About IRHA

The International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance is a Swiss Non-Governmental Organization founded in 2002 and based in Geneva.

IRHA's mandate is to promote rainwater as an effective and sustainable solution to water scarcity and climate extremes due to climate change.

The IRHA implements rainwater harvesting development projects in developing countries to improve the health, livelihoods, and resilience of communities and ecosystems in the face of change. climatic.

As such, the initiatives of the IRHA are fully in line with the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 11,13, 15 and 17).
 
 

Vision

  • A world where communities vulnerable to climate change are able to guarantee access to water, cover their basic needs and benefit from the conditions necessary for sustainable development.
 

Values

  • Support human communities and ecosystems to better manage available resources and become more resilient to change
  • Invest in sustainable development strategies that respect ecological balances and zero carbon
  • Cultivate people's sensitivity to their environment, their indigenous knowledge to define contextualized responses that are quickly appropriated by them.
 

Mission

Our action is based on the implementation of rainwater management projects in developing countries where access to drinking water and vulnerability to climate change are daily problems, directly and negatively impacting community life. Our intervention revolves around 3 components:

  • implementation of projects
  • Capacity Building
  • support for the development of an integrated natural resource management policy.

We offer our partners:

  • Expertise to plan, develop and build stormwater management systems and operationally demonstrate the benefits of this resource.
  • Decision-making tools to provide local decision-makers with the tools necessary for the proper management of infrastructures and to ensure the sustainability of investments.
  • Training to strengthen the technical and management capacities of local decision-makers, and technical services and young professionals (students in civil engineering, architecture, etc.).
  • Support for the development of local and regional policies/strategies for the conservation and management of water resources, in order to strengthen resilience and the capacity to adapt to climate change.
 
 

Focus on impact

We pay great attention to monitoring/evaluating the performance of our projects with our local partners, to developing contextualized solutions based on a detailed understanding of needs. Results-based project management, monitoring of indicators and achievement of objectives, allows us to better perceive the impact of our interventions on the basis of quantifiable results.

The impact of our actions since 2002 is: + 1,184,000 people benefiting daily from drinking water resources, + 140 rainwater collection tanks, + 200 school gardens, 64 schools and 9 health centers in 14 countries of intervention.
 

Team

 

Marc Sylvestre - Director

Marc holds a Master's degree in Urban Development (IUG, 2007) and an MSc in Water and Environmental Management (WEDC- Loughborough, 2020). He has managed numerous development projects in Lebanon, Haiti and Nepal. He is responsible for the strategic and operational development of the organization, contributes to the deployment of new initiatives and is in charge of fundraising and donor relations (foundations, institutions, private, etc.).

> LinkedIn

 

Anne Marie Khetib - Head of Admin and Finance

Administrative and Financial Director of the European Scout Bureau (WSB) for 9 years, she has the same responsibilities within our organization and ensures that procedures, documentation and finance meet the standards (Swiss GAAP FER 21) and demands of donors to ensure good governance and financial management of IRHA.

> LinkedIn

 

Florian Bielser - Programme Manager

Graduated from Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Florian joined IRHA in 2019. Passionate about low-tech solutions, sustainable and easily appropriated by communities, he is currently coordinating projects on food sovereignty and ecosystem restoration in Nepal and Senegal.

 
 

Sima Haïrapetian - Communication / Marketing Officer

With a Bachelor's degree in Applied Foreign Languages and a Master's degree in Marketing and Communication, Sima joined the team in March 2022. She is in charge of strengthening IRHA's communication and marketing strategy.

> LinkedIn

 

Océane Garandel - Intern

Océane joined IRHA in February 2022 as a Master's student in environmental science at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and is enrolled in a geomatics certificate. In charge of the evaluation and framing of the 2022-30 strategy, she is currently conducting cartographic work on the projects carried out in Senegal.

>LinkedIn

 

Marion Dunand - Intern

Marion is a student in the Master of Arts in African Studies at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and in International Programme Management at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS). She joins IRHA as an intern in January 2022. She first worked on the Global Rainwater Harvesting Index. Since February 2023 she is in charge of the strategic strengthening of the Alliance.

 

Darja Könnig PhD - Resource mobilization

Passionate scientific professional with a strong track record in cutting-edge research in regenerative
medicine and clinical trials management. For over 15 years, Darja proved to be a resilient and collaborative partner, capable of building strong relationships with stakeholders and delivering timely results.
Darja joined IRHA as resource mobilization officer.

 
 

 

Committee

The Committee defines the policy of the organization and ensures the promotion of the organization towards institutions, donors and other agencies.

Committee Member

 

Strategy

IRHA's strategy defines the organization's intervention framework, objectives and results to be achieved. The strategy specifies the areas of intervention, the modus operandi in order to develop, implement and evaluate the impact of initiatives.
Documents are available upon request.

Stratégie 2022 > 2030
 

Annual report

New initiatives, impact, outcomes and challenges, our annual report assess the progress of the IRHA.

Reports

 

Your support is key

Donate

Name: IRHA
Account: 17-198970-3
IBAN: CH15 0900 0000 1719 8970 3
BIC: POFICHBEXXX

Recognised as a public utility, your donations to the IRHA are tax deductible.

 

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irha-h2o.org

IRHA

International Environment House 2
Chemin de Balexert, 9
CH-1219 Châtelaine

Tel. : +41 22 797 41 57
E-mail : secretariat@irha-h2o.org