Achieving national level systems change is usually the result of years of collaborative engagement and advocacy by like-minded people and organizations, using a variety of tactics and soft skills and putting in time and effort to bring it about. This paper documents five stories of change from Cambodia, Ethiopia, Honduras, Malawi, and Uganda based on interviews with a change maker from each country.
Each story provides a personal account of what happened, challenges encountered along the way, and the tactics, soft skills and resourcing that helped to achieve it.
Three of the five national-level systems changes achieved are about developing and implementing water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) policy documents: a climate-resilient finance strategy in Malawi, revising the national sector plan for achieving universal access to WASH by 2030 in Honduras, and harmonizing data collection for WASH in Uganda. The other two changes refer first and foremost to a shift in mindsets, namely a clear sector commitment to achieving Open Defecation Free provinces in Cambodia and to popularizing systems change concepts in partnership with a national sector training institute in Ethiopia.