Mobilising finance for WASH : getting the foundation right

"Economics taught me to follow the money. Water science taught me where it needs to go. The gap between those two things is where most of the world's water problems live."

There is enough money in the world to give everyone safe water and sanitation. The problem is the gap between where capital sits and where it needs to flow. For more than twenty-six years, Catarina Fonseca has worked on closing that gap: building the economic frameworks, financial tools and evidence that help governments and development banks stop treating water as a cost and start treating it as an investment.

She works with finance ministers, development banks and multilateral agencies to identify the changes needed in regulation and institutional set-ups to make essential water services for everyone viable over the long term. Her analyses help governments answer the questions that investors and treasuries always ask first: what will this cost over its whole life, who will pay for it, and will it be sustainable? 

She’s carried out that work across Africa, Asia and Latin America – developing national finance strategies for Ethiopia, Rwanda, Malawi and Cambodia, and advising on investment frameworks for the European Investment Bank, the African Development Bank, the World Bank and the Agence Française de Développement. She also served as independent expert advisor to the Dutch Prime Minister's High-Level Panel on Water Investments in Africa – bringing Riva's analytical depth to the conversations where the largest commitments are made.

Catarina trained as an economist in Lisbon before completing a doctoral degree in Water Sciences at Cranfield University – a combination that explains why finance ministers and district water authorities find her equally credible. She is the author of the Handbook for Finance Ministers on water and sanitation investment, and has written or co-authored more than 100 papers, briefing notes and books that now form the reference library the sector draws on. As a senior associate of Riva and through Pulsing Tide, her own advisory practice, she brings that body of knowledge in-person and online to all corners of the world.

A few highlights:

• Author of the Handbook for Finance Ministers – how to make public investment work – the defining reference for governments making the case at the highest political levels
• Independent expert advisor to the Dutch Prime Minister's High-Level Panel on Water Investments in Africa
• National water finance strategies developed for Ethiopia, Rwanda, Malawi and Cambodia – with UNICEF, FCDO and AFD
• WASHCost Director (2008–2013) – a landmark five-year programme costing sustainable water services across four countries, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Advisor to the Water Finance Coalition, bringing together national and international public development banks to improve financing for SDG 6 and the Paris Agreement
• More than 100 published papers, books and briefing notes and developed Riva’s Systems Academy finance course 
• Working languages: Portuguese, English, French and Spanish