Stef Smits is a senior programme officer and Co-director of IRC's Growth Hub. He has 20 years of professional experience in water supply and sanitation in over 25 countries in Europe, Latin America, Southern Africa, and South Asia. His main thematic expertise includes: institutional models for water supply, sustainability and enabling environment, monitoring, costing and financing of services and integrated water resources management.
Stef has led numerous projects on these topics, and published about them. In addition, he has ample management expertise: from consultancy assignments to multi-annual programmes, and units within an organisation. He has worked for a range of clients including bilateral donors, development banks, research funders and NGOs. Stef holds an MSc degree in Irrigation and Water Engineering from Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
Increasing repair and maintenance funds leads to higher borehole functionality and water access rates in the drought-prone regions of Turkana, Kenya... Read more...
Self-supply's contribution to urban and rural water provision world-wide, and the gains of government support. Read more...
Between 2017 and 2019, the District-Wide Approach for water and sanitation services was piloted in five districts in Rwanda. This Agenda for Change... Read more...
Annual report presenting the work of IRC in Mali Read more...
Dans le cadre de la décentralisation, la commune de Torodi a pour mission dans le domaine de l'AEPA la création et la gestion des infrastructures... Read more...
District WASH master plan of Makalondi, Niger Read more...
Early findings from the application of outcome mapping and system-wide assessments within the USAID-funded Sustainable WASH Systems Learning... Read more...
This systematic approach to planning suits the Rwandan context and has helped to mobilise funds, but is less effective in emphasising the... Read more...
Approximately one in four handpumps in sub-Saharan Africa are non-functional at any point in time, which in 2015 was roughly equivalent to 175,000... Read more...
Challenges and lessons learnt for evidence-based sanitation advocacy for CSOs in Kenya. Read more...
This week's Weekly WASH Graph presents an infographic and a graph, the combination of which reflects what we think should be the core content of WASH investment plans. Read more...
Developing viable business models to provide point-of-use safe water services to communities at the base of the pyramid (BoP). Read more...
This case study highlights how an organisation can identify potential threats to institutional sustainability common in an extremely low resource... Read more...
Data drawn from the Water Point Data Exchange on 11 countries, reveals that an average of 78% of water points (including handpumps, piped supplies... Read more...
Joint Sector Reviews are social and technical. They emphasise learning, strengthen reporting, adapt over time, encourage open discussion, and publish... Read more...
We cannot do it alone. Reflections from the 7th Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) Forum. Read more...