May 11, 2023, Washington, DC – The Millennium Water Alliance Board of Directors is pleased to announce the election of Samuel Mwale as the new Chairman of the MWA Board of Directors.
Samuel (Sam) Mwamburi Mwale brings vast experience in board leadership to MWA alongside global strategy and governance expertise and has trusted relationships across the corporate and government sectors. “Sam is passionate about MWA’s mission of scaling water security, sanitation, and hygiene (WSSH) services through collective impact and collaboration across the sector,” said MWA Executive Director Keith Wright.
“Sam brings skills that will lead MWA in harnessing the collective impact and networks of our members, and ideas on how to work more effectively with business and governments to help us grow,” Wright added. “His global perspective and diverse experiences across the US and Africa will broaden our vision for the organization. I look forward to working closely with Sam in the years ahead.”
Originally from Kenya, Sam now lives in New York. In Kenya, he held many positions on the national government, charitable organizations, and the private sector, including as Principal Secretary to the Cabinet of the President of Kenya, and Economic Advisor to the President. He was deeply involved in the creation of the national development strategy, Kenya 2030, and he has also worked on major conservation and agricultural development issues.
Sam has degrees from the University of Nairobi, the University of East Anglia, Oxford University, and certificates and recognition from other universities.
As MWA members welcome Sam to the role of Board Chair, the organization owes a great debt to retiring Board Chairman Peter Lochery. Peter has served on the MWA board in various leadership capacities since its founding more than 20 years ago and his contributions to the organization have been invaluable.
“MWA is where it is today because of the leadership and oversight provided by Peter, the board, and the outstanding work by its staff over the last two decades,” Sam said in his statement to the Board in accepting the role. “Together they have set high standards and results that will now be our duty to maintain and grow going forward. As we thank Peter for his outstanding contributions and leadership, I will seek to draw on his insights and wisdom as I step into the role.”
Board members shared in praising Peter for his unstinting service over the years. Stephanie Ogden, representing CARE, spoke for many when she noted that MWA has become a “robust partnership of organizations that has influenced policy, practice, and investment in water, sanitation, and hygiene across the globe, and improved the lives of so many. Peter’s dedication to fulfilling this commitment of partnership has been at the heart of the MWA since its beginning.”
Lochery summed up his feelings with this: “When you leave an organization, you ask yourself, ‘Have we, the people who make up the organization, achieved what we set out to do?’ Twenty years ago, the Alliance set out to achieve collective impact through working together with governments and civil society and advocating with the US Government for increased attention to and funding for water, sanitation, and hygiene. I leave you to judge whether MWA has made a significant contribution – all that I can tell you is that I’m leaving with a smile on my face!”
MWA maintains co-located headquarters offices – in Washington, DC, and Nairobi, Kenya. The current 20 members of MWA work in more than 100 countries, designing, supporting, leading, and implementing in all aspects of improved drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene education services for millions of people in developing nations.
Founded in 2003, MWA has provided platforms for information among its members, advocated to the U.S. Government and others globally for greater public and private investment in WSSH, led innovative programming, and works in close partnership with other NGOs, universities, businesses, funders, and thinkers in WSSH in line with our commitment to accelerate global access to safely managed water and sanitation.
For more information, contact Keith Wright at info@mwawater.org .