COWASH IV Steering Committee Meeting in Helsinki
A National WASH Steering Committee Meeting on the Community–led Accelerated WASH IV (COWASH IV) was held in Helsinki, Finland, on 28 August 2023. This was the first time in COWASH history that a steering committee was held outside of Ethiopia.
From Ethiopia, a delegation of 20 delegates joined the meeting. The participants were from the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Water and Energy, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Embassy of Finland in Ethiopia, and the Federal Technical Assistant Team on COWASH IV. Dr. Minna Hares from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, who is the Program Officer for the project in Finland joined the meeting.
The National WASH Steering Committee Meeting was led by H.E. Ambassador Asfaw Dingamo. Among the participants were H.E. W/ro Semerita Sewasew, H.E. Dr. Fenta Mandefro, and H.E. W/ro Almaz Messele. In the meeting, important discussions were made on the current situation and the future of the COWASH project.
The Ethiopian delegation will stay in Finland for six days and will have meetings, for example, with Mr. Ville Tavio, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, and with the Africa and Middle East Department of Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. The week includes a networking event hosted by the Finnish Water Forum and study tour days in Finnish water facilities.
This week’s mission will strengthen the cooperation between Finland and Ethiopia in the Water Sector dating back some 29 years. Water is important for both nations and both have international initiatives including Water Diplomacy and Human Rights.
Approval of 2015 Regional Reports
Today, the 22nd of August, all seven COWASH IV regions joined for a Joint National/Regional Steering Committee meeting in Addis Ababa.
In the meeting, all the Annual Performance Reports for Ethiopian Financial Year 2015 from each region were approved. With this approval, the funds from the Govenment of Finland for Q1 and Q2 can now be distributed to the project regions. This means that the money from Finland is distributed to the project regions five to six months earlier than last year.
At the end of the meeting, the new project vehicles funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland were handed over by Ambassador Asfaw, State Minister of Water and Energy, Lari Peltonen, Embassy of Finland, Deputy Head of Mission, and Sami Frestadius, Embassy on Finland, Senior Specialist, for the Regional Support Units in each region. These vehicles will help to better facilitate the implementation of WASH development in the rural Woredas of Ethiopia.
EFY 2016 Q1 and Q2 funds have arrived
The COWASH IV Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2016 Quarters 1 and 2 Funds, as per the consolidated request, were sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland last week and have now been received in the Ministry of Finance Account in Addis Ababa.
The money arrived from Finland to Ethiopia five months earlier than the previous year, which is a huge success for COWASH IV. We thank all project stakeholders, at all levels, for the very strong support and coordination which has ensured that the funds have been received in good time which will permit the work in our project communities to commence in the near future.
Regional Steering Committee meetings successfully completed
In line with the approved COWASH IV improved fund flow process for EFY 2016, all regional steering committee meetings have now been successfully completed and the core plans approved. Productive discussions have been held on the results of the first 11 months of EFY 2015, the plans for EFY 2016 and the future of COWASH in general.
All regions have now submitted their Quarter 1 and 2 fund requests to the Ministry of Water and Energy which have been consolidated and forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland via the Ministry of Finance. All regions are now preparing their full EFY 2015 Progress Reports with the support of the FTAT through hands-on assistance in the regional offices. On-the-job training is something that the FTAT plans to do more in the future.
Work is progressing exactly on schedule and it is expected that the first EFY 2016 funds will be disbursed to the regions on time and indeed six months earlier than last year. This is an outstanding achievement for the COWASH IV project!
Explore the COWASH IV Database: Streamlining Performance Monitoring and Data Management
The COWASH IV web-based Planning, Monitoring, Reporting and Sanitation Databases (PMRWFDB) website has been officially launched. The name of the website is cowasheth.org.
The main purpose of the database is to bring together the two COWASH III databases and to gather quick information on COWASH IV performance, manage data effectively and prepare quick performance reports.
The database includes project regions, zones, districts, partners, project activities, indicators and their measurement units, planning and implementation. Any COWASH stakeholder and partners can download current data from the database and use it for planning and performance monitoring.
You are kindly invited to use the Data Base by type in Google Chrome URL address space and bookmark the tab as displayed below so that you can easily get a tab (cowasheth.org) whenever you want to visit the Database.
The COWASH IV web-based Planning, Monitoring, Reporting, and Sanitation Database website has been officially launched. The name of the website is cowasheth.org.
The main purpose of the database is to build on the previous work conducted under COWASH III, provide a facility to quickly gather information on COWASH IV performance, manage data effectively and rapidly facilitate the preparation of performance reports.
The database includes project regions, zones, districts, partners, project activities, indicators and their measurement units, planning, and implementation. Any COWASH stakeholder and partner can download up-to-date information from the database and use it for project planning and performance monitoring.
You are kindly invited to view the database at cowasheth.org by clicking on the dashboard or Wash Facility Data.
Enhancing Education through Access to Clean Water: COWASH IV's Impact on Warerso Keta Primary School
During 2014, the Community-led Accelerated WASH (COWASH) Project, Phase IV supported the construction of a shallow well in the compound of the Warerso Keta Primary School in Sululta Woreda, Oromia National Regional State at a cost of 400,000 Birr.
