Professional Experience:
• Senior Development Economist and Sanitary Engineer with 20 years working experience in the water and sanitation sector in Asia (India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam), Latin America (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru), Africa (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe), with an emphasis on policy and institutional development for the water and sanitation sector, including:
- The formulation and evaluation of water and sanitation sector policy reforms in the context of decentralization processes, national Government plans, SWAPS, and Millennium Development Goals.
- Addressing local governance issues with Public Authorities and Water Utilities, including strategic planning, design of management models, budgeting, definition of performance based contracts, public-private partnerships, regulation, and cost recovery principles, both at rural and urban levels.
- Providing technical assistance in the definition and implementation of pro-poor sanitation strategies in low-income urban and remote rural areas that include the promotion of community management with a gender perspective, as well as of behavior change, micro-finance, and the design of low cost technical sanitation systems
• Experience in institutional capacity –building and training activities, working at national and local levels, including:
- The design of training modules and courses on the topics of management for sustainability, operation and maintenance, strategic planning, monitoring and community management.
- The coordination of short training courses tailored to the client using innovative adult learning and training techniques, as well as the development of local, national and international workshops.
• Experience in working at high level with policy makers and utility management officers, adopting a participatory working style while leaving counterparts in the driver’s seat.
• Former staff member of the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank (5 years), of the WASH Program of UNICEF (2 years) and of the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre (8 years), as well as consultant for various multi-lateral and bi-lateral development agencies (5 years).
French National, fluent in French, English with very good knowledge of Dutch and Spanish