WaterAid appoints chief for Water Resilience Accelerator

WaterAid has appointed Kate Hughes as its first Resilient Water Accelerator chief executive officer.

Hughes (pictured) will lead on “strengthening the charity’s relationships with governments and the private sector to facilitate sustainable water projects at scale, impacting millions of people on the frontline of the climate crisis.”

Hughes was, until recently, director for international climate finance and strategy in the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy. She led teams working on the long-term global transition to net zero, including for COP26. And she is a former chair of the Climate Investment Funds committees, the Green Climate Fund's Investment Committee, and the Board of UK Climate Investments. 

The Resilient Water Accelerator aims to “boost available finance for climate-resilient water programmes by designing low-risk, scalable programmes for the private sector to invest in.”

It aims to reach at least 50 million people in water-stressed areas by 2030, with the first projects launching in Nigeria and Bangladesh.

The accelerator is backed by partners including the Bank of America, African Development Bank, Arup and the UK and Dutch governments.