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.
Commencement of COWASH IV Operations in Tigray
The MoU between the MoF and the Tigray Bureau of Finance was signed on 02 June 2023 in the presence of the Ambassador and officials of the Embassy of Finland. The FTAT supported discussions between the MoF and the EoF to develop a mechanism to make salary back-payments to the RSU from the remaining COWASH III funds. This work was successfully completed and the team were paid on 30 June 2023.
News from the FTAT team
In May and June 2023, the FTAT team liaison with regions to advise on measures being taken to improve the project funding process, carried out social and behaviour change on-the-job training in SWEP and Sidama Regions and conducted on-the-job sanitation Marketing MSEs training for selected woredas in Oromia Region. Also, the FTAT team further RSU training on the use and operation of the COWASH IV database in Oromia and Benishangul-Gumuz Regions, conducted on-the-job WSP4+ training in Benishangul-Gumuz Region and Saving and Loan Association (SLA) on-the-job training in Sidama and Oromia Regions.
COWASH IV Annual Review and Core Planning Meeting
The COWASH IV Annual Review and Core Planning Meeting was held in Arba Minch from 09 to 11 May with full participation of six regions. The meeting comprised presentations by each region on the third quarter project status together with discussions on the EFY 2016 core plan preparation process. The meeting was supported by representatives of the MoF and the EoF who presented an oversight of Finland’s development policies and the important role COWASH IV has in achieving the targets.
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.