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.
What we can learn from Ghana Read more...
How can the devolution of planning and budgetary processes help communities raise their issues and plan accordingly. Read more...
This week's Weekly WASH Graph presents an infographic and a graph, the combination of which reflects what we think should be the core content of WASH investment plans. Read more...
Based on 20 detailed successful case studies from across India, this book outlines future rural water supply approaches for all lower-income... Read more...
In this document we capture the inputs that contributed in improving water supply to households and an assessment of cost approximation by the Water... Read more...
This document presents the experiences of the Himmotthan Water Supply and Sanitation initiative in developing community-managed rural water systems... Read more...
This note presents the approach of the NGO, Vasudha Vikas Sansthan, in Madhya Pradesh in partnership with the State's Public Health Engineering... Read more...
This document assesses the community-managed rural water supply programmes in Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran. Read more...
This document presents the approach of community-based managed of water supply in Mallapuram District, Kerala. Read more...
This case study presents the case of the World Bank assisted Jal Nirmal Project in Karnataka. Read more...
This is a case study on the Water and Sanitation Management Organization (WASMO), the entity dedicated to rural water supply in Gujarat, illustrated... Read more...
This study investigates the decentralized water service delivery system in Kodur Gram Panchayat, Kerala. Read more...
This study assesses the professionally-managed community owned/influenced decentralised drinking water delivery systems in Telangana and Andhra... Read more...
This report details the services provided by Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP) in Amravati District, Maharashtra which is a Multi-Village Scheme. Read more...
This study assesses a project in Uttarakhand during which water schemes and rural sanitations were developed to address the water crisis in this... Read more...
A country needs to meet a certain development or income threshold before aid can prove to be effective and aid flows tend to have diminishing returns. Read more...
For less than US$12 per person per year a town in Honduras can ensure that everyone's water supply keeps working. Read more...
The King's speech marks the opening of the Dutch parliamentary year. This year he drew attention to the important position of the Netherlands in the international water sector. The budgets that were presented alongside the speech also reflect this, notably with a 6% increase for the budget for WASH... Read more...
Two years ago, I posted a blog summarizing discussions on whether insuring rural water supply systems is a good idea. But these remained largely theoretical discussions, as there are few examples of such insurances put in place. During field work for the Community Water Plus project in the State of... Read more...