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.
Spreading the cost of faecal waste removal over a series of monthly payments could make it more affordable for poor households and help kick start... Read more...
In the context of urban Haiti, household container-based sanitation services (CBS) systems have the potential to satisfy many residents' desire for... Read more...
The costs of a pilot small-scale container-based sanitation service (CBS) were higher than those of large-scale waterborne sewerage, but economies of... Read more...
This brief summarises recent data on budget allocations to sanitation in four African municipalities. Read more...
Small-scale informal entrepreneurs can provide a valuable and financially viable urban sanitation service for consumers without a sewerage connection... Read more...
“ We just take the programmes as they fall upon us, with their conditions. One donor uses a per capita threshold of 150 US$/capita and wants us to follow one approach, and we will do that. Another uses a threshold of 250 US$/day, but with another approach, and a different degree of community... Read more...
Paper presented at the IRC symposium ' Pumps, Pipes and Promises: Costs, Finances and Accountability for Sustainable WASH Services' in The Hague Read more...