the uptime project is delivered by two affiliated entities
Uptime Global is a UK Company Limited by Guarantee (#13951323) established to perform administrative and data management functions for results-based contracts. The company is a non-profit social enterprise driven by the mission of resilient water services for 100 million people by 2030. Its functions include development of new results-based contracts with service providers and verification of service performance data to facilitate results-based funding disbursements by third parties such as the UCF, governments and NGOs.
The Uptime Catalyst Facility is a UK charity (#1192062) that pools and disburses results-based grant funding to contracted rural water service providers. The UCF has three Trustees who perform their duties on a pro-bono basis. The charity is deliberately lean on staffing and capacity with most administrative, data management and executional roles borne by Uptime Global.
Uptime Global Team
dr duncan mcnicholl, CEO
Duncan is a civil engineer with over 10 years of WASH experience in Africa, Asia, and South America where he has directed governance programs, managed professional rural water maintenance services and led academic research. Prior to co-founding the Uptime initiative, he was the General Manager of Whave in Uganda from 2017-2018 where he directly oversaw development and growth of a rural handpump maintenance service for over 150,000 water users. Dr McNicholl holds a PhD in Engineering from the Cambridge University Centre for Sustainable Development where he studied how stakeholder networks influence institutional development for managing rural water supply.
Prof. Rob Hope, Director of Policy
Rob is Professor of Water Policy at Oxford University with over 20 years of research and applied experience in Africa and Asia. Rob has led research on water economics, policy and poverty through a portfolio of £50m of research grants funded by UK Research and Innovation, FCDO, USAID, GIZ/BMZ, UNICEF, the EU and others. In 2018, he led a team that won the University of Oxford’s Innovation Award. He currently leads FCDO’s REACH programme to improve water security for 10m poor people in Africa and Asia by 2024. This work includes the incubation of the FundiFix model in Kenya and establishment of the Water Services Maintenance Services Trust Fund. Rob has extensive global networks with governments and global institutes, and recently led the REACH/RWSN study to identify scale pathways to ensure safe and reliable water services for 100 million rural people by 2030.
Dr andrew armstrong, global lead, Data integrity
Andrew oversees data verification and validation at Uptime Global. He also coordinates technical assistance activities with partners to enhance data integrity. Previously, Andrew spent a decade working for an international engineering humanitarian and development NGO, Water Mission, where he led a global advisory team responsible for sustainable service delivery, behaviour change communication, and monitoring, evaluation and learning. He has also led the development and delivery of technical training programs for rural water professionals at the Global Water Center. He holds a MSc in Environmental Engineering and a graduate certificate in global health from the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University, and is a professionally licensed environmental engineer in the United States. He is in the final stages of earning a PhD in Geography and the Environment from the University of Oxford, where his research examines the drivers for revenue generation from user payments for rural piped water services.
Kristina Nilsson, Operations coordinator
Kristina is a governance and development professional with 12 years' experience focused on water and sanitation service delivery, through work in Nepal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, and with multi-country and global projects and programmes. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Oxford, studying mechanisms and conditions under which public financing can support the sustained delivery of drinking water services in rural Africa and Asia. Her previous work has included researching and evaluating multi-country systems strengthening and financing initiatives, managing monitoring and evaluation for multi-partner programs, and leading and evaluating water and sanitation governance initiatives, with organisations including REACH-Water and the Rural Water Supply Network, Welthungerhilfe, Concern Worldwide, and Engineers Without Borders Canada. Kristina is the Operations Coordinator for Uptime Global.
Finan trethewey, Partnerships coordinator
Finan works on partnerships for Uptime Global. Prior to joining Uptime Global Finan was partnerships lead for the Humanitarian Aid logistics charity Boxtribute and ran his own UK based social enterprise, Esports Youth Club.
Cliff Nyaga, Senior Africa Advisor
Cliff is Director of the rural enterprise FundiFix and has nine years of work experience in urban and rural water services delivery in Kenya. Before joining FundiFix Cliff was a Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Advisor to SNV Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) in Kenya, and implemented interventions sought to support urban water utilities to mobilize private sector for financing, technology and skills transfer to address infrastructure losses/non-revenue water. Prior to joining SNV Cliff was a Projects Coordinator at Rural Focus Ltd, where he managed implementation of DFID/ESRC funded research in Kitui and Kwale Counties. Cliff also provided professional management services to a community-owned piped water supply scheme – Kiamumbi Water Supply (KWS) that serves over 6,000 people, in a novel initiative that demonstrated pivotal role of private sector in improving operation and management of community – owned water supplies in Kenya.