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 working paper unpacks what is meant by the enabling environment for finance in WASH and presents real examples of how these bottlenecks are... Read more...
In this episode (2 mins) we hear from Catarina Fonseca on the importance of public finance in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. Read more...
Recommandations pour les actionnaires des BPDs: les gouvernements des États. Read more...
Recommendations for the shareholders of national PDBs: states and governments. Read more...
Reflections on Finance for water, sanitation and the achievement 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...
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...