainability and urban sanitation. Will’s clients included AfDB, DFID, the World Bank, UNICEF, BMGF, and INGOs such as WaterAid, Water for People and Welthungerhilfe (WHH).

To date, Will has worked on WASH in 19 countries, both in development and humanitarian contexts, and he can’t wait to visit the countries in our WASH portfolio – just as soon as the COVID rules allow.

Will is particularly interested in nutrition-sensitive WASH, market-based approaches, and applying WASH systems approaches. On this latter aspect, he has written various papers on systems approaches (see here, here, here and here), and recently finished a paper on applying WASH systems approaches in fragile contexts. Needless to say, Will envisages UP will be increasingly known for its WASH systems approaches and expertise, and is on the case to ensure it is an element that is mainstreamed across all of our new WASH work.

Will is already busy developing a strategic action plan for the Stepping UP WASH process , and is working with colleagues in our HQ and across our country offices to further evolve and strengthen our WASH capacities and programme portfolio.

This story first appeared on United Purpose’s website on 9 October 2020. The organisation merged with Self Help Africa in 2021.