Projects
IRC has a number of projects involving a variety of partners, funding mechanisms and life spans, all contributing to the overall aim of facilitating the sharing, promotion and use of knowledge to improve the long-term effectiveness of development work in the water supply and sanitation sector.

WASHCost
The WASHCost Project researches the life-cycle costs of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in rural and peri-urban areas in four countries. The rationale is that WASH governance will improve at all levels, as decision makers and stakeholders analyse the costs of sustainable, equitable and efficient services and put their knowledge to use.

SWITCH
SWITCH is a 5 year programme (2006-2011) funded by the European Union aiming at a paradigm shift in Integrated Urban Water Management.

RiPPLE
RiPPLE is a five-year research programme to advance evidence-based learning on water supply and sanitation financing, delivery and sustainability and improve equity of access for the poor in Ethiopia and the Nile region. IRC will play a substantial part in this research programme which will run from 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2011.

UN-Habitat-SCP-BUS
The UN-Habitat Sustainable Cities Programme has a component on Basic Urban Services, i.e. sanitation and water services. IRC is taking the lead on this Basic Urban Services (BUS) for the period 2003-2008. The emphasis will be on demonstration and scaling-up processes in several cities in different countries, the anchoring of strategies, methods and approaches in local institutions for future capacity building, and the documenting, sharing and using of these different experiences and lessons learned.

Completed Projects
A number of projects in which IRC has been involved have been completed. The background material on these projects can still be found in this folder.