Catarina Fonseca is trained as an economist and has a doctoral degree in water sciences. She has over twenty-three years of experience in development cooperation and non-profits of which twenty in the water and sanitation sector. She has pioneered sector development on the understanding of life-cycle costs and financing. She was the WASHCost Director (2008-2013), a large-scale initiative to identify the long-term costs of sustaining rural and peri-urban water and sanitation services. She has been part of the IRC management team and managed the International and Innovation programme from 2012-2019.
Catarina Fonseca was the Director of Watershed, a 5-year strategic programme that run from 2016-2020 to strengthen the ability of citizens to hold governments and service providers accountable for the services they deliver. She is an Associate of IRC and is available for consultancy assignments. Over the past 20 years she has trained, assessed, evaluated and provided technical support to over 50 clients. Since 2019 she has her own company, Pulsing Tide.
Key finding of this briefing note: Overall, citizens holding governments to account is dependent on effective civil society and media shaping the... Read more...
Smarter emergency measures against COVID-19 needed to ensure lasting solutions in service provision. Read more...
Using multi-criteria analysis to develop and test a tool to assess rural water service suggests that monitoring improves the levels of services... Read more...
Regular audits, tight monitoring, stakeholder participation and tactful engagement with politicians can lead to more integrity. Read more...
The UNICEF Framework for Sustainability Results proved to be useful in identifying sustainability challenges and acting upon them. Read more...
Despite investing US$ 486 million in rural water supply in Tanzania between 2007-2014, coverage is stagnating and even declining. Who is to blame? Read more...
Only eight African countries provide data on sanitation expenditure. All of them are falling behind on their commitment to spend 0.5% of their Gross... Read more...
Presentation on Vergnet Hydro's water service management model for hand pump systems in Africa, involving delegation to private operators. Read more...
In 2014, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and IRC have started a collaboration to pilot the life-cycle cost approach in the context of refugee camps. Read more...
Adaptation of the Technology Applicability Framework (TAF) questionnaire for sanitation to the situation of Mobile Desludging in Zimbabwe. Read more...
The report provides insights on the cost of providing water in emergency situations using two camps as case studies. The life-cycle costs approach... Read more...