Catarina Fonseca is trained as an economist and has a doctoral degree in water sciences. She has over twenty-three years of experience in development cooperation and non-profits of which twenty in the water and sanitation sector. She has pioneered sector development on the understanding of life-cycle costs and financing. She was the WASHCost Director (2008-2013), a large-scale initiative to identify the long-term costs of sustaining rural and peri-urban water and sanitation services. She has been part of the IRC management team and managed the International and Innovation programme from 2012-2019.
Catarina Fonseca was the Director of Watershed, a 5-year strategic programme that run from 2016-2020 to strengthen the ability of citizens to hold governments and service providers accountable for the services they deliver. She is an Associate of IRC and is available for consultancy assignments. Over the past 20 years she has trained, assessed, evaluated and provided technical support to over 50 clients. Since 2019 she has her own company, Pulsing Tide.
The Dutch Water Bank was initially established primarily to finance flood control, but the model is potentially applicable to other aspects of water... Read more...
Despite investing US$ 486 million in rural water supply in Tanzania between 2007-2014, coverage is stagnating and even declining. Who is to blame? Read more...
Only eight African countries provide data on sanitation expenditure. All of them are falling behind on their commitment to spend 0.5% of their Gross... Read more...
This global review explores the strengths and weaknesses of integrity in the water sector. It provides examples of innovative programmes and tools... Read more...
This manual provides practical guidance to facilitate and standardise the implementation of social life-cycle costing to "improved" drinking-water... Read more...
Why do we need domestic public finance for urban sanitation and how much of it being spent now. Read more...
The report provides insights on the cost of providing water in emergency situations using two camps as case studies. The life-cycle costs approach... Read more...
We have five years to get the right financing mechanisms in place if we want to achieve universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene by 2030. Read more...
This study presents the first adaptation of the life-cycle costs approach to school WASH interventions. It is based on a survey of the sanitation and... Read more...
This Finance Brief summarises the increasing relevance of Domestic Resource Mobilisation (DRM) in supporting the ambitious goals of the Sustainable... Read more...
What is domestic public finance? and why is it essential for providing universal water and sanitation services? Read more...
BRAC WASH has had a transformative effect on latrine construction in Bagherpara, Bangladesh – especially for the ultra-poor who cannot afford to... Read more...
This report, commissioned by UNHCR, presents a methodology to cost water services in post-emergency situations as well as in first emergency... Read more...
This book provides readers with a glimpse into the realities of managing large-scale initiatives with ambitious goals. It reveals that through... Read more...
Even the extreme poor can and do pay for improved water and sanitation services, especially if they can save time collecting water. For sanitation,... Read more...
WASH-BAT is a sector analysis and monitoring tool developed in 2011 by UNICEF and World Bank as part of the Marginal Budgeting for Bottlenecks... Read more...