During a recent follow-up visit, the teachers and the school community expressed their happiness with the outcome. The principal of the school, Ato Teklie Seifu, said that since the school was built in 2008, there had been no available clean drinking water near the school and that students and teachers would waste more than an hour searching for water and that their health was adversely affected through water-related diseases. Furthermore, there has been a negative impact on the quality of education due to the time lost.
Ato Teklie stated that the school is serving 323 males, and 267 females, a total of 590 students, of which six have disabilities. With this investment, the water problems of the students and the school community will be eliminated and they will be able to have a better education program for the 2015 school year. He said that the school community will work together with the relevant bodies to ensure the sustainability of the water facility built for them.
In addition to the provision of clean water supply to schools, COWASH IV is also working on the provision of clean water supply and the construction of latrines for education and health institutions.
Ethiopia Celebrates 2023 World Water Day with Focus on Accelerating Change to Solve Water and Sanitation Crisis
The 2023 World Water Day was celebrated in the meeting hall of the Ministry of Water and Energy with the theme of "Accelerating Change to Solve Water and Sanitation Crisis" in the presence of COWASH IV and other WASH partners.
His Excellency Ambassador Asfaw Dingamo, the State Minister of Water and Sanitation Sector in the Ministry of Water and Energy, opened the meeting with an official speech stating that when we celebrate World Water Day, we should think about the citizens who are having problems with water and sanitation both in the world and in our country, and focus on strategic issues that can solve our problems and looking for solutions.
His Excellency Ambassador Asfaw added that Ethiopia is conducting encouraging work to solve the problem of water and sanitation for its citizens, but the sector's high investment demand, high population growth, urbanization, climate change, and are obstacles to achieving the desired level.
Governmental and non-governmental organizations including UNICEF, Water Aid, Japan International Cooperation Agency, IRC WASH, Ethiopian Water Technology institute and others involved in the water and sanitation sector participated in the forum. Senior professionals representing a variey of organizations made presentations titled Water Resource Management Implementation in Ethiopia, Accelerating Water Supply and Sanitation in Ethiopia, Filling the Capacity Gap in Water Sector to Accelerate the Change and Accelerating Change through Partnership to meet SDG 6 which were widely discussed by the participants.
World Water Day has been celebrated since 1993 based on the decision of the United Nations to create global awareness on water and sanitation.
COWASH IV and Amhara RSU Collaborate to Train Implementers on Water Safety Plan for Sustainable Water and Sanitation Facilities
The Community-led Accelerated WASH Project, Phase IV (COWASH IV) Federal Technical Assistance Team in collaboration with Amara RSU started Training of Trainers on Water Safety Plan (WSP) in Bahir Dar city.
Ato. Abrham Mengesha, Advisor for the Amhara Water and Energy Bureau Head who opened the training, said that the implementation of WSP in the construction and management of any water and sanitation facilities has a significant contribution to the sustainability of the projects.
Ato. Abrham Mengesha added that the main objective of the training is to increase the skills of the region's COWASH IV implementers in WSP implementation in order to make COWASH IV water and sanitation facilities resilient to the effects of climate change and environmental degradation. He urged participants to have an appropriate awareness that would enable them to cascade the training and to provide technical support for woredas and the community.
The training will be mainly provided by Mussie Hailegiorgis, FTAT Climate and Environment Risks and Water Safety Specialist together with the Amhara regional support unit.
Participants are from the water & energy and agriculture departments of COWASH IV zones of the region and relevant bodies from the region. The training will continue for three days from 21-23 March 2023.
COWASH IV conducts gender and disability inclusion workshop in Benishangul-gumuz Region
The Community-led Accelerated WASH Project, Phase IV (COWASH IV) has commenced a gender equality, women empowerment, and disability inclusion review workshop in Bambassi City, Benishangul-gumuz Region.
The primary objective of the workshop is to evaluate the work done in empowering women, gender equity, and disability inclusion in order to strengthen the best performances and correct the gaps to improve the participation and benefit of women and persons with disability.
The COWASH IV regional support unit members, regional COWASH sector bureaus and partners who are working on women empowerment, gender and disability inclusion are participating in the workshop and it will continue for two days from 14-15 March 2023.
Advancing WASH Implementation and Data Systems: COWASH IV Empowers Stakeholders in South West Ethiopia through Specialized Training
The Community-led Accelerated WASH Project, Phase IV (COWASH IV) Federal Technical Assistance Team has started a series of two training sessions in Tarcha City, in the South West Ethiopia People's Regional State, in cooperation with the COWASH IV Regional Support Unit.
The first session will be training of trainers on the Community Managed Project (CMP) approach and the second session will be on the management of the COWASH IV database management.
The main objectives of the training are to increase the implementation capacity of WASHCOs on the CMP approach and to train stakeholders in the use of the COWASH IV database management system.
The participants are technical experts from regional, zonal and woreda levels and training will continue for five consecutive days from 13-17 March 2023.