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.
Ensuring long-term services on a large scale. Read more...
Users want to know what they are entitled to receive: the quality, quantity, reliability and accessibility of their water supply. Read more...
Water for People has helped Sagar and Patharpratima boost coverage and improve sustainability. Read more...
A special issue of ' Water Alternatives' journal looks at trends in water services in rural areas. Read more...
This includes the structured support activities to service providers as well as to users or user groups. This may be provided in a variety of ways by either local governments directly, by regional utility agencies, specialized agencies or external contractors or a by combination of these modalities. Read more...
The professionalisation of community based-management means moving away from an approach based purely on volunteerism, towards a more professional, competent and effective management of rural water services working to agreed standards, and with greater transparency and accountability. Read more...
Service delivery models describe the practical implementation of water service provision as part of a service delivery approach Read more...
“The goal of universal access to clean water is far from complete”, says IRC's Stef Smits on CNN International. "Reaching the last 10% of the population -- those living in remote rural areas and on the fringes of big cities - will become increasingly difficult and expensive," he explains in “Going... Read more...
The lack of clearly delineated roles can undermine sustainable services at scale. Read more...
Water For People adopted the "Everyone, Forever" approach. IRC carried out a case study to learn lessons on scaling-up rural water and sanitation services. Read more...