Kristina Nilsson

Public finance and drinking water services in rural Africa and Asia

Kristina Nilsson's current research examines innovative public financing models which can support the sustained delivery of drinking water services in rural Africa and Asia. This builds on her experience collaborating with governments, donors, enterprises, and water users, to research, evaluate, and implement strategies targeting sustainable water service provision in developing contexts. This project aims to contribute to understanding how the greatest value for these rural water services can be extracted from public funds, to meet the increasing needs for operational financing to sustain rural water services.

Kristina has over a decade of experience in governance and international development, focused on water and sanitation service delivery, through work in Nepal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, and with multi-country and global projects. She has gained experience at multiple levels: living in rural communities with inadequate water and sanitation services, supporting local district governments, managing and coordinating government and NGO projects, and working within national government ministries, evaluating global development programs, and researching the approaches of water service providers globally. This has granted her insight into the urgency of, challenges to, and also some opportunities for, improving rural water and sanitation services in developing contexts.

Her previous work has included researching and evaluating multi-country systems strengthening and financing initiatives, managing monitoring and evaluation for multi-partner programs, and leading and evaluating water and sanitation governance initiatives, with organisations including Uptime Global, REACH-Water and the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN), Welthungerhilfe, Concern Worldwide, and Engineers Without Borders Canada. She holds a postgraduate diploma in global health policy from the University of Edinburgh, and a Bachelor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Leadership from the University of New Brunswick.

• Zisa, A., Nilsson, K., Mirza, R. and Vachon, T. (2022) Achieving handwashing with Social Art for Behaviour Change: the experience of the Lazos de Agua programme in Latin America. H2Open Journal, 5(2): IWA Publishing.
• Nilsson, K., Hope, R., McNicholl, D., Nowicki, S. and Charles, K. (2021) Global prospects to deliver safe drinking water services for 100 million rural people by 2030. REACH working paper 12. University of Oxford and RWSN: Oxford, UK.
• Nilsson, K. (2019) Community mobilisation for WASH outcomes. Knowledge Matters: DRC WASH Consortium experiences and learning. Concern Worldwide: Dublin, Ireland.
• De Rubeis, M.L. and Nilsson, K. (2019) Evaluating results through a vulnerability lens. Knowledge Matters: DRC WASH Consortium experiences and learning. Concern Worldwide: Dublin, Ireland.
• Melloni, G. & Nilsson, K. (2019) The Economic Approach of the DRC WASH Consortium. Knowledge Matters: DRC WASH Consortium experiences and learning. Concern Worldwide: Dublin, Ireland.
• Nilsson, K., De Rubeis, M.L. and Melloni, G. (2018) Community management of water points in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: identifying success factors. WEDC Conference: Nakuru, Kenya.
• Melloni, G., De Rubeis, M.L. and Nilsson, K. (2018) Tracing a path to sustainable rural water services in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rural Water Supply Network.
• Nilsson, K. (2016) Coordinating a SWAp for Malawi's WASH development. (Poster). WASH Futures Conference: Brisbane, Australia.
• Nilsson, K. (2016) Lights! Camera! Action! Roles for WASH sector supporting actors. (Poster). Rural Water Supply Network Forum: Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.
• Nilsson, K. (2016) Practical advice on supporting government systems - as learned from strengthening Malawi's Water SWAp. (Poster). UNC Water and Health Conference: Chapel Hill, USA.
• Nilsson, K. and Byrns, S. (2016) A sector for service delivery: challenges & tactics used to support the development of Malawi's WASH sector. (Poster). Rural Water Supply Network Forum: Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.
• Nilsson, K. and Chikhoza, M. (2016) Low resource innovations for sustaining service delivery: examples from districts in Malawi. WEDC Conference: Kumasi, Ghana.
• Nilsson, K. and Hughes, G. (2016) Adapting collective impact models to solve complex service delivery challenges. (Workshop). WEDC Conference: Kumasi, Ghana.
• Nilsson, K. (2016) Sliced bread, development, and technology. Influents, 11, p.17: Water Environment Association of Ontario.
• Nilsson, K. & Nkhoma, B. (2014) Short-term learning for long-term impact: lessons on project design from Malawi. WEDC Conference: Hanoi, Vietnam.
• Nilsson, K. & McNicholl, D. (2013) Mutual reinforcement: combining project outputs with capacity development outcomes for service delivery. WEDC Conference: Nakuru, Kenya.