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.
Providing solutions for the safe and commercially viable collection and composting of faecal sludge for use in agriculture and horticulture in... Read more...
A state of the art of strengthening monitoring water supply and sanitation in developing countries. Google scholar Read more...
Based on a review of the costs of 179 water and sanitation projects carried out by FHIS (Honduran Social Investment Fund) over the last five years, we established the unit cost ranges for different intervention models. We also identified the main factors driving the costs of water and sanitation... Read more...
Water For People, IRC and Aguaconsult have developed a set of tools to support the financial planning to reach Everyone Forever with water services. These tools were validated in the municipalities of Tiraque and Araní in Bolivia. Read more...
An introduction to ten building blocks to support sustainable service delivery. Read more...
Learning and knowledge management supported at national and decentralised levels to enable the sector to adapt based on experience. Read more...
Background note prepared for the IRC event on the 4th of March 2015. Read more...
2014 was the year in which we got more insight into how rural water supply systems are doing in Honduras. The situation isn't as bad as often thought. Most water systems are working and water is flowing. But a significant portion face problems with for example water quality. And many water... Read more...
Uttam Majundar is a successful Jalabandu (handpump mechanic) in Digambarpur (West Bengal, India). But now he risks becoming a victim of his own success. Following a day in his life explains why. Read more...
At the start of the New Year, newspaper and magazines are all busy making predictions of what the year may have in store. Personally, I always enjoy reading The Economist’s “ The World in… ”. In that magazine, predictions are made of how political events may unfold in the year to come, how the... Read more...
Case study on rapid assessment to identify supply chain challenges. Read more...
Emerging lessons from the use of building blocks for sustainable un-sewered urban sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa. Read more...
While the importance of hygiene is increasingly being recognized, far less consideration has been given to the role of the complete WASH package in... Read more...
In Chennai, India, stakeholders support the establishment of an independent state groundwater authority to secure sustainable water supply. Read more...
Sustainable groundwater use is more likely in Indian villages if farmers, other village community members and NGOs work together with researchers and... Read more...
Several Dutch water sector organisations have written to Minister Ploumen (Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation) about the Dutch targets for water supply. Read more...
Honduras, just like other Central American countries has adopted SIASAR (the Rural Water and Sanitation Information System) to monitor water and sanitation services in rural areas. IRC supports the development and roll-out of SIASAR in different ways. Read more...