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.
'End of ownership' models in the water and sanitation sector are generally found in places with a limited public sector and unregulated markets. Read more...
A country needs to meet a certain development or income threshold before aid can prove to be effective and aid flows tend to have diminishing returns. Read more...
Sharing a sanitation facility with just one to two other households can increase the risk of moderate-to-severe diarrhea (MSD) in young children,... Read more...
Decision-support tool to aid the identification of potentially appropriate drinking water methods for arsenic- and salt-mitigation in Bangladesh... 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...
IRC and Water For People have developed a roadmap to achieve universal piped water coverage in 30 focus districts in Honduras as well as having plans... Read more...
There are six methodological stages for selecting indicators for WaSH: define the purpose and scope; select a conceptual framework; search for... Read more...
WASH for WORMS is a cluster-randomised controlled trial to test the hypothesis that a community-based WASH intervention integrated with periodic mass... Read more...
Fact sheet providing an overview of rural and small towns water services in the Upper West Region, Ghana. Read more...
Webinar recording discussing two initiatives from Asia related to the topic how to move from building infrastructure to creating support mechanisms... Read more...
BRAC WASH has researched how to develop a viable process for faecal sludge-based organic fertiliser. Read more...