Voices 2025: Building a Sustainable Future - David De Armey
The importance of ensuring sustainable water systems globally has never been greater than it is today. Having spent nearly 12 years as Director of International Partnerships at Water for Good, David is currently Programme Design Director at the global engineering nonprofit Water Mission.
Talking about this work, David explains: “At Water for Good, I spent nearly 12 years building partnerships and trying to answer one of the toughest questions in the water sector: after the infrastructure is built, then what? Who maintains it, and how? In fragile contexts, where institutions are weak, it takes creativity, collaboration and a lot of persistence to even begin to practice answer that. My role was to bring together NGOs, governments, and funders to work toward sustainable solutions.
“It was also during my time there that I decided to study at DCU. In 2013 I took on an MSc Management for Sustainable Development and my dissertation focused on the role of spare parts supply chains in the reliability of water services in the Central African Republic, an issue I had seen firsthand in my work. That research gave me a stronger framework to connect practice with theory and it changed how I approached these challenges.”
“At Water Mission, my focus has naturally evolved into programme design. I now work on district-wide Master Planning and professionalising water services. In many ways, it’s been about embedding systems thinking into an organisation with a strong reputation for quality infrastructure and shaping the conditions where service providers can succeed. For me, it’s been a shift from asking who will maintain this water system to helping create an environment where reliable water services can thrive long-term.”
Ten years before David came to DCU, he visited Central Africa on a volunteer medical mission. It had a lasting impact on his life and was a driving motivation for him to learn more about sustainable development: “I joined a group of surgeons on a volunteer trip to Chad and, although I knew very little about development at the time, the experience left a deep impression on me. What struck me was that the medical issues I witnessed were not isolated – they were part of a much wider web of problems tied to the fragility of the state itself.
In places like Chad, governments struggle to provide reliable services because of layers of interconnected challenges. Even though I didn’t yet have the language of ‘systems thinking’, I could sense that these were systemic issues. That experience stayed with me for years.”
Commenting on this time at DCU, David says: “It gave me a strong foundation in management and sustainable development, which has been essential throughout my career. One of the most important lessons I learned was that sustainable development is not just about what an organisation achieves externally. It also begins internally, in how it treats its employees, how open it is to cultural change and how responsibly it manages procurement and resources.
"The programme gave me the tools to address complex challenges, especially in the water and sanitation sector. It’s a sector that is often described as broken or unsustainable. Many organisations know what change should look like, but struggle to implement it because of their own internal complexities. I was fortunate to have strong mentors at DCU. Colum Foley, in particular, pushed me to always connect theory with practice. That mindset has stayed with me and continues to shape how I approach my work.”
David has kept ties with DCU, returning as a guest lecturer: “It was both a joy and an honour to return to DCU. I felt as though I had come full circle; moving from being a student eager to learn, to someone able to share my own experience in the hope of encouraging others.
"Development work requires more than passion. It calls for patience, commitment, and the right tools to navigate complexity in a way that creates lasting impact. That was the message I hoped to leave with students: hold onto your inspiration but equip yourself to face the realities of the work.”