Deirdre Casella

Programme Officer, Global Team

Key activities

Deirdre's main areas of work and experience are in the areas of pro-poor participatory approaches and tools for sector planning, monitoring and assessments as well as pro-poor approaches to basic urban services. She is further involved in action research initiatives in both rural and urban settings on improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene services for low-income urban and rural communities and strengthening of local level WASH governance for improved water services. Work in these thematic areas contributes to her advisory activities, such as participatory assessments of donor-supported WASH sector programmes, training and facilitation of workshops, related to learning and institutional capacity development for improving water and sanitation services provision.

Background

In addition to previously having worked as a Research Associate on gender and poverty for IRC (1999 - 2000), Deirdre also worked in South Africa at the National Community Water and Sanitation Training Institute, based at the University of the North, as a trainer and project manager for university and local government capacity building programmes. Other sector experience includes working as a poverty and gender specialist on a consulting basis to evaluate donor-supported multi-country water sector programmes, as well as conducting various assignments for Netherlands-based development organisations. She obtained a BA in sociology from the University of California at Santa Barbara (1994) and an MA in development and population studies, specialising in poverty, gender and food security policy approaches, from the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands (1999)

Publications and Reports

Synthesis of National and International Case Studies on Pro-poor, Low-cost Sanitation Solutions in Peri-Urban Areas (2006) . Urban Training and Studies Institute and National Housing and Building Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt.
Gender Mainstreaming Training Manual for the Water and Sanitation Sector in South Africa (2001) . The National Community Water and Sanitation Training Institute, University of the North, Turfloop, South Africa.