COWASH completed signing of the Memorandum of ...

[Pages:11]COWASH completed signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, (MOU) with five regions to implement Phase IV

Signing of MOU with Benishangul Gumuz Bureau of Finance/Sept 2021/Melaku Tekola

Just before the conclusion of the past year and inception of the Ethiopian New Year 2014, COWASH concluded signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with four COWASH regions of Amhara, Benishangul, SNNPR and Sidama regions. Soon after the inception of the new year COWASH signed with Bureau of Finance of Oromia Regional State. The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding was first signed at the Federal level and later at a Regional level by Heads of the Finance Bureaus in each respective region. The objective of signing the Memorandum of Understanding, (MOU) is to clearly define the the administrative and financial fund flow mechanisms for implementing COWASH Phase IV activities inline to the project document signed between the Government of Ethiopia and Finland.

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The MOU also clearly stipulates the total amount segregated by contribution of the Government of Finland and the contribution of the Regional Government including the percentage of estimation of the community contribution. Signing of the MOU is critical to address delicate issues that could come up along the implementation of the project.

During the signing ceremony across all the regions, brief discussion on the MOU held and highlights of explanations were given by the Federal COWASH team, our Arto Suominen and the representative from Embassy of Finland, by Ato Gezahegn Alemu. Although the key issues were the same, there were some few issues done differently from regions to Regions. Below you can find snapshot of the signing ceremony in each region.

Sidama

On 06 September 2021, Sidama region signed the COWASH project MOU. Following the official signing ceremony of the MOU by the Regional Finance Bureau Head, H.E Ato. Ararso Geremew, other members of the Regional Cabinet and COWASH Stakeholder's made few remarks. Dr. Selamawit Mengesha, Head of Bureau of Health said, the support of COWASH is critical in addressing the long-standing challenges in relations to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene issues in the newly established region of Sidama. She appreciated COWASH for its continuous and unwavering support to the region. Deputy Bureau Head of Education Bureau H.E Ato Letamo said, the COWASH support to the region is a continuation from the previous phase and he added this phase would enhance the institutional WASH and mainly support the water, sanitation and hygiene project in schools.

A key take-away for other regions from Sidama was that all the five Woreda Administrators attended and witnessed the signing ceremony. The Woreda Administrators thanked COWASH and the Regional Bureau for organizing such an event to show project transparency and accountability. They praised this as "exemplary to promote ownership of the project and create transparency and accountability on budget related issues".

In Sidama, COWASH will work in Arbegona, Gorche, Wondo Genet, Chirone and Daela Woredas. In these Woredas total of 520 water schemes will be built. Out of which, 140 will be in schools and 160 will be in Health facility. Programme include, behavior change issues, economic empowerment, sanitation, inclusion, climate resilience, Water quality testing, gender promotion

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and Water Safety planning. In terms of budget, over 108 million birr has been allocated by the Regional Government to the Project. Government of Finland contribution is EUR 1,161,078 (Birr 62.7 million Birr. In this project, 46,600 household latrines will be constructed, and total of 283,000 people will have improved water, sanitation, and hygiene.

Signing of MOU with

Sidama Bureau of Finance/Sept 2021/Melaku

Tekola

SNNPR

On 07 September 2021, SNNPR region signed the COWASH project MOU. H.E Ato Teferi Abate, Head of Finance Bureau, said the COWASH phase IV is in line to the 10 years' development plan of the country and ensures sustainability of water. He also appreciated COWASH and the government of Finland to support the COWASH project for long term. He said, "projects like COWASH, are easy to show results because they are predictable and based in the community". He added "others should learn from COWASH to implement activities for long term and drive results accordingly". Following his speech, COWASH Chief Technical Advisor, our Arto

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Suominen and Ato. Gezahegn, representative from Embassy of Finland made a few remarks. In his remark Mr. Arto noted the timely signing of the MOU and urged participants to swiftly implement the project according to the original project document. Ato. Gezahegn also expressed his delight for the signing of the MOU and encouraged RSU staff and the Bureaus to stand together in making Phase IV, another success story. An interesting key take-way from SNNPR was the presentation of phase I-III achievement made by the RSU Team leader, Ato Letta Huriso. According to Letta, COWASH constructed 1,964 water schemes in total, out of which 1795 for community, 121 for School and 48 for health facility. In terms of Latrine, COWASH built 67 latrines in schools and 33 in health facility. Overall 609,561 people accessed clean water and 43,692 people benefited from institutional latrine construction. In the new phase COWASH will operate in 13 Woredas in SNNPR and will construct 680 community water schemes, 132 school and 96, water schemes in Health Facility. Regarding sanitations, COWASH aims to construct 40 new school latrine and 84 new health facility latrines. With regards to the budget, Government of Finland allocated 127 million birr and the regional government allocated 212 million. Total of 339, 500,048 ETB has been allocated for the 4th phase. In this phase over 300,000 people are expected to benefit in water, sanitation and hygiene.

