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.
While global overviews of evidence are useful as a first step, there is a need for evidence related to specific contexts, such as rural or urban... Read more...
An analysis of 11 global and regional trends in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector. Read more...
Many colleagues are developing mechanisms to track progress towards Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals . Read more...
Yesterday was World Water Day and we were flooded with high hopes and a celebratory mood. Goals for the sector have been set last year and there are no significant changes on the horizon. With a business as usual approach, are we really going to achieve the SDGs for the water sector? Read more...
In this blog, economist and IRC's head of innovation and international programme Catarina Fonseca argues that taxation is crucial in reaching the post-2015 development agenda. "Tax is a prerequisite for governments to become truly democratically accountable to their people," she says. Read more...
Background note prepared for the IRC event on the 4th of March 2015. Read more...
In this blog, IRC's head of innovation and international programme Catarina Fonseca discusses the financing of the post-2015 development goals. "A substantial part of funding for development should be sought elsewhere," she argues. Through public finance. Or tax, as we call it. Read more...
Universal coverage of water, sanitation and hygiene looks set to be included in the Sustainable Development Goals. What finally ends up in these goals will determine the agenda for the WASH sector for decades to come. Read more...