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.
Achieving scale through associations of municipalities Read more...
El proyecto busca de desarrollar de modelos innovadores de abastecimiento de agua y saneamiento para poblaciones en áreas rurales dispersas con menos de 200 habitantes, con base en un pilotaje beneficiando a 1.860 personas coen los municipios de Chinda, El Negrito y San Antonio. Read more...
The Community Water Plus project investigates the support that is being provided to community-managed rural water supplies. This is being done for twenty case studies of programmes from across India. Read more...
For community-managed rural water supply to be sustainable, a "plus" is needed: special efforts to empower communities during project implementation, and continued support from government during service delivery. The Community Water Plus project seeks to get a better understanding of the costs of... Read more...
The Community Water Plus project assesses twenty cases of support to community managed rural water supplies across India. IRC carried out one of these studies around support to community-managed handpumps in Patharpratima, West Bengal. The case study concludes that an effective mechanism for... Read more...
Based on a review of the costs of 179 water and sanitation projects carried out by FHIS (Honduran Social Investment Fund) over the last five years, we established the unit cost ranges for different intervention models. We also identified the main factors driving the costs of water and sanitation... Read more...
En base a una revisión de costos de unos 179 proyectos de agua y saneamiento realizados por el FHIS (Fondo Hondureño de Inversión Social) en los últimos cinco años, estamos estableciendo rangos de costos unitarios de acuerdo a diferentes modelos de intervención. Además identificamos los factores... Read more...
Water For People, IRC and Aguaconsult have developed a set of tools to support the financial planning to reach Everyone Forever with water services. These tools were validated in the municipalities of Tiraque and Araní in Bolivia. Read more...
Water For People, IRC y Aguaconsult han desarrollado un conjunto de herramientas para analizar los costos de llegar a una cobertura universal en agua, que dure para siempre, que a su vez sirva para identificar posibles brechas financieras. Las herramientas fueron validadas en los municipios de... Read more...
2014 was the year in which we got more insight into how rural water supply systems are doing in Honduras. The situation isn't as bad as often thought. Most water systems are working and water is flowing. But a significant portion face problems with for example water quality. And many water... Read more...
Stef Smits legt uit wat er in de brief over de internationale drinkwaterdoelstelling staat die de water sector vandaag aan Minister Ploumen aanbiedt. Read more...
Honduras, just like other Central American countries has adopted SIASAR (the Rural Water and Sanitation Information System) to monitor water and sanitation services in rural areas. IRC supports the development and roll-out of SIASAR in different ways. Read more...
Honduras, al igual que otros países de la región centroamericana adopta el SIASAR (Sistema de Información de Agua y Saneamiento Rural) como su sistema de monitoreo de servicios de agua y saneamiento en zonas rurales. El IRC apoya el SIASAR de diferentes formas. Read more...
Para Todos, Por Siempre (Everyone, Forever) is an initiative to promote universal access to sustainable water and sanitation services in some 28 municipalities in Honduras. IRC is one of the partners in this initiative. Read more...
Multiple-use services can be scaled up, through a stronger focus on accountability towards users' needs Read more...
Para Todos, Por Siempre es una iniciativa que promueve e impulsa la universalización y sostenibilidad de los servicios de agua potable y saneamiento en Honduras. IRC es uno de los socios fundadores de la iniciativa. Read more...
We understand sustainability in terms of whether water continues to flow over time, and whether people maintain access to an adequate and convenient toilet. Read more...
Ensuring long-term services on a large scale. Read more...
Users want to know what they are entitled to receive: the quality, quantity, reliability and accessibility of their water supply. Read more...
Water for People has helped Sagar and Patharpratima boost coverage and improve sustainability. Read more...