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.
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...
Perceived poor performance of hand pumped boreholes has been a persistent problem in Africa Read more...
This paper highlights efforts in using one-off surveys to inform WASH plans to help to kick-start recurrent monitoring and management processes in... Read more...
This report presents a theoretical cost-to-serve by Safe Water Enterprises (SWEs) for the estimated 3.8 billion people without safely treated water. Read more...
WaterAid's "approach is relevant to addressing WASH sector issues at global, national and local levels and is an appropriate response to meet the... Read more...
Capital expenditure efficiency (CEE) can result in capital savings of 25 percent or more compared to traditional solutions. Read more...
This presentation describes how a blend of public and concessional financing is being used to attract larger investments for public water supply... 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...
While household toilets are necessary, they alone are not sufficient for improved sanitation. Read more...
This review confirms positive impacts of sanitation on aspects of health, but evidence gaps remain. More research is needed that rigorously describes... Read more...
This briefing paper is linked to a study on country-level accountability mechanisms in 25 countries for the implementation of Sustainable Development... 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...
This toolkit aims to support WaterAid's country strategy and programme development as well as 'everyday' decision making by providing a structured... Read more...
Developing viable business models to provide point-of-use safe water services to communities at the base of the pyramid (BoP). Read more...
This introductory chapter describes the origin and development of Learning Alliances, key concepts, expected outcomes and the steps and activities... Read more...
Neither rural sustainability checks, nor urban benchmarking frameworks, are entirely suitable for monitoring small town water services. Read more...