Back to Addis and meeting DfID

On Thu 21 the team travelled back from Butajira to Addis Ababa in the morning and in the afternoon had a really good session in the Water Aid office discussing the field trip looking at what was good, what appeared to be a challenge in the visited towns and from that the areas of development with the capacity building 20 town.

Some of the Water Aid team collected us in the evening to meet socially at the Abyssinian Restaurant that allowed us to gain a very brief insight into Ethiopian food, music and dance culture.  We appear
to have been very lucky to attend on a night when the Restaurant was hosting 2 weddings that enhanced the evening.

This morning it was back to the Water Aid office to meet up with Martha Solomon who is the Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WaSH) Advisor for the Department for International Development (DfID).   The UK Government Department of DfID has the second largest donor portfolio in Ethiopia after the World Bank.  They have just had 106 Million UK pounds (UKP) approved for the WaSH programme in Ethiopia.  This is divided into 3 areas of spend and Martha explained how the 20 town Urban wash initiative could feed directly into the 22 Million UKP Complimentary Support budget.  There was also an opportunity to indirectly gain support from the 80 Million Government WaSH account part of which was for Urban WaSH.

Following our meeting with Martha there yet more discussion about the form YW support could take.  There now seems to be some real themes coming through about quick, medium and long term wins that are possible as well as strategic support.  It is all very encouraging for us.