Access to WASH facilities in Ethiopia is increasing, but services are not yet consistently sustained. We are committed to supporting our partner districts, Mille and South Ari, in providing sustainable WASH services to everyone.
Population partner districts: 279,574 South Ari & 117,960 Mille | Water coverage: 13% South Ari & 16% Mille (JMP)
Our office in Ethiopia is based in Addis Ababa, the capital. Our team of 19 is led by Country Director Lemessa Mekonta. We believe the core of providing safe and sustainable WASH services to everyone by 2030 lies in building the local and national systems. Creating and enabling these systems asks for firm and decisive national leadership from beyond WASH. At IRC Ethiopia, we spend our effort working within the WASH system – with ministries of water and health; with regional bureaus of water and health; with district water and health offices; with community based WASH COs (committees); with private service providers and others – to strengthen collective action that drives change, which results in bringing sustainable WASH for the people.
Through our USAID Sustainable WASH Systems (SWS) Learning Partnership, we are working to strengthen rural and small town water supply systems in two partner woredas (districts) Mille (Afar) and South Ari (SNNPR). With our partners in the Millennium Water Alliance (MWA), we are supporting development of district master plans for SDG 6 in three woredas in Amhara region. Through our partnership in the USAID Transform WASH Project, we are working on sanitation market development for improved sanitation. At the national level, we are supporting with knowledge management.
In Mille and South Ari, we are working with water service providers, local government, non-governmental organisations and academic organisations to ensure access to effective WASH services to everyone in the districts. We work with local actors through learning alliances. In the learning alliances, local stakeholders develop understanding of their WASH service delivery system and execute a shared learning and action agenda. We expect that locally driven innovation will result in better solutions to challenges and changes that increase the sustainability of WASH services and deliver services to everyone by 2030.
In all our work we strive to influence those in power to take WASH seriously and to engage in systems strengthening.
"I am Martha Mengesha, Cashier of the Arkisha Kebele, South Ari Woreda, SNNPR Water Users Association; I have a stake in the WASH systems!"
At IRC WASH Ethiopia, we believe working with government and community based associations and federations at all levels is vital to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). IRC WASH Ethiopia is registered under the Ethiopia Civil Society Organisations Proclamation No. 1113/2019 as a foreign organisation named "IRC WASH" with registration number 4174.
IRC WASH focuses on both rural and urban WASH through a variety of partnerships with government and non-governmental organisations. In rural WASH we focus on strengthening the WASH systems in 7 woredas across 5 regions. At national and regional levels we support and strengthen monitoring for up to date information for planning and maintenance. We are a leading provider of knowledge management services.
Self-supply, or families investing in their own water supplies, needs to be better supported if we're to achieve universal access.
