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.
An assessment of public development banks (PDBs)' involvement in the water sector in Latin America Read more...
Interventions that ensure women have access to private facilities with water for Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) and that educate women about... Read more...
Many countries are developing or reviewing their water sector monitoring systems to see whether they are SDG-proof. A recurring question in this is the extent to which these should use household-level data of JMP-defined access to limited, basic or safely managed water. We argue that caution should... Read more...
Countries should place greater priority on leveraging commercial finance into the sector while at the same time bolstering public funds. Read more...
This report on Self-supply aims to help fill some of the gaps in our knowledge about the existing performance of traditional wells, especially water... Read more...