Four implementing partners of the Dutch government and CIDA funded WASH projects met on 24 September 2012 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for a day long deliberation on their respective first 6 months plan; a Project Cooperation Agreement overview as well as issues related to the implementation. Close to 40 participants representing the four implementing agencies as well as UNICEF, the Federal Ministry of Water and Energy, the Ministry of Health as well as CoWASH attended the kickoff meeting.

The project, named “Integrating WASH РMultiple use services and community based utrition for improved food security and reproductive and sexual health”, will run for the coming three and half years, implemented by RiPPLE, SNV, IDE and Plan International-Ethiopia.

Welcoming the participating WASH specialist with UNICEF, Muhammad Irfan Alrai said the meeting will be helpful in creating common understanding on the expected outcomes and results of the project, identifying supports needed from partners as well as creating a strategic road map for coordination and collaboration. He added two of the partners, RiPPLE and SNV, who already signed the agreement with UNICEF, while the other two will be sign over the next weeks.

RiPPLE’s presentation during the workshop focused on knowledge management and monitoring and evaluation aspects of the project with a detailed description of the plan for the coming six months. RiPPLE’s comments and concerns about the support required from partners as well as the expected challenges ahead triggered valuable comments and questions from participants that paved the way for further heated discussions for common understanding of the issues. Accordingly the points raised by RiPPLE were eventually shared by others, including the issue of budget transfers to the government for review meetings, trainings and its implications, the high geographical spread of project woredas, staff turnover on both government and partner sides as well as the 70/30 charities and societies regulation.

SNV’s presentation revolved around the woreda capacity building component while IDE shared its role in appropriate technology development and promotion for self supply and sanitation marketing. A presentation by Plan International Ethiopia also focused on scaling up of community led total sanitation and hygiene component of the project cooperation agreement.

A total of 1.4 million people will benefit from sanitation services while 630.000 people benefit from sustainable water supplies, including school children. The project will be implemented in four regions of the country, namely Amhara, Oromia, South Nations and Nationalities and Tigray Regional states of the nation.

According to the project document total cost of the project is over 33.9 million USD of which about 23.3 million USD is a contribution from the Dutch Government, 4.3 million from CIDA while the balance is covered by UNICEF.

Solomon Kebede is Media and Communications Officer at RiPPLE