Testimonials

"Water is life, and as countries urbanize at a rapid pace, ensuring the delivery, quality, affordability and sustainability of water to the population is increasingly a matter of survival. At the forefront of this effort are numerous local and regional water utilities but the performance of these utilities face many impediments to success. These agencies need real-time, practical and customized solutions, not broad exhortations. The solution-focused partnership model pioneered by ROCKBlue represents a true departure from business as usual. Having watched Peter Macy carefully conceive, articulate and then operationalize this model over a period of years, I am highly confident that Peter and his team will make a real difference by supporting and strengthening agencies and practitioners in the frontline. I am equally confident that they will carry on this work with utmost professionalism, commitment and humility. I look forward to ROCKBlue fulfilling its potential -- at utilities around the world."
- Nazir Ahmad, President, GivingWorks: Strategists for Social Impact

“I’ve worked in international development for over 50 years and have witnessed too many failed projects and approaches as well as successful ones. I was involved and been a staff member in the World-Bank, WHO and others and worked or coached in more than 60 countries in America (north and south), Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia. Recently I was introduced to the ROCKBlue activities and approach by Peter Macy, someone who I hold in high regard, for over 30 years. He shared with me the unique ROCKBlue approach, such as the low-cost, long-term commitment to work with a utility’s senior management and was highly impressed. After watching hundreds of failed utilities, I am fully supportive of this approach which is long overdue; and I offer my strong endorsement of the ROCKBlue team and NGO at large. Wishing them the best of my support.” - Shaul Arlosoroff, ex World Bank Global Program Manager for Water, Sanitation and Urban Management

"I have worked to strengthen publicly-owned utilities in low-income and low-middle income countries for over 25 years. I know first-hand the frustrations of trying to help to strengthen utilities without access to adequate resources and of seeing performance improvements atrophy, after project end, due to a lack of expertise. I have known Peter Macy, the founder of ROCKBlue, for at least ten years. Peter is an extremely capable and caring individual who is now solely focused on improving the provision of public water and sanitation services by public institutions in countries that do not have the expertise or resources to do it themselves. In my opinion, ROCKBlue, a non-profit with a talented, respected, widely-connected management team, fills two critical needs. The first is the need for low-cost and thus sustainable advisory assistance to utility management. The second is the need for a “connector”, someone to help match utilities that need help with international development organizations and private sector entities, with resources, that want to help to improve public water and sanitation services in lesser-developed countries."
- John Sitton, President. NPWSP.org

"ROCKBlue recognises a critical gap in our understanding and support for utilities operating in the complex and often ‘messy’ reality of urban water service delivery. Experience has shown us over the last decades that there is no simple or any one single ‘silver bullet’ solution to the complexity of urban water provision. Going beyond the conventional approaches of offering technical assistance over a short-term or prescribed time period linked to ‘project funding’, I understand that ROCKBlue is in it for the long-haul and plays the role of long-term supporter and facilitator often working in partnership with the utility leadership over many years to navigate the political economy of the sector. As such ROCKBlue brings a new way or working and has a unique role to play in supporting utility management to find flexible solutions to some of the sector’s more intractable problems." - Harold Lockwood, Director | Aguaconsult

"I have known and worked closely on projects with Peter Macy for almost 20 years. I am a specialist in institutional development with 38 years of experience and have long appreciated Peter’s deep understanding of the central role of institutional development in achieving sustainable solutions in the WASH sector. Peter is a visionary coupled with a keen sense of what is practical and feasible. If anyone can make ROCKBlue’s vision come to reality, it’s Peter. His long experience, understanding of the African context, his network of practitioners, and his drive are key elements in establishing ROCKBlue and ultimately leading to well-functioning utilities that can provide sustainable services to urban populations in Africa."
- Fred Rosensweig, Training Resources Group