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.
Research found a strong relationship between variation in seasonal water access and reported emotional response. Water security improvement could be... 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...
More emphasis is needed on building and strengthening the work of multi-stakeholder platforms in WASH at the national level. Read more...
A fact sheet on Indian national and state level institutions in Odisha and Bihar engaging in particular with rural water supply and resources. 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...
The recent JMP report shows how India is accelerating the rate of reducing open defecation, due to the efforts of the Swachh Bharat Mission. The question is whether there are other countries that are seeing such acceleration. Is there another India out there? Read more...
Last week, a number of Agenda for Change members that are working on WASH systems strengthening in countries in Latin America came together for a learning and sharing event. A key point of discussion in that event was the importance of political leadership at local level, but also the systemic... Read more...
This guidance document sets out a methodology to help mainly middle-and lower-income countries produce water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) accounts... Read more...
Wednesday 3 April 2024 Read more...
Presentations from the WASH Learning theme 1 - Delivering Safe WASH Services session of the All Systems Connect International Symposium 2023. Read more...
This report provides a guide to the practical application of outcome mapping and sustainability scorecards to monitor systems change in WASH... Read more...
Last week, the Para Todos, Por Siempre (Everyone, Forever) initiative presented its results over 2019. It led me to reflect on the good, the bad and the ugly of our experiences with monitoring in Honduras. Read more...
This paper examines methodological options for calculating a 'total service gap', a measure that would combine data on each rung of the service... Read more...
A briefing note on the use of cellular and satellite connected sensors for near-time monitoring of rural water services in Ethiopia. Read more...
This report reviews the global progress made towards achieving SDG 6. It builds on the latest data available for the 11 SDG 6 global indicators. Read more...
If we want to leave no one behind, we not only need to know who is left behind, but also how far behind they are. Read more...
Joint Sector Reviews are social and technical. They emphasise learning, strengthen reporting, adapt over time, encourage open discussion, and publish... Read more...
Fact sheet providing an overview of rural and small towns water services in the Upper West Region, Ghana. Read more...
A state of the art of strengthening monitoring water supply and sanitation in developing countries. Google scholar Read more...