Co-director | Growth Hub
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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.
It would be easy, and wrong, to say that global conferences rarely deliver results, for sometimes they offer brand new ways of seeing things. Read more...
Navigating the danger zone where countries raise enough money to build but not maintain new infrastructure raises a question: Does this zone exist? Read more...
A new report shows the impact of post-construction support on rural water supply in Colombia. Read more...
Elder Joe is the proud secretary of a water committee managing a handpump on the outskirts of Odumase town in Ghana. But the committee would rather manage a different type of system. Read more...
The costs of getting spare parts for handpumps can sometimes be higher than the costs of the parts. But a new SMS-based system might help. Read more...
I cannot resist visiting the odd water works or taking photographs of the local water and sanitation facilities during my holidays. Read more...
Los resultados de un estudio realizado por IRC y CINARA sobre gobernabilidad y sostenibilidad de los servicios rurales de agua en Colombia fue publicado como monografía del BID. Read more...
IRC and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have been supporting El Salvador, Honduras and Paraguay to develop and implement rural water monitoring systems. Read more...
114 proyectos de agua financiados por 11 programas diferentes y a través de 19 modalidades de trabajo. Read more...
Stef Smits reflexione sobre los resultados del análisis del costo del ciclo de vida en Honduras. Read more...
Jacques Dutronc's song sums up how the WASH sector is waking up to the Paris Declaration, cleaning up the mess of often uncoordinated aid efforts. Read more...
So said Luis Romero of CONASA (the Honduran water and sanitation policy-making body), in response to the graphs below. Read more...
El verdadero problema no radica tanto en la cantidad de donantes sino en lograr que todos ellos siguen los mismos enfoques – o al menos similares – y que estos se integran a los desarrollados por el gobierno. Read more...
This includes the structured support activities to service providers as well as to users or user groups. This may be provided in a variety of ways by either local governments directly, by regional utility agencies, specialized agencies or external contractors or a by combination of these modalities. Read more...
