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 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...
The integration of sanitation as a human right in national policies and strategies can improve access to sanitation in rural areas, in particular for... Read more...
What is domestic public finance? and why is it essential for providing universal water and sanitation services? Read more...
In rural Cambodia newborns risk infections both in health centres and at home because hygiene is poor and water and sanitation facilities are unsafe... Read more...
Learning and knowledge management supported at national and decentralised levels to enable the sector to adapt based on experience. Read more...
Key international news services, international organisations, events, journals and websites for the WASH sector. Read more...
Background note prepared for the IRC event on the 4th of March 2015. 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...
The report describes results of an assessment of harmonisation and alignment, two key principles of Aid Effectiveness, in Ghana's water sector. Read more...
In an increasingly urbanising world, with some 863 million people living in informal urban settlements in 2012 (based on UN estimates), there is a... Read more...