Ramboll Finland Selected to Provide Technical Assistance to the Community-led Accelerated WASH Project in EthiopiaNew article
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Finland and the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity of Ethiopia (MoWIE) have selected Ramboll Finland in partnership with Niras Finland to provide technical assistance services for Phase III (2016-2019) of the Community-led Accelerated WASH (Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene) Project in Ethiopia, otherwise known as COWASH.COWASH is designed to help the Government of Ethiopia achieve itsfive-year (2015-2020)Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) targets for rural water supply and sanitation in 76 districts of five Federal States of Ethiopia.
The project aims to demonstrate the effective implementation of the Community Managed Project (CMP) implementation approach in order to institutionalize the approach within the sector-wide National One WASH Programme (OWNP) implementation through a Consolidated WASH Account (CWA) system. The CMP approach was developed and tested in Ramboll assisted bi-lateral development programmes in Ethiopia between 2003 and 2016.
In CMP, the implementation funds are channeled to the community and the community acts as the project implementer while the local government’s role is to act as a facilitator, helping to build thecommunity’s capacity and ability to implement and sustain a development. The project improves the functionality of the water supply by further developing of the supply chain with strong private sector participation, and increasing female leadership in WASH.
The Government of Finland’s support for Ethiopia’s WASH sector combined with Ramboll’s technical assistance has so far benefitted over four million rural Ethiopians. Phase III of COWASH will increase this figure to over five million by using Ramboll’s expertise. The contribution of the Government of Ethiopia and the beneficiaries included, the total budget for COWASH Phase III is MEUR 40, to which the Government of Finland contributes MEUR 13. The technical assistance
