IRC Associate
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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 28 years she has trained, assessed, evaluated and provided technical support to over 50 clients. Since 2019 she has her own company, Pulsing Tide.
The One For All alliance curates a small informal group that explores selected topics on finance in water and sanitation. This blog is the result of the latest discussion. We don’t have a lot of answers, but we do raise many questions. While we keep seeking solutions, we’d love to hear your... Read more...
The latest session of the Finance Connect Series focused on the evolving landscape of global development finance and its implications for the water and sanitation sector. Read more...
By Catarina Fonseca and Dr. Alex Money This month’s Connect Finance gathering focused on water shadow pricing. In this conversation, Dr. Alex Money unpacks why the way we price water today doesn’t line up with the value it creates—and how shadow pricing might help regulators, utilities, and... Read more...
How to design and deliver tariff reforms that are financially sound, socially fair, and politically feasible. Read more...
No financial de-risking without policy de-risking, both are essential for making the water sector viable for investment. However, de-risking always comes at a cost to someone — often taxpayers or philanthropic donors. Read more...
©UNICEF Ethiopia/2022/Nahom Tesfaye Given the impact of the recent cuts to U.S. aid, we wanted to explore the broader question of how dependent the water and sanitation sector is on international aid, and particularly on aid from the U.S. Based on this, we wanted to reflect on the implications for... Read more...
By Catarina Fonseca (IRC), John Garrett (WaterAid) and Phaniso Kalua (Water For People) Decentralisation has long been championed as a pathway to stronger local governance, more responsive water and sanitation services delivery, and improved accountability. But is fiscal decentralisation in the... Read more...
Recently, as One For All alliance, we have been reflecting on effective advocacy and activities that can increase national and local public budgets for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Its a key part of our strategy to influence these. We explored the most successful strategies and how they... Read more...
Insights from One For All discussions Read more...
Image credit: Theophile Harushyamagara, Water For People Co-authored by Catarina Fonseca, Stef Smits and Lemessa Mekonta The water and sanitation sector faces immense challenges in attracting sustainable financing, particularly in countries where infrastructure expansion is critical. A significant... Read more...
Exploring broader efficiency aspects in the water and sanitation sector Read more...
The third informal finance discussion of the One For All alliance was on banking. Particularly the role of national Public Development Banks (PDBs) in the sector and their untapped potential. What are Public Development Banks? In 2021, IRC did a study for the Agence Française de Développement (AFD... Read more...
The One For All alliance curates a small informal group that discusses selected topics on finance in water and sanitation. This monthly blog series attempts to share our reflections and thinking with a wider audience. What are finance strategies for the water supply and sanitation sector? A finance... Read more...
L'alliance One For All organise un petit groupe informel qui explore des sujets sélectionnés sur le financement de l'eau et de l'assainissement. Ce blog est le résultat de la dernière discussion. Nous n'avons pas beaucoup de réponses, mais nous soulevons de nombreuses questions. Tout en continuant... Read more...
Efficient tracking of water and sanitation sector financial data. Read more...
Best practices, challenges and recommendations on the use of UNICEF's Value for Money (VFM) tool and other VFM metrics. Read more...
IRC works with associates, international sector specialists who will provide expertise and support...
