Klaas Schwartz PhD, MSc

Biography

Klaas Schwartz (MA Public Administration; University of Twente) is Associate Professor of Urban Water Governance. As staff member of the Department of Management and Institutions lecturing at UNESCO-IHE, Mr. Schwartz addresses issues of governance, public sector reform and management of public water utilities within the field of water services.

In addition to his lecturing and research at UNESCO-IHE, Mr. Schwartz has been involved in a large number of consultancy and capacity building initiatives in Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, Fiji Islands, Ghana, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zanzibar, Zimbabwe.

QUALIFICATIONS AND TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Mr. Klaas Schwartz is Associate Professor of Urban Water Governance in the Department of Integrated Water Systems and Governance at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. Mr. Schwartz has over 15 years of experience in education and training relating to the field of Water Governance. His main area of expertise concerns urban water governance, public sector reform and change management in water organizations. He is coordinator of the Institutional Analysis modules in the Master of Science Programme in Water Management. The main themes of his lectures in these modules concern urban water governance (introductory lectures), institutional analysis, public sector reform and informal service provisioning. He has been involved in research, education and training activities in the field of Water Governance in various countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Urban Water Governance
Water Services Management
Public Sector Reform
Utility Reform

Publications

Journal papers

Kitonsa, W. and Schwartz, K. (2012), ‘Commercialisation and Centralisation in the Ugandan and Zambian Water Sector’, International Journal of Water, 6(3-4), pp. 176-194.

Dorcas, M. and Schwartz, K. (forthcoming 2013), ‘The Politics of Utility Reform: A Case Study of the Ugandan Water Sector’, Public Money and Management.

Ostrovskaya, E., Douven, W., Schwartz, K., Pataki, B., Mukuyu, P. and Kaggwa R. (2012; in press), ‘Capacity for Sustainable Management of Wetlands: Lessons from the WETwin Project’, Environmental Science and Policy.

Rusca, M., Heun, J. and Schwartz, K. (2012), ‘Water Management Simulation Games and the Construction of Knowledge’, Hydrolology and Earth System Sciences, 16, pp. 2749-2757.
- Ahlers, R., Perez Guida, V. and Schwartz, K. (2012; in press), 'The Myth of ‘Healthy’ Competition in the Water Sector: The Case of Small Scale Water Providers', Habitat International.

Rusca, M. and Schwartz, K. (2012), ‘From Passive Recipient to Empowered Client? The Changing Role of Water Consumers’, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 11(5), pp. 991-997.

Ahlers, R., Perez Guida, V., Rusca, M. and Schwartz, K. (2012), ‘Unleashing Entrepreneurs or Controlling Unruly Providers? The Formalisation of Small-scale Water Providers in Greater Maputo, Mozambique’, Journal of Development Studies.

Rusca, M. and Schwartz, K. (2012), ‘Divergent Sources of Legitimacy: A Case Study of International NGOs in the Water Services Sector in Lilongwe and Maputo’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 38(3), pp. 681-697.

Books (edited)

Katko, T., Juuti, P. and Schwartz, K. (2012), Water Services Management and Governance: Past Lessons for a Sustainable Future, London: IWA Publishing.

Chapters in books

Blokland, M. and Schwartz, K. (2012), ‘Upscaling of the Dutch Water Supply Sector’, in: Katko, T., Juuti, P. and Schwartz, K. (eds.), Water Services Management and Governance: Past Lessons for a Sustainable Future, London: IWA Publishing.

Kemerink, J. and Schwartz, K. (2012), ‘Analytical framework for water services and governance’, in: Katko, T., Juuti, P. and Schwartz, K. (eds.), Water Services Management and Governance: Past Lessons for a Sustainable Future, London: IWA Publishing.

Rusca, M. and Schwartz, K. (2012), ‘Changes in Partnerships on WSS services from 1970s to 2010’, in: Katko, T., Juuti, P. and Schwartz, K. (eds.), Water Services Management and Governance: Past Lessons for a Sustainable Future, London: IWA Publishing.

Clouting H., Douven W., Ostrovskaya E., Schwartz K. and Beata Pataki (2012), ‘Framework for Analysing Institutional Capacity for Wetland Management - Case Gemenc Wetland’ , In: Albrecht, E., et al. (eds.) Implementing Adaptation Strategies by Legal, Economic and Planning Instruments on Climate Change, Heidelberg: Springer.

RESEARCH PROJECT

UNHIDE - Uncovering hidden dynamics of informal water provisioning

Formal utilities in developing countries often serve only half the urban population, leaving the other half of the population to be served by ‘informal’ providers. Although these providers have received increasing attention of policy makers, academics and professionals, much of this attention is characterized by a mono-dimensional approach to informal water services (focusing on a particular governance model or appropriate technology), adherence to a formal-informal dichotomy (the existence of which is increasingly challenged) and the absence of historical analysis.

This research approaches informal water provisioning as the product of a historical process in which ecology, technology (infrastructure) and society are welded together in indivisible manners. This is done by answering the question how infrastructural, socio-political and ecological processes interconnect and interact to articulate particular informal water services provisioning configurations. Two conceptual approaches, socio-techno-nature and institutional bricolage, will be used to answer this research question. These approaches highlight that particular configurations are very much a product of a contested, historical and geographically-specific process.