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.
This guidance document sets out a methodology to help mainly middle-and lower-income countries produce water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) accounts... Read more...
One of the myths that keeps on going around in the rural water supply sector is the one of 'full cost recovery'. As more data from rural water monitoring systems becomes available, the myth gets busted. Read more...
Guidelines for European national and subnational policy-makers responsible for sustainable financing of small-scale water and sanitation services,... Read more...
Een cruciaal onderdeel van de financiering van de nieuwe ontwikkelingsdoelen 2015 - 2030 is belasting, zo pleiten Stef Smits en Catarina Fonseca in vakblad voor ontwikkelingssamenwerking Vice Versa. Zonder belasting zouden wij in Nederland geen duurzame water- en sanitaire voorzieningen hebben. In... Read more...
Regulation is a key function for delivering sustainable water services, both in urban and rural environments. Read more...
Driven amongst others by the mobile phone applications, more and more statistics are becoming available on the state of water services. These go well beyond the coverage data we were used to in the JMP reports (and which this year gave us some reason to be mildly optimistic). The new stats provide... Read more...
Report of the investigation of the impact on child mortality of the privatization campaign Argentina embarked on in the 1990s as part of a structural... Read more...