Signing of MOU with SNNPR Bureau of Finance/Sept 2021/Melaku

Tekola

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Amhara

On 08 September 2021, Amhara BOFED signed the COWASH project MOU. H.E Dr. Tilahun Mehari, his deputy Dr. Tsega Tibebu thoroughly went through the plan and agreement signed. As in all the other regions, the objective of the project for phase IV is to contribute to achieving Ethiopia's ten years development plan which targets the WASH sector in terms of water, sanitation and hygiene access coverage and quality of service delivery in selected rural Woredas through community managed approach, (CMP). Second, the objective is to increased community and institutional water supply coverage, increased sanitation and hygiene coverage and usage, increased functionality and sustainability and build WASH facilities through improved service delivery, women empowerment and leadership through WASH related activities. Amhara Phase IV plan includes construction of 800 new community, school and health water supplies and rehabilitation of 560, water supplies. 250,000 communities will benefit (50,000 households will have improved latrines) as this new project includes construction of improved sanitation embedded with the water project. In this phase, 36 institutional sanitation will be supported. In terms of budget, the Amhara Regional government contributes 288,000,0000 ETB and the Government of Finland contributes 150,000,000 ETB. In phase IV, the total budget for Amhara includes 438 million Birr in total.

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Signing of MOU with Amhara Bureau of Finance/Sept 2021/Melaku

Tekola

Benishangul Gumuz region

On 10th of September 2021, COWASH signed memorandum of Understanding with Bureau of Finance in Benishangul Gumuz region. On this meeting, Mr. Arto noted various points that makes the new phase different from the previous phases. He noted the different aspects of the new phase that is differentiated from the previous phase. According to Mr. Arto, the below were some of the highlights: 1- Financial flow: as channel one programme as opposed to the previous phase. 2- Drafted Financial Manual on how the government of Finland money will be channeled, flow and monitored. It adds one more layer. 3- Another remarkable change is that only the community water supply are channeled through Microfinance to the community. This approach has been successful and we need to replicate it. Studies showed that COWASH's CMP approach is still an excellent approach. On institutional water supply, money will be channeled directly to Woreda Finance Office. Mr. Arto added " Up to now, COWASH implemented household sanitation by using CLTSH approach through the health extension workers so far. Now, we are planning to make a small change where the WASCHO to be responsible for household level sanitation. But the actual funds

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for the household sanitation will be generated and managed by the WASCHOs. Now the focus is to combine the water with the household sanitation".

Mr. Arto also mentioned the ongoing discussions on financial subsidy on sanitation infrastructure. He continued " For now, Households are expected to manage sanitation through available resources. COWASH is pioneering the way to improve sanitations and we have the support from everyone. It is much easier to implement and monitor household sanitation".

Another focus of this phase is the water quality according to Mr. Arto. He said" there are so much problems with drinking water quality. We have now water quality Specialist in COWASH who will support this grand objective. Water quality will be implemented in line with water safety planning programme. We have a commitment to ensure water safety plan and water quality to be screened before inauguration of a water schemes." Mr. Arto added "The water safety plan has four components as the following, Climate Resilience component, Operation and maintenance, Inclusivity and Sanitation safety planning in one package."

In his concluding remark Mr. Arto said, "Phase IV is very important phase and let us do what we could do to prove continuation of next phase" in his concluding remark. He added "Government of Finland is known to support for a long time" and we should capitalize this good will for working hard to our community."

Finally, Mr. Arto hinted different ways of allocating regional funds and encouraged participants to work together to seek possible solution jointly.

Following detailed opening of Mr. Arto, Ato. Gezahegn Alemu, representative from Embassy of Finland made few remarks. Ato Gezahegn focused on administrative issues such as budget utilization, efficient use of operation budget and efficient use of overall finance to the project.

H.E Ziad Abdulahi, Head of Bureau of Finance, made a few remarks. He appreciated COWASH and Embassy of Finland for the continued and long-standing support. He added " COWASH has been flexible to address the needs of the region and appreciated the flexibility". He also said, "although there were some significant challenges, Phase III was a success despite various security challenges in the region."

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He concluded "As we go forward, we will do all our best to ensure the COWASH phase IV to be a successful project". He also recognized the areas that needs to be improved for the next phase.

A great take from this event was the political willingness to ensure smooth implementation of COWASH phase IV. It is also imperative to witness the brand awareness of the RSU team. COWASH received intensive visibility on the signing.

Although, the region gets relatively smaller allocation compared to the bigger regions, there is a great political will to allocate matching funds to be able to implement the COWASH phase IV project.

Oromia

Signing of MOU with Benishangul Gumuz Bureau of Finance/Sept 2021/Melaku Tekola

Oromia Region

On 22nd of September 2021, Memorandum of Understanding of COWASH IV signed between the Ministry of Finance and the Oromia Regional government. On behalf the regional government, Head of Finance Bureau Mr. Tolessa Gedefa, signed the Memorandum of Understanding on COWASH IV implementation. The project will be implemented from April 2021-December 2024. The event was witnessed by the COWASH CTA, Mr. Arto Suominen and RSU Finance Specialist Ato Kefyalew Kebede.

In the implementations of Phase IV, COWASH woredas in Oromia has expanded from 12 to 30 woredas (districts). The total contribution from the Government of Finland amounts to 228,227,760 Birr. The Oromia Regional Government will contribute Birr 297,304,632 to COWASH IV.

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