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.
Stef Smits' in-depth review of the JMP 2021 data on the progress made in 15 countries and discussing the implications towards 2030. Read more...
A novel Empowerment in WASH Index is presented, which was piloted in Banfora, Burkina Faso. Findings show importance of household- and community-... Read more...
Despite the high level of exposure to the COVID-19 virus among HCWs in the treatment centers, only 14.0% were at high risk of COVID-19 virus... Read more...
Government should take the lead in making sure WASH services are empowering; NGOs should support government in monitoring empowerment in WASH... Read more...
Policy recommendations are given for five building blocks: institutional capacity, financing, asset management, water resources management, and... Read more...
The Multi-country synthesis report brings together the insights from the 13 Triple-S country studies to identify trends in rural water supply,... Read more...
Informing the Community Water and Sanitation Agency's change journey into the national utility for rural service provision. Read more...
Presentations from the WASH Learning theme 1 - Delivering Safe WASH Services session of the All Systems Connect International Symposium 2023. Read more...
The SMART market-based approach is contributing to SDG 6 and beyond. Its impact is significant, but localised. Read more...
This paper presents IRC Ghana's experience of acting as a 'hub' to support collective action in the Asutifi North District of Ghana. Read more...
What we can learn from Ghana Read more...
This paper gives a first insight into the results of the assessments of the WASH systems done in Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda, using the traffic-light... Read more...
Though mobile money penetration is high (72%), using mobile money for water bill payments is not top of mind and would require additional awareness... Read more...
This tool provides guidance on a systematic approach to experimenting with innovative solutions to water problems. Read more...
Fact sheet providing an overview of rural and small towns water services in the Upper West Region, Ghana. Read more...
This brief summarises recent data on budget allocations to sanitation in four African municipalities. Read more...