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.
An approach is developed to assess WASH risks in marginal populations that are poorly understood and served through conventional approaches. Read more...
Ten years after a community-led total sanitation campaign, intervention households continued to have higher rates of ever owning a latrine but... Read more...
This paper examines methodological options for calculating a 'total service gap', a measure that would combine data on each rung of the service... Read more...
This review confirms positive impacts of sanitation on aspects of health, but evidence gaps remain. More research is needed that rigorously describes... Read more...
This paper presents findings on water and sanitation service levels from 16 small and medium towns in four regions of Ethiopia. Read more...
Spreading the cost of faecal waste removal over a series of monthly payments could make it more affordable for poor households and help kick start... Read more...
Sharing a sanitation facility with just one to two other households can increase the risk of moderate-to-severe diarrhea (MSD) in young children,... Read more...
In the context of urban Haiti, household container-based sanitation services (CBS) systems have the potential to satisfy many residents' desire for... Read more...
The costs of a pilot small-scale container-based sanitation service (CBS) were higher than those of large-scale waterborne sewerage, but economies of... Read more...
Increasing latrine coverage does not by itself reduce exposure to faecal pathogens and prevent disease. Read more...
Brings the engineer's and designer's perspectives together to make a 'beautiful latrine'. Read more...
This paper explores spaces where urgent environmental health imperatives intersect with deeply entrenched cultural norms surrounding human waste and... Read more...
This article estimates the burden of diarrhoeal diseases from exposure to inadequate water, sanitation and hand hygiene in low- and middle-income... Read more...