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.
This paper summarises current donor thinking on measuring sector progress towards developing sustained water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services... Read more...
An analysis of 11 global and regional trends in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector. Read more...
The advantages and limitations of "end of ownership" service models and where they are currently being applied. Read more...
'End of ownership' models in the water and sanitation sector are generally found in places with a limited public sector and unregulated markets. 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...
Learning and knowledge management supported at national and decentralised levels to enable the sector to adapt based on experience. 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...
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...
Understanding the difference between charity, venture philanthropy and impact investing is key to getting businesses and programmes funded 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...
Background paper for the Symposium on Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation: Strengthening capacity for local governance Read more...
Pre-read to the 2014 WASH Sustainability Forum providing three short overviews of sustainability tools for water, sanitation, and hygiene. Read more...
A joint letter from private sector, civil society and academic organisations was sent to the United Nations' Open Working Group with one firm message: Let's work together to finish the unfinished business of the MDGs and strive far beyond to a future of universal access to water, sanitation and... Read more...
This paper contains the findings of a mapping of WASH sustainability tools currently in use, as well as the outcomes of a survey looking into demand... Read more...
This paper presents lessons learnt on improving learning in the WASH sector through resource centre networks in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Honduras, Nepal... Read more...
For deciding where to invest, how to sustain and improve water and sanitation services and for understanding which policies and strategies work, both... Read more...