Johannesburg: AfricUpdate – News Desk
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) Africa Hub has announced its commitment to co-convene a landmark leadership symposium aimed at addressing systemic challenges that hinder African countries from unlocking the bottom and middle tiers of the Africa Water Investment Programme (AIP) investment pyramid. The commitment was made at the inaugural African Union (AU)-AIP Water Summit, where leaders and governments announced investment pledges and commitments on Friday.
Speaking on the closing day of the summit, IRC Africa Hub Director Juste Nansi said the Africa All Systems Leadership Symposium, scheduled to take place in Kigali, Rwanda, from 13 – 17 July 2026, will serve as a direct follow-up to the Africa Water Investment Summit, which kicked off on 13 August in Cape Town. “The symposium will be jointly convened by the AU-AIP, bringing together the highest level of continental political leadership; the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), providing its ministerial mandate and continental sector stewardship, and the IRC Africa Hub, contributing technical, system and facilitation expertise,” Nansi explained.
According to the African Union Development Agency, the AIP’s Pyramid of Water Investment Transformation is a strategic model that identifies potential sources of finance aimed at helping Africa to reach its ambitious annual investment target by 2030. Nansi said the symposium will be organised under the authority of the government of South Africa, which chaired the current summit, and the government of Rwanda, as the intended host of the symposium. “Their confirmed engagement will be instrumental in ensuring both political momentum and operational success.”
Nansi recalled the remarks by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the AU-AIP Water Summit opening on Wednesday, where he underscored the need to transform water from a crisis sector into an opportunity sector. This message was echoed by financing institutions throughout the summit, who stressed that the challenge is not a lack of available funds, but a lack of trust from financiers in the water sector,” Nansi said.
The Kigali Symposium will respond directly to these messages and will focus on the systemic reforms, transformation agendas, programmes, and projects needed to build trust and unlock financing opportunities for infrastructure across the continent. “This unique platform will translate political ambition into operational reform pathways. Over five days, it will bring together Heads of State, Ministers, parliamentarians, mayors, regulators, utilities, public finance authorities, investors, and innovators to design and commit to systemic transformation projects,” Nansi said.
The symposium will focus on critical areas, including:
•Leadership for system transformation: Aligning political, financial and technical leadership to overcome systemic bottlenecks.
•Strategic public finance and domestic resource mobilisation: Engaging Ministries of Finance and public development banks to strengthen creditworthiness, and expand national fiscal space for water and sanitation.
•Professionalisation of service provision: Ensuring operational efficiency, capacity and long-term sustainability.
•Regulation and accountability: Embedding transparency, performance monitoring and citizen engagement into sector governance.
Through curated transformation dialogues, reform matchmaking sessions and targeted investment conversations, Nansi said the symposium will act as an accelerator for multi-country reform and transformation projects aligned with the AU-AIP’s strategic objectives. “We will collaborate with all partners to ensure that this event marks a milestone in Africa’s journey towards stronger governance systems, and the mobilisation of domestic and external investments on a large scale for a water-secure Africa with safe sanitation for all,” said Nansi.
