Patrick Moriarty and Stef Smits talk about the importance of taking on a systems approach in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector.
Published on: 20/02/2017
IRC's podcast series WASH Talk shares ideas on changes the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector has to make in order to contribute to achieving universal access by 2030. To do so speakers from all over the world are given a voice in this podcast series.
This first episode of IRC's podcast series WASH Talk will focus on a systems approach in the WASH sector. What is systems building in the WASH sector and why is it so important? Host Jeroen Westerbeek and co-host Catarina Fonseca talk about this with Patrick Moriarty and Stef Smits.
Dr. Patrick Moriarty is IRC's Chief Executive Officer. A Civil Engineer by first degree and Water Resource Management expert by main experience, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary work on water service delivery and local water governance. Patrick has over twenty years experience of a broad range of issues around water, its management and its use in improving human well-being , predominantly in Africa and South Asia. Patrick's main area of interest is in how IRC can ignite and support sector wide change that brings improved services (and more sustainable water resource use) to all. He finds the most professional satisfaction working in the messy interface between policy, applied research and practice.
Stef Smits is Senior Programme Officer, coordinator of IRC's country programme in Honduras, and other work in Latin America. Thematically, he is mainly working on sustainability of rural water supplies and particularly on the institutional arrangements for supporting community-based service providers, and the costs of that. He has also been working on the linkages between WASH services provision and local-level IWRM.
