Professor Rob Hope
Professor of Water Policy
Director, Water Security Initiative, School of Geography and the Environment
Director of the Water Programme, Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment
Member of the Oxford Water Network
Member of the Environment Research Doctoral Training Partnership
Professor of Water Policy
Director, Water Security Initiative, School of Geography and the Environment
Director of the Water Programme, Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment
Member of the Oxford Water Network
Member of the Environment Research Doctoral Training Partnership
Academic Profile
Professor Rob Hope is Director of the Water Security Initiative at the School of Geography and the Environment and Director of the Water Programme at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. His research interests focus on water policy, poverty and economics, largely in Africa and Asia.
How research can deliver social and environmental impacts has shaped his work and long-term partnerships with governments, social enterprises, private sector and academia. For example, between 2015 and 2024, he directed the £22m FCDO-funded REACH (www.reachwater.uk) which improved water security for 10 million vulnerable people in Africa and Asia. As part of the Exit Strategy, this work is being scaled up and scaled out in existing and new geographies to target 100 million vulnerable people by 2030.
One example includes collaboration with Uptime Global, which designs and executes results-based contracts for over 5 million rural people in 16 countries in 2024. Oxford research has informed the institutional and financial architecture for results-based contracts, which is guiding wider sector change and investments in collaboration with development banks, bilateral donors and governments. Foundational research grants for this work have been awarded through multiple competitive grants by ESRC, NERC, FCDO, the EU, and USAID.
The impact of the research has been recognised in the University of Oxford’s Vice Chancellor’s Awards in 2024 (Research Engagement winner, REACH) and 2018 (Overall winner and Capacity Building category winner, Smart Handpumps). To support the impact of this work, Rob has acted as pro bono Trustee for the Kenyan Water Services Maintenance Trust Fund (2016-2025) and the Uptime Catalyst Facility (2020-present).
Rob has served as both the Academic Director and the Course Director for the MSc Water Science, Policy and Management (WSPM). He teaches and supervises students on WSPM and the MSc on Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment.
Current Research
- REACH - Improving Water Security for the Poor (FCDO, 2015-2024)
- 100m Initiative (launching in 2025)
Teaching and Supervision
Graduate Research Students
| Medha Mukherjee (OICSD/Somerville) | Intersectional Inequalities and Drinking Water Choices in India | 2022-present |
| Kristina Nilsson (Bank of America/ Uptime Global) | Public finance and drinking water services in rural Africa and Asia | 2022-present |
| Sandra Serumaga-Zake | Water Infrastructure Finance in sub-Saharan Africa (co-supervisor Dr Alex Money) | 2021- present |
| Johannes Wagner (EU NEWAVE) | Rural Water Finance in Africa (co-supervisor Dr Johanna Koehler) | 2020-2025 (completed) |
| Andrew Armstrong | Revenue patterns of piped water services in rural Africa (co-supervisor Dr Johanna Koehler) | 2019-2022 (completed) |
| Rebecca Peters (Marshall & REACH) | Normalized non-compliance - regulation of river pollution in Dhaka, Bangladesh | 2017-2022 (completed) |
| Ranu Sinha (OICSD, Somerville) | Irrigation infrastructure, institutions and poverty in India (co-supervisor - Prof Simon Dadson) | 2015-2020 (completed) |
| Heloise Greeff (UNICEF) | Condition monitoring methods to predict handpump failure in rural Africa (lead supervisor - Prof David Clifton) | 2015-2020 (completed) |
| Alex Fischer (REACH) | Building water secure institutions in rural Bangladesh | 2015-2019 (completed) |
| Jacob Katuva (BASE/Oxford) | Water and Welfare in Coastal Kenya | 2014-2020 (completed) |
| Johanna Koehler (Clarendon) | Water Risks and Institutional Change in Kenya | 2014-2018 (completed) |
| Tim Foster (ESRC) | From cash flows to water flows - new models for rural water sustainability in Africa | 2012-2016 (completed) |
| Alex Money | Corporate water risk and return (co-supervisor, Prof Gordon Clark) | 2010-2014 (completed) |
| Aaron Krolikowski (Clarendon) | Wireless Water - impacts and implications of mobile water payment innovations in Dar Es Salaam | 2011-14 (completed) |
| Alvar Closas | Burning water: institutions, technology, statecraft and the production of water scarcity Spain | 2009-13 (completed) |
| Alexandra Girard (Hay) | Women, Water and Work in Rural India | 2009-14 (completed) |
| Caroline King (NERC) | Oasis ecosystems, global change and human development in north Africa (co-supervisor, Prof D. Thomas, SoGE) | 2008-12 (completed) |
Selected Publications
