After a ten year career at IRC, covering various leadership functions and being member of the IRC Management Team, Erma established herself as an independent consultant in 2015. Erma continues her collaboration with IRC as an associate consultant.
Erma strongly believes in country leadership - national governments leading the development of a common vision, policy priorities and targets for the sector; National governments coordinating and directing all actors and interventions towards achievement of the commonly agreed vision and targets, monitoring progress and facilitating learning processes to adjust sector policies and practices when needed. Without national governments taking leadership and being backed by a strong sector system, achievement of WASH services for all and forever will remain an utopia and resources will remain being wasted.
Working with governments, at national and decentralised level, in facilitating sector-broad and multi-actor change processes towards strengthened sector capacities for sustained WASH service delivery, is Erma's passion.
Erma thinks that championing knowledge development, innovation and policy influencing for country- leadership is an exciting challenge. This gives her an excellent opportunity to capatalise on both her passion and on a solid professional background anchored in her work for a diversity of employers (national governments, bi-lateral donor and multi-lateral agencies) in different parts of the world.
Después de una carrera de diez años en el IRC, Erma se estableció como un consultor independiente a partir de 2015. Erma continúa su colaboración con IRC como consultor asociado.
Erma Uytewaal es una profesional internacional altamente respetada en el sector del agua potable y saneamiento, particularmente en las áreas de asesoramiento en la formulación e implementación de políticas, desarrollo de estrategias y desarrollo institucional y organizacional.
Ella es una ferviente defensora de la visión de IRC que propugna pasar de intervenciones de corto plazo hacia la definición e implementación de políticas sectoriales que posibiliten la prestación de servicios sostenibles en el largo plazo. Ella cree que el liderazgo de los gobiernos es esencial y es el único camino hacia el cambio en el sector para lograr que los sistemas de agua y saneamiento presten servicios para que todos, en todas partes y siempre puedan disfrutar de su derecho humano al agua potable y al saneamiento.
Erma sabe cómo dirigir el cambio institucional y organizacional. Con perseverancia, trabajo duro y una actitud positiva facilita el diálogo, la negociación y la coordinación de programas y procesos y complejos con la participación de múltiples actores.
En su trabajo es pragmática, motiva la innovación y se enfoca en los resultados. En sus interacciones es de mente abierta y directa. Emprendedora, responsable, pero sobre todo, profesional.
Erma puede visualizar e implementar acciones de una forma integral: abarcando la política y la práctica, las habilidades técnicas y sociales. Su formación y experiencia incluye trabajos previos en varias regiones del mundo incluyendo con las Naciones Unidas, organizaciones de cooperación bilaterales, gobiernos nacionales y gobiernos locales y ONGs, trabajando en todos los niveles de interacción (personal, organizacional e institucional).
More emphasis is needed on building and strengthening the work of multi-stakeholder platforms in WASH at the national level. Read more...
This document is a guide to orient UNICEF country staff to support governments to strengthen the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) enabling... Read more...
This publication has been produced by IRC as part of its independent monitoring and knowledge management services to the ONEWASH Plus programme. The... Read more...
Study on aid effectiveness in Honduras underpinning IRC’s approach based on the understanding that achieving universal and sustainable WASH services... Read more...
There is a need to change behaviors in order to reach universal access to water and sanitation services that last. This was the outcome of a session co-convened by Sanitation and Water for All partnership, IRC, WSP, WaterAid and USAid at the September 2015 Stockholm World Water Week. Read more...
This report presents an overall analysis of the current Ethiopian private sector landscape in water and sanitation, with case study chapters... Read more...
The Conference Financing for Development (13 – 16 July 2015) will make a strong call on the importance of increased domestic public finance towards funding the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Read more...
The Sanitation and Water for All Steering Committee gathered in Geneva on 17 and 18 June to take important decisions on the future direction of the partnership. A new partnership strategy was adopted which is geared towards guiding the actions of the partners in pursuit of a shared vision of... Read more...
Communal wealth is one of the most important factors affecting rural water services, and household connections are the only technology which can... Read more...
Sustainability instruments contribute to better water, sanitation of hygiene (WASH) projects but still face shortcomings. Read more...
Background note to the 3rd IRC event on the limits of aid and the future of trade and presentations of the Keynote presentations by DGIS, Simavi and... Read more...
This paper describes IRC's experience and lessons learned in conducting Capacity Self-Assessment (CSA) workshops as part of the SHAW programme in... Read more...
Thoughts on the integratation of 'aid or development effectiveness' principles into the theme of 'smart investments' for WASH. Read more...
Proposal for three case studies to be implemented in Honduras and two African countries researching the effectiveness of aid from the perspective of... Read more...
Promising commitments, shallow discussions but a great depth of optimism for the sector during last week's Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) High Level Meeting (HLM) in Washington DC. Read more...
Clearly, the High Level Meeting (HLM) is a massive global undertaking. As an IRC colleague phrased it, the HLM is the “cherry on the cake” that is preceded by a long preparatory process. Whether the HLM delivers the results that justify the gigantic efforts and costs associated with it is to my... Read more...
For deciding where to invest, how to sustain and improve water and sanitation services and for understanding which policies and strategies work, both... Read more...
Aid effectiveness: what does it entail and how to apply aid effectiveness principles in my daily work? Read more...