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.
Alternative service provider options refer to models such as self-supply and public-private partnerships, that are a departure from the conventional model of community-based management that has tended to dominate rural water supplies. Read more...
The professionalisation of community based-management means moving away from an approach based purely on volunteerism, towards a more professional, competent and effective management of rural water services working to agreed standards, and with greater transparency and accountability. Read more...
Por qué y dónde se deben hacer cambios en el sector de agua potable? Resumen del libro 'Apoyo al Abastecimiento de Agua Rural'. Read more...
Nota informativa acerca del apoyo a prestadores de servicios de agua en zonas rurales en países en Latinoamérica, África y el sur de Asia. Read more...
This working paper provides evidence on current practices around funding capital maintenance and the resulting impact on services. Read more...
Sagar is an island at the mouth of the river Ganges where it meets the Bay of Bengal. Every year in January, about half a million pilgrims visit the island to worship at the holy Ganges. The hundreds of mobile toilet units standing on the empty festival terrain during the rest of the year are... Read more...
Over the past year, there has been quite a bit of buzz in the WASH sector on the sustainability clause that DGIS seeks to include in its contacts with implementers. The pros and cons of this have been widely debated . A key component of the clauses is to have sustainability checks as a way to... Read more...
Service delivery models describe the practical implementation of water service provision as part of a service delivery approach Read more...
Anyone who works in the water sector cannot have missed the consultations and debates on the post-2015 goals for water and sanitation. Read more...
Water and sanitation facilities: a service provider is needed for day-to-day administration. Read more...
El IRC apoya al Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo en el tema de monitoreo de agua y saneamiento rural. Consiste del desarrollo de una guía de indicadores, y apoyo a la aplicación del mismo en El Salvador, Honduras y Paraguay. Read more...
El municipio de Chinda ha logrado cobertura total en agua y saneamiento, con el apoyo de la ONG Water For People. El IRC sistematizó cómo se logró esto, y analiza si los servicios serán para siempre. Read more...
This story is fictional. Any resemblance to real situations or persons is pure coincidence. When Alice stepped through the mirroring water surface into waterland, the first creature she came across was a rabbit, wearing a UN-blue jacket, looking frantically at its watch. "It is nearly time. Only... Read more...
A few weeks ago, an interesting email discussion was held on “water point mapping” D-Groupof the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN). Part of the discussion focused on how much it costs to map or monitor all water systems in a country. Various figures were floating around in the discussion. But when... Read more